In an effort to reduce the Venerability of girls in the country and the populous Bangwe Township in particular, Active Youth Initiative for Social Enhancement (AYISE) has trained 30 girls from the ages of 11-25 as Sexual Reproductive Health Services (SRHS) animators who have been armed to help the organization curb problems which girls of this age group face.
The girls who were nominated and shortlisted from schools and communities have been trained in topics like Self esteem, STI and HIV and human rights just to mention a few during the three-day training held at the Bangwe Youth Centre.
The Centre’s Coordinator who is also the projects’ Manager, Monica Dzonzi, said the extent of teenage pregnancies and the rate of STI and HIV contraction are high in the area and this is why they thought of organizing the training with an effort of empowering the girls on the best ways of tackling the causes of those problems.
“Our girls in this area lack the muscle to effectively communicate to men who are always after them, they also don’t have the charisma and skills to know and enhance their value so in this training we have reminded them on this for example,” she said.
Dzonzi mentioned her personal story as an example saying if it wasn’t of the trainings that she and other girls were given four years ago on the same, she wouldn’t be where she is it today. She said she leaves in the populous town of Kachere in the same city where drinking and womanizing are an order of the day but thanks to the organization which equipped her to face day to day challenges.
“When you don’t have financial support and information on adolescence, advances from men who may ruin your life as a girl can be so tempting, I was at the blink of that when AYISE came to my rescue “she confessed.
Linea Sundstrom, a volunteer from Peace works Sweden who also played a major role in the shaping up of the project said apart from the training itself, they are planning to organize another training on Business entrepreneurship which will see the girls having skills to manage small scale enterprises in order to generate income.
“The training was an eye opener to me on what challenges Malawian Girls face and we will not end here, we expect to organize some trainings and even form clubs in schools and communities where we will be monitoring them on how they are growing and disseminating information to their fellow peers” she said.
One of the participants Elisba Hauli said she has learnt a lot from the training and her life will never be the same again.
AYISE and Carlsberg Malawi Limited released about MK140, 000 to fund the training which was facilitated by retired district youth Officer Rodgers Kampila.
