Monica Dzonzi wants the Commonwealth community to dig deep during the Glasgow 2014 opening ceremony because she knows how many lives could be changed.

The Malawian will not run any laps of Hampden, swim a single length of the Tollcross pool, or tear around the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome on two wheels.

Her presence at the 20th Commonwealth Games is as her country's Unicef youth ambassador, with the 25-year-old willing those who, like her, must battle poverty and hardship, to have greater life opportunities.

An inspiring figure, Dzonzi paid her way through school by panning for gold and selling fruit and vegetables, before finding university was beyond her means and turning to youth work in her homeland.

Malawi has a special alliance with Scotland, forged by the missionary explorer Dr David Livingstone during the mid-19th century. Its second city, Blantyre, is named after Livingston's birthplace.

"I'd like to say that when I'm in Scotland I'm always at home," Dzonzi said. "I feel like I'm at home. There's a great partnership that exists between Malawi and Scotland."

A Unicef fund-raising campaign will run during the ceremony, with the international children's charity hoping it will be rewarding on the night, both in terms of incoming funds and raising awareness.

Dzonzi has been present at several stages of the Glasgow 2014 build-up, notably when she was an honorary baton bearer alongside Scottish sprint great Allan Wells when The Queen launched the Games baton relay last October. She was involved again in February when the baton reached Malawi.

But Dzonzi has taken the hard road to her current position, and is longing for cultural barriers to be broken down with investment in countries across the Commonwealth.

"I was born in a very, very poor family and my dad passed on when I was nine years old," Dzonzi said.

"My mother never went to school so it was quite challenging for her to find the resources for me to go to school.

"I started working and used to wake up early in the morning and at 2am I had to go and do gold-panning, buying bananas and vegetables and tomatoes for me to sell to earn money for my education.

"I saved money for two years and then went back to school and I was using the same money to feed my family.

"Later on I managed to continue with my education and go on to secondary school. I was selling biscuits at school to save money for transport and my school fees."

University was infeasible.

"I used to go to a youth centre to play volleyball with other young children and I used to support children in other sport activities," Dzonzi said.

"Later on I saw an advert pasted on a tree that was advertising for ICT (information and communications technology) training and gender training and life-skills training. Luckily enough I was successful in the interviews. I had spent all my 21 years without knowing how to use computers.

"A lot of young people in Malawi face a number of challenges but with Unicef we've been able to reach out within the communities I work for and transform their lives through different sporting activities.

"Now we have a girls' football team at the youth centre I work with, we have young girls playing volleyball, we have young girls playing basketball, which helps young people understand how sport can change lives. We tell them to combine sport with education for them to be responsible in their daily lives in future."

She still remembers the pressure she faced to conform to what were familiar lifestyle choices for young girls in Malawi.

"There was pressure from my community that they wanted me to get married, stop education - but I believed in myself, I wanted to be someone in life. Now I'm a role model for my community," Dzonzi said.

"It's an amazing moment that I'm here when the Games are opening. I believe a lot of lives of children across the Commonwealth in other countries will be transformed through your support."