The Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Mary Shawa has applauded Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) for untiring efforts geared towards child protection and support.
Speaking at the launch of the Parenting in Africa Network in Mangochi, Shawa described it as a landmark development.
“The establishment of a parenting chapter in Malawi was long overdue but nevertheless not too late. It is time to reflect and be interested to ensure that children are protected and given all the necessary opportunities for them to grow up into reliable adults” Said Shawa.

Executive Director for YONECO, Mac Bain Mkandawire, also expressed his gratitude to both organisations and individuals for their unending support towards children’s welfare.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Mkandawire said; “Parenting is one of the greatest challenges in Malawi. Thus, the organization saw the need to intensify good parenting programmes and took a bold step to spearhead the establishment of the Parenting in Africa Network country chapter for Malawi,” said Mkandawire.

The committee will be chaired by SOS Children’s Village that is based in Lilongwe and other regional members namely; AGLIT representing the Southern Region, Save the Children representing the Eastern Region, Central Region will be represented by Participatory Rural Development and the Northern Region Representative is St. John of God.

The launch was successfully hosted under the auspices of HIVOS, UNICEF and PAN Secretariat which is in Kenya.
Parenting Africa Network (PAN) is a pan-African, network of member organizations with a focus on promoting skilful parenting and it collaborates with institutions that support skilful parenting in Africa. PAN has a membership of 220 organizations so far and YONECO is one of its serving members.