Empower 170 Malawian Girls to FINISH School

At AGE Africa, we know that for the most marginalized young women living in rural Malawi, a scholarship alone is not enough to ensure academic success or secondary school completion. That is why AGE Africa created CHATS – an extracurricular program designed to meet the unique needs of poor rural girls in Malawi. CHATS, or Creating Healthy Approaches to Success, is an innovative empowerment curriculum designed to develop critical knowledge and skills, as well as build self-confidence and agency.

In addition to delivering CHATS as after school clubs for 655 girls in 2015, AGE Africa introduced the CHATS Alumnae Mentor Program. In 2016, this program will train a cohort of recent secondary school graduates in Malawi to serve as mentors and coaches for our CHATS Girls’ Clubs. This fall, the Alumnae Mentors will serve in a pilot group of six schools as advisors and coaches to CHATS Clubs, as well as sexual and reproductive health peer-educators. 

Mercy is from Makanjira Village in Malawi's Zomba District. As a member of AGE Africa's first cohort of Alumnae Mentors, Mercy will serve as a leader at Nsala Community Day Secondary School. There, she hopes to encourage girls to stay in school and to come to CHATS sessions. As one of eight children, Mercy has overcome forced marriage and has dropped out of school before, in order to take care of her family. Today, as a high school graduate, Mercy dreams of becoming a secondary school teacher to further impact the lives of young girls. Keep up the great work, Mercy!

To learn more, please visit our website at www.ageafrica.org.