2020-05-12 MALAWI

Promoting the empowerment of girls to prevent school dropout

Worried for the girl situation in Malawi, the Marists of Champagnat are currently implementing two projects in Malawi that have as main objective the empowerment of girls through education to overcome gender-based violence and child marriage.

The two Marist projects – “Girls’ empowerment Clubs at St Charles Lwanga Open School” and “Likuni Mothers’ Group” – aim at increasing school retention and completion rates among girls.

According to the 2018 population and housing census in Malawi, nearly 4 out of 10 girls marry before the age of 18, while 3 out of 10 girls have their first child before the age of 18.

The project Likuni Mothers’ Group provides trainings for women to help them to develop skills. Part of the Mothers group is formed by women who when they were adolescents abandoned the school and who now have restarted their studies thanks for the Open School program.

The Marists work in collaboration with other religious leaders and local institutions that promote the rights of children in Malawi, such as the Authority for Child Protection and the Youth Net Counselling, a local organization focused on advancing the welfare of the disadvantaged groups of society especially girls and women. 

For the first two months (January and February 2020), awareness campaigns have been conducted within the St Charles Lwanga Secondary School as part of the project Girls’ Empowerment Clubs. On the other hand, the Mothers’ Group at Likuni has conducted meetings to identify girls who have abandoned school or at risk of dropping out: the aim is to bring them back into the classroom and support them through a development plan.

Both projects, “Girls’ empowerment Clubs at St Charles Lwanga Open School and Likuni Mothers’ Group”, were funded by Misean Cara with the support of FMSI. Br. Francis Jumbe runs them in synergy with New Horizons programme that involves the whole Province of Southern Africa.


FMSI is the foundation created by the Institute to promote and protect the rights of children. FMSI carries on its mission through activities of advocacy, lobbyingand with solidarity projects in the countries in which Marists are present.

FMSI was constituted in 2007 in Italy as a non-profit organization with social purpose (ONLUS).

It has had the special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations since 2011.

FMSI is member of: Bureau International Catholique de l’Enfance (BICE), Centre Catholique International de Genève  (CCIG), Child Rights Connect, Movimiento Mundial por la Infancia de Latinoamérica y El Caribe, FOCSIV  (Federazione degli Organismi Cristiani Servizio Internazionale Volontario), Observatorio Niñez y Adolescencia (ONA), Santiago de Chile.

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