Tipologia dell'ente/Kind of organization:
Nome dell'ente che lo ha realizzato/Organization-institute presenting the project:
ANPPCAN - African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect
Descrizione del progetto/Describe the project :
The Thinking Future - Keeping Girls in School Project, aims at raising awareness among girls and parents, traditional leaders and teachers about the importance of girls' education in order to tackle the issue of child marriage. TFKGSP would like to provide to young learners of Malawi basic knowledge about different topics concerning their rights and health, in order to answer to their elementary needs, and protect them from any form of abuse. Prevention and awareness on the different topics are the best way to fight violations of their human rights. We believe it is important to sensitize all the actors involved in child marriage. Thus, we organized trainings directed towards young girls (generally in Standard 5 to Standard 7 and soon entering puberty, these young girls are at an age where they are facing high risks of child marriage), as well as parents, teachers and traditional leaders.
Project Goals:
-Improved knowledge about issues which can lead to school drop-out by young girls.
-Learners’ awareness on child marriage and early pregnancies risks, and knowledge of these topics: Children’s and Women’s; sexual violence and HIV/ AIDS.
-Improvement of teachers ’ and headmasters’ training in order to better the quality of education
-Awareness of parents and community leaders about Children’s and Women’s rights and their abuse.
-Strengthened communication between teachers, headmasters, parents, national and regional institutions and learners on those issues
Categoria del progetto/Project category :
Educazione fino ai 15 anni/Up to 15 years
Uso delle tecnologie / Use of technologies:
In order to ensure the smooth progress of the project amid Covid-19, ANNPCAN innovatively created WhatsApp forums for various stakeholders to be reporting cases of child marriages and teenage pregnancies and the problems they are experiencing in dealing with the same in their areas. WhatsApp has been elected as the main platform because it is preferably cheaper, commonly and friendly used tool of communication across the country, both in urban and rural settings. Again, WhatsApp can be used by both literate and illiterate through the use of Voice Notes (VN) by those who are challenged intellectually. Equally important is the use of Short Message Service (SMS) to complement the WhatsApp in engaging these stakeholders
Indicare gli elementi di innovazione del progetto / What are the innovative aspects of the project?:
The most innovative aspect of the projcet is the holisitc approach that ANPPCAN adopted to tackle the issue of Child Marriage. In fact, TFKGSP, aims at raising awareness among all the actors of the local communities (girls, parents, traditional leaders and teachers ) about the importance of girls' education in order to tackle the issue of child marriage. Thus, we found in the education the answer to a more general problem. Consequently, TFKGSP would like to provide to young learners of Malawi basic knowledge about different topics concerning their rights and health, in order to answer to their elementary needs, and protect them from any form of abuse. Moreover, we identified Prevention and awareness on the different topics as the best strategy to to fight violations of this and other human rights.
Con quanti utenti interagisce il progetto?/How many users does the project interact with? :
A total of 572 girls, 18 teachers and 246 community members attended the Thinking Future trainings.
Di quali mezzi o canali si avvale il progetto?/Which media or channels does the project use?:
Main channels are the online channels of the projcet in different social media platform and the NGO's website. Morevover, for the implementation of the activities, Whatsapp has been elected as the mail channel for the above-mentioned reasons.
Il progetto è già stato replicato? /Has the project already been replicated? :
Yes, during the years, the project has been replicated in tens of schools in Malawi.
Quali sono le aspettative future?/What are future expectations?:
ANPPCAN expects advocacy for policies that eliminates early and forced marriages.
Durata progetto/project duration:
6 years and 4 months (September 2017 to December 2023)
Risultati ottenuti/Results:
In each school, we have performed three trainings in front of whether a class of girls and teachers or a class of community members. The trainings are divided into four topics: children rights and importance of education ; child marriage ; HIV/AIDS ; and sexual violence. Each topic is composed of a theoretical part and an activity (tree of education, drama, HIV/AIDS card game and pictures game).
Globally, the direct beneficiaries (girls and community members) and indirect beneficiaries (teachers and headmasters) were highly satisfied with the project. They encouraged us to carry on with it and to implement more training in more schools. Five Thinking Future notebooks and three pens were distributed to each girl, and one notebook and two pens were distributed to the community members. We also provided each teacher with a training manual. In total, we have distributed 10,246 notebooks and 5,792 pens from September to December. On the back of the notebooks, the beneficiaries can find information on children rights along with the NGO address and phone number.
Cognome del coordinatore del progetto/project coordinator surname :
Nome del coordinatore del progetto/project coordinator name :
Il Progetto ha contribuito ad affrontare la pandemia da Covid-19? / Has the project helped facing the emergency of Covid-19? :
The ministry of gender has reported that the period when the schools were closed COVID-19 related teenage pregnancies have been so high. It was reported that in Mangochi District (Eastern region of Malawi) alone, there is a rise in teenage pregnancies by 1000 compared to the same period last year with 166 cases being girls aged between 10 and 14. The closure of schools led to the spate of teenage pregnancies and child marriages as a research by a reputable organization called Oxfam uncovered that in every hour a girl child was being impregnated in Mangochi. In Phalombe, 1000 girls are pregnant, in Mzimba 400 and in Nsanje 324 girls are pregnant due to the Covid-19 mandatory holiday. 82 pregnancies have been registered compared to Nchinji 58, Kasungu 20 and Blantyre 64. Blantyre police has reported 4 arrest 1 woman and 3 men involved in child marriage related cases. Amendment in by Parliament in 2017 provides for 18 years as marriage age and removed 14 years as consent age hence all the cases involving girls less than 18 years are prosecutable. It is against this background that ANPPCAN Malawi Chapter is running a project to promote awareness on the dangers of early child and forced marriages that have occurred during the Covid-19 mandatory holiday in Malawi. Moreover, in efforts to improve access of quality education service delivery amid Covid-19 global pandemic, ANPPCAN through this project distributed Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE), soap, sanitizers and water buckets in various schools. Therefore strictly adhering to covid-19 prevention measures are awarded thereby incentivizing the Covid-19 prevention process as both students and learners are protected from the global pandemic their ensuring equal access to quality education.
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