Articles about Malawi

Malawi’s First Lady Her Excellency Dr. Gertrude Mutharika has called on strengthened efforts to address the needs of adolescent girls and young women in the country. Speaking during the opening ceremony of a three-day consultative workshop for adolescent girls organized by the Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) –a Member Association of IPPF Africa Region, Dr. Mutharika decried the myriad of challenges that many young women in Malawi continue to face today, which often times lead to their engagement in unsafe sexual practices. “A significant number of girls and young women often find themselves in situations where they are forced into unwanted sexual practices in a bid to survive – practices which unfortunately lead to negative health consequences. Many girls end up with unwanted pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), including HIV. I urge you girls to be confident and report any person who demands sex from you in return for favours. Do not be afraid to do so,” she appealed to the young female advocates present during the opening ceremony on 11 March 2016. The FPAM-led consultative workshop aimed at empowering adolescent girls and young women on their Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Dr. Mutharika is recognized as a key champion for women’s empowerment in Malawi, and is dedicated to raising the profile of women in society. At the forum, The First Lady particularly commended FPAM’s noble work in leading efforts to train young Malawi women as advocates for their rights to quality SRHR services through the 3E project (Engagement + Empowerment = Equality). The 3E project works with young girls and aims to reduce their HIV vulnerability by addressing the challenges they face, which largely stem from unequal power relations between men and women. According to Ms. Dudu Simelane, the IPPFAR Team Leader for East and Southern Africa and who also attended the forum, the project is designed to bring adolescent girls and young women into advocacy arena, develop their leadership skills and engage them in national, regional and global HIV policy platforms to champion their Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) needs. “Gender inequality, injustice and persistent structural barriers continue to shape the HIV/AIDS epidemic. HIV disproportionately affects adolescent girls and young women due to both biological and gendered differences. The relationship of HIV as both a cause and consequence of violence against women is well documented, whereby a woman who has experienced intimate partner violence has a 50 per cent increase in likelihood of acquiring HIV. Further, an estimated 30 per cent of adolescent girls aged between 15 – 19 years experience intimate partner violence,” she said.   The 3E project is currently being implemented in the three countries of Malawi, Kenya and Uganda through the technical assistance of IPPF Africa Region, and with financial support from UN Women. In these countries, girls and young women aged between 10 – 25 years who are particularly vulnerable to HIV, as well as those living positively with HIV are empowered to voice their needs and concerns through mentoring activities and through social media. The trained youth advocates play a key role in mobilising other girls and young women by building their advocacy skills on HIV and SRHR. This they do through community outreaches, conducting educative sessions in schools, in their neighbourhoods, as well as sending out messages on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.   Started in July 2015, Ms. Nathalie Nkoume –IPPFAR’S Gender, Sexual Rights and Advocacy Advisor who is coordinating the 3E project notes the successes achieved in the three countries. “Today, we have more than 75 young girl advocates who are more confident about their sexuality. They are able to have open conversations about their HIV status, and are not shy about sharing credible information on sexual health with their peers. More importantly, they are able to raise their voices in decision-making platforms and advocate for the prioritization of their needs at national level. The girls have formed peer support groups which serve as good mentoring platforms for them,” says Ms. Nkoume. Ms. Nkoume adds that the successes of the 3E project have been realized as a result of the support of among others; women’s rights champions such as Dr. Mutharika, as well as government officials including those from the Ministries of Health and Education in the three countries.  

By Beatrice Nguo Empowering a young girl is empowering the world. This is because women are the pillars of society, and today’s young girls are tomorrow’s mothers. It is therefore prudent to invest in girls and young women, as this is a key determinant to the development of any society. From July 2015 – March 2016, IPPF Africa Region successfully implemented a young girls’ empowerment project known as the 3E project: Empowerment + Engagement = Equality. Implemented in the three countries of Malawi, Uganda and Kenya, the project identified, trained and supported 25 and young women aged between 10 – 24 years from each country on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS advocacy. The 3E project was aimed at building the capacity of young girls to speak for themselves and advocate for their own reproductive health issues. The project enhanced their information-sharing skills among peers, and how to effectively champion their rights in wider circles. Following the initial training –conducted at the start of the project, the girls then formed small groups of peers, numbering about 20 girls each. It is in these groups that they would on a regular basis discuss issues affecting them most. The main issues that the girls explored included: HIV/AIDS, safe sex, early marriages, teen pregnancies, school dropouts, lack of safe spaces for young HIV positive girls to voice their issues, and lack of access to adequate SRHR and HIV/AIDS information and services. HIV treatment adherence, taking their peers back to school, running clubs in schools for the young adolescents, and boy-girl relationships also featured prominently in their discussions undertaken by the young ladies. To enhance their group communication, the girls formed WhatsApp groups, where they would consult each other frequently on related issues. We were able to witness such big changes in the ‘3E girls’. At the end of the engagement, some of the girls were selected to join county/district development committees in their countries –which was largely as a result of their advocacy activities following the initial training we gave them. In these platforms, they continue to campaign for the inclusion of issues affecting young girls in the development agenda. It is with such great pride that we have seen some of these girls go on to become motivational speakers to their peers –including those in schools. Their advocacy prowess has even seen some of the 3E advocates receive invitations to speak in regional and international conferences, such as the 18th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Harare, Zimbabwe (November 2015), the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Women Deliver in Copenhagen, Denmark (May 2016), and the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa (July 2016). The girls have indeed become role models to many girls –not only in their communities, but in their countries and across the borders. Further, the 3E project was able to demonstrate a gap in spaces for young girls to represent themselves and articulate their issues. The project affirmed that when such spaces are created, it empowers the girls, and an empowered girl will be able to stand up for herself in whichever circumstance she finds herself in. An empowered girl is one who will not easily succumb to peer pressure. She will be less likely to be cheated into having sex, as she is aware of her rights and is empowered to make healthy choices regarding her sexuality. Empowered girls are those who are able to envision a bright future ahead of them, and not rest until they achieve their dreams. If we want to change the world today, girls’ empowerment is the way to go, and the 3E project was one such successful platform towards this. Ms. Beatrice Nguo is Programme Officer at IPPF Africa Region, and was centrally involved in the implementation of the 3E Project.