By Ellen Banda
Dedza District Council Youth Officer, Twesa Mwamlima, has expressed satisfaction with how Action for Teen Mothers and Adolescent Girls Project is being implemented in the district.
The initiative aims at addressing challenges faced by young adolescents and young women in the district.
Speaking during monitoring of project activities at Mthandizi Primary School in Traditional Authority Kaphuka in the district, Mwamlima said lack of openness among adolescents and parents on issues of sexuality and sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) was a challenge before the project.
“Since we started the project, we have seen referral systems dealing with gender based violence in communities being strengthened and parents are now able to interact with their children and communicate on issues of SRHR that are affecting our youth,” Mwamlima said.
the youth display their products
On sustainability of the project activities, Mwamlima hoped that community structures like Village Development Committees (VDC) and mother cycles will continue with interventions of the project when it phases out.
In his remarks, Principal Administration Officer, Moses Jere who represented the District Commissioner, commended implementing partners for supporting government efforts to end gender based violence among young people and promote girls’ education in the country.
One of the beneficiaries of the project, Ellen Chindiwawa of Mwalawanthomba Primary School Safe Space, hailed Malawi Girl Guides Association for the project, saying young adolescents aged 10 to 14 years know where to report cases of gender based violence in their communities while those aged 15 to 19 and 20 to 24 years were trained on reusable pads sewing and Banki Mkhonde respectively.
“Before this project, girls were missing classes when they are on their periods and others opted to dropping out, but this is now history as girls are no longer missing classes when they are menstruating because of reusable pads,” said Chindiwawa.
Action for Teen Mothers and Adolescent Girls is a four-year project which started in 2021 in the district. Malawi Girl Guides Association (MAGGA), Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) and Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) are implementing the project in traditional authorities Kaphuka, Kachere and Chilikumwendo with funding from KOIKA through UNFPA.