Nurture and Inspire Youth Leaders in Malawi

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!

Links:

• http://www.aghcafrica.org/swd/