Articles

Malawi is a youthful country with over 40 percent of its population consisting of the youth. This already predetermines those young people who have a very big role to play in this nation. Neglecting young people in development is denying the majority and active population from participating and contributing to national development. By actively involving the youth, a sense of ownership is built and the youth take full responsibility for development initiatives. Improving Education Quality in Community Day Secondary Schools (IEQ-CDSS) project through the youth forum concept equips young people ...

‘Had it been it was not for CRECCOM IEQ-CDSS project, probably I would have dropped out of school’. Said Sandikonda Kabambe a form 3 student at Lipho CDSS. Sandikonda, hails from Gunda Mwala village, T/A Nsabwe in Thyolo district. He was enrolled for form 1 in 2017 but had no passion for school. Sandikonda said that he never worked hard in class and he used to abscond classes for piece works and catching fish in Ruo river. His life changed when CRECCOM started implementing a project known as Improving Quality Education in CDSS at Lipho Community Day Secondary School.  IQECDSS is a project...

  Love Simfukwe aged 17 and a form 4 girl at Kalenge  Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) comes from Chipwera village, Traditional Authority (TA) Mwenemisuku in Chitipa district. Love was born from a polygamous family where his father has 3 wives and 14 children.   The father Mr. Simfukwe has no other means of supporting his family apart from farming. Taking care of such a big family without any stable means has always been a challenge to Mr. Simfukwe and this resulted in inadequate care and support to most of his children including Love. In 2019 while Love was in form ...

Growing up in a female-headed family and being the only male child, Daniel Kamwagha of Namwafi , Traditional Authority (TA) Mwaulambia in Chitipa district had plans of migrating to the neighboring country Tanzania right from his tender age. Daniel’s father divorced his mother and left the 4 children (1 boy and 3 girls) under the care of the mother while Daniel was only 2 years old. “I don’t know my father, he left while I was only 2 and never returned. It has always been hard for my mother to make ends meet. My mother is a local woman with no education and making a living through Agriculture...

Although learners in Malawi are introduced to English as a language of communication during the early years of their education, many continue to struggle along up to secondary school. Rural students also face multiple constraints stemming from the education system itself. Over 90% of rural learners selected to Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs) have poor English language proficiency, indicating low educational quality at the primary level (CRECCOM 2015). According to Kalenge CDSS English teacher, Mr. K Mbughi, teaching English has always been a challenge until when CRECCOM arrived at the...

Community Action Group (CAG) is one of the community structures that work to eliminate different social problems among people. They intend to ensure that there is development in communities where they exist. CAG does this by conducting awareness campaigns and even plays in their community as some of the ways of reaching out to people in their communities. Some of the social problems that CAG tackles are the issue to do with harmful cultural practices that affect the lives of many young children. Such cultural practices include Unamwali and Kulowakufa where young girls and boys of ages below 1...

Apart from early marriages, teenage pregnancies remain one of the biggest problems among children below the age of 18 in Malawi. One of the districts which are still facing such a problem is Chikwawa district, which, according to facts, it is the second-largest district in the Southern region of Malawi. Harmful cultural practices seem to be one of the major root causes of teenage pregnancies among many girls in the district with Chinamwali and Njole being some of the major practices that expose girls who have not had their 15th birthdays to teenage sexual intercourse making them risk their li...