Education Malawi Project #18788

Nurture and Inspire Youth Leaders in Malawi

by Art & Global Health Center Africa

Project Report | Jan 6, 2017
Celebrating our Dreamers

By Viktorya Vilk | Global Health Corps Fellow

Dreamers gather to share and celebrate

Happy New Year from AGHCA and thank you for helping us raise over $3,500 for Students with Dreams during the holiday season!

This December, we brought our 2016 Dreamers together to celebrate their achievements and reflect on their experiences, alongside alumni, faculty, staff, city council members, and reps from other youth organisations. The day kicked off with Dreamers sharing their highs and lows during the design and implementation of their projects. We held a brainstorming session focused on energizing our growing alumni network and wrapped up with a showcase of music, drama, and spoken word performances.

Join us in bidding a fond farewell to our Chancellor College Dreamers as they complete their projects and graduate from the programme. Learn more about just two of their wonderful projects below.

Through World of Words, Dreamers Ucizi and Chido shared their love of English language and literature at Mulunguzi Secondary School. Working with 160 students, they organised spelling bees, book clubs, and workshops on public speaking and creative writing. Reflecting on her experience, Ucizi (an exceptionally talented poet and performer) said: “My proudest moment as a leader is when I saw one of the students in my group, who was very shy, stepping out of her shell and expressing herself boldly in front of her peers. It felt good to see her being sure of herself and knowing that I could help her in a seemingly small but significant way.”

Dreamers Alinafe and Stewart created Youth Redefined to sensitize teenagers at Madrassa School and the surrounding community about young people’s reproductive and sexual health and rights. The project has had such a strong impact that the District Health Office has asked our Dreamers to join a youth group forum and UNICEF and YONECO are looking at their model.

As we strive to grow and improve Students with Dreams, evaluation is critical. With the support of the Global Giving Feedback Fund, we are developing and implementing a comprehensive evaluation strategy. We have conducted focus group with current Dreamers, built a new database to track projects and alumni, and developed an online survey to be completed after graduation from the programme. Thanks to your support and the thoughtful feedback from our 2016 Dreamers, Students with Dreams will be better than ever in 2017!

Brainstorming ideas for an alumni network

World of Words project

World of Words Dreamers Chido and Ucizi

Links:

http://www.aghcafrica.org

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Oct 6, 2016
Student Dreamers, Creative Leaders

By Steve Manyozo and Viktorya Vilk | Programme Officer & Global Health Corps Fellow

Duwa La Mawa shortlisted for Road to Nairobi

This quarter, we were thrilled to learn that Duwa La Mawa, a Dreamers in Residence project, was shortlisted for Road to Nairobi. Duwa La Mawa strives to increase access to education for girls by teaching handcrafting and entrepreneurship skills as a way of raising funds for school fees. AGHCA hosted their presentation for the Road to Nairobi team, which is traveling across eight African countries to interview young entrepreneurs and will culminate in the 2nd High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.

In early October, SWD had a strong presence at Lake of Stars, Malawi’s famous arts festival. We showcased two Dreamer projects, Front Seat and Loud Ink, for nearly 500 local secondary school students during the Day of Ideas. Loud Ink co-founders Madalo & Lekodi brilliantly facilitated a writer’s workshop and collaborated with festival participants to craft several continuous stories.

This quarter, SWD projects flourished at Chancellor College, Domasi Teacher Training College and Malawi College of Health Sciences. Through the World of Words project, Dreamers secured over 50 books to revamp reading among secondary school students in Zomba. TULI, a project focused on teaching marginalised young women skills for running small businesses, acquired land to build an oven to be used for baking lessons. Lingalira Mawa offered counselling and support to encourage teen mothers and teens struggling with addiction to return to school.

AGHCA conducted a refresher training and needs assessment with Dreamers at Malawi College of Health Sciences. The goal was to remind our young leaders of the programme’s core values and sharpen their leadership and project management skills, while also identifying the areas in which dreamers could benefit from further training. After the session, Dreamers had this to say:

It was a brilliant idea coming up with this refresher training because it has given us more knowledge on how we can go about progressing with our projects.
Thanks for the training it was really fun. This training has helped us keep the focus on our project goals.

It is your generous support that makes our Dreamer’s projects possible. We hope you will continue to help young Dreamers lead the movement for social change in Malawi.

Thank you!

AGHCA & LoudInk create a continuous story at LOS

Lingalira Mawa co-founder counseling a teen mother

Links:

http://www.aghcafrica.org/swd/

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Jul 8, 2016
WELCOMING OUR YOUNG LEADERS!

By Monica Malata | Fundraising and Administrative Intern

Group photo of dreamers, mentors and AGHCA staff

What an exciting quarter it has been! We recruited a new cohort of dreamers from both Chancellor College and Domasi College of Education and, for the first time, our new partner Malawi College of Health Sciences. We now have a total of 14 new projects, led by 34 vibrant and motivated young leaders. Their projects address different social problems including HIV/Aids, gender equity in education, and illiteracy.

We held the orientation weekend for the students on the campsites of Zomba Plateau. The orientation was graced with the presence of our mentors Madalo, Lekodi, Thelma, Zola, Reginald, Bright, Susan and Winnie, AGHCA staff and of course, the dreamers themselves. The dreamers had intensive training in program design, program implementation, financial management, monitoring and evaluation and communication. These trainings helped them develop their project idea for social impact and gain a better understanding of the skills they would need to make their projects a success.

It wasn’t all work, with the dreamers playing games and telling ghost stories around a blazing campfire. The schools we partner with serve different populations, and our students expressed excitement to interact with people from different backgrounds, experiences, and academic interests to them. The greatest resource of our young leaders is each other, and they began building those relationships throughout the orientation weekend.

The dreamers also learned what it really means to be a dreamer and how this is an opportunity for them to grow as leaders and have a positive impact on their communities.

Current SWD mentor and former dreamer Madalo recently received the Queens Young Leaders award for her 2015 Students With Dreams Program “Loud-Ink”, which she cofounded with her Students With Dreams partner Lekodi. Their project provides a platform for young people in secondary schools to express themselves through written word.

Madalo’s project, and subsequent recognition, would not have been possible without you. Your support makes dreams happen!

Zikomo kwambiri! ( Chichewa for ‘thank you’)

Links:

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