Since 1996, DAPP Malawi has been actively improving livelihoods and communities in need across Malawi through its social development projects.
DAPP is implementing 16 projects within education, health, agriculture and community development in 24 districts that span across the country's three regions
“It was my dream to study a course in agriculture and become a farmer who can feed my community. This dream turned into reality when I enrolled with DAPP Mikolongwe Vocational School in May 2023 thanks to Bantwana Scholarship Programme.” “During my course at Mikolongwe, I learnt beyond growing crops and rearing livestock, as we were introduced also to the concept of agricultural value additional and entrepreneurship. These two extra concepts really helped me to understand agricultural biodiversity and marketing.” “Now I can produce jam from locally available fruits, chilli sauce from chilli pepper and honey from bee keeping. I know my community will benefit from this set of skills.”
DAPP Mikolongwe Vocational School has highlighted to students under training in various trades at the institution of the rewards in vocational and entrepreneurial skills.
The Principal for the school Mr Charles Salema was speaking during an Open Day event that had been organized at the school for the students to showcase various skills they have acquired in the course of their training. The event was attended by youth that completed their trainings at institution and have established their businesses or have been employed, who inspired the students with their businesses and through story telling.
Fashion designing students showcase their products
Students showcase welding and fabrication products
Alex Christopher is one of the graduates from Mikolongwe who has established his furniture business in Chilomoni, Blantyre city and he said he currently employs four people and he is financially stable because of the vocational skills learnt from the school. Also in attendance during the Open Day were representatives from the District Youth Office, Traditional Authority Likoswe and Leather Cooperative of Malawi.
The event was spiced up by a fashion show of clothing items made by the Tailoring and Fashion Designing students, shoes made by Cobbler and Shoe Making students, poems and music. Mikolongwe Vocational School equips youth with technical and entrepreneurial skills to become self-reliant by being able to secure an employment or establishing their own small scale businesses.
The school offers trainings in both formal and informal courses and has to-date trained over 10,600 youth.
DAPP Malawi has with support from VALE Logistics and the Central East African Railways commenced a capacity building project aimed at economically empowering people around the VALE railway in the four districts of Machinga, Balaka, Neno and Chikwawa. The project has two approaches, capacity building for people with basic skills and social inclusion for vulnerable groups.
Various vocational skills will be imparted
Various vocational skills will be imparted
The first component will close the skills gaps among 500 people with basic vocational skills through a two to four month trainings so as to improve effectiveness in business and production of quality work. With a focus on income diversification skills like cooking, tailoring, hairdressing, carpentry, construction/masonry, mechanics, entrepreneurship, trade and establishment and maintenance of ornamental nurseries.
Additionally, 1182 vulnerable members around the communities will be supported with economic activities under the social inclusion project that will strengthen the financial literacy with a focus on financial management, accountability and development of business plans. This will be possible through creation and consolidation of Village Savings and Loan groups and build the target beneficiaries’ capacity in entrepreneurship and business management.
The project is expected to run for two years with the capacity building component taking place within a year while the social inclusion activities will be carried out throughout the implementation period.
The DAPP Mikolongwe Vocational School’s Mobile Training project has completed the training of 20 Adolescent Girls and Young Women, 10 from each Salima and Dedza districts. The four-month training run from October 2020 to January 2021.
With the goal to socio-economically empower the vulnerable and at risk adolescent girls and young women through vocational and entrepreneurial skills, the project was implemented in partnership with the Malawi Girl Guides Association (MAGGA).
Speaking during the certificate presentation ceremony the Deputy Chief Commissioner for MAGGA Lucy Nkhoma said she was proud that all 20 students have completed the training and called on them to become mentors to more than 700 peers within their communities. “Now that you have completed your basic training, you need to stand firm and shoulder the responsibility of imparting the knowledge and skills you have acquired to as many young girls as possible. You are now mentors as such you should work as servant leaders to save as many young girls from unruly behaviours from you respective communities,” she said.
Adolescent girls and young women trained in tailoring
Graduates receive start up tools
The Deputy Chief Commissioner went ahead to recommend DAPP Malawi for laying out such outreach training program that targets youth in hard to reach areas of Malawi who could otherwise be at risk if left alone to escape poverty. The Principal for DAPP Mikolongwe also thanked MAGGA for supporting the training of the adolescent girls and young women who could otherwise not become self-reliant and encouraged the new tailors to embrace modern fashion in their work.
The students received start up materials in groups of three people which include a sewing machine, roll of fabric, pair of scissors, and a charcoal iron among others that enable them to set up their tailoring business after completion of the training. Both events were graced by representatives from the district and Traditional Leaders.
The Mobile Tailoring Centre targeted youth from Traditional Authorities Mwanza and Kachindamoto in Salima and Dedza districts respectively. Mikolongwe Vocational School was established in 1997 to train youth in technical and entrepreneurial skills for them to become self-reliant through employment or establishments of small scale businesses thereby alleviating poverty. The MobileTraining Project has previously trained over 720 adolescent girls and young women.
Education is a basic human right, a public good and a prerequisite critical in building responsible citizens. Our organization, Humana People to People for close to 30 years has been and still is training teachers, primarily for public primary schools where they are most needed. On the occasion of marking the International Education Day 2021, on 24 January, under the theme 'Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation,' we reiterate our commitment to stand alongside national governments in delivering education to all. We have taken note of the drastic COVID-19 impact has had in disrupting the lives of many people - with education heavily affected.
Margret Phiri qualified and trained in teaching methodologies
A classroom set up under a tree observing social distancing
The impact of the virus and resulting lockdown measures have not been felt equally, however, with children experiencing perhaps the largest disruptions to their day-to-day lives. According to UNESCO 2020, by April of last year, 91% of students, approximately 1.6 billion were out of school, compounding what was already a dire situation. The learning losses that come with children not being in school have the potential to last a lifetime - extending well beyond this lost year.
“To face the challenges of tomorrow, not only do we need massive investment, but an overhaul of educational systems is necessary,” said the UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. We have been training primary school teachers who are committed to practice their profession in rural and peri-urban communities in Africa and India since 1993.
Our students at Humana People to People Teacher Training Colleges are training to become responsible for the complex and demanding task of teaching. They are trained to manage and convey the curriculum, know each and every student, engage with parents and colleagues, and adapt teaching to suit students’ needs, school conditions and the community environment.
Our 49 Humana People to People Teacher Training Colleges are training 12 500 primary school teachers each year. More than 5 000 primary school teachers graduate every year in Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, India, Guinea Bissau, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. Our combined efforts, since 1993 have trained more than 49 000 teachers impacting almost 2 000 000 children with access to education. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call to make education systems more resilient to crisis, and more inclusive, flexible and sustainable. It has shown the capacity of systems to innovate, expanding the frontiers of learning possibilities; the enterprise of teachers to ensure learning continuity; and highlighted the immense value education holds for learners, families and communities.
Our teacher training institutions adapted their training approaches in line with the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. We opted for decongestion of classrooms, migrated to virtual learning as a measure to promote physical distancing, wearing of face masks and hand-sanitising in moments of relaxed lockdown measures by local governments. In Mozambique for example, ADPP Mozambique opted to use radio and television broadcasting in delivering bi-lingual education reaching thousands of early grade primary school children in Maputo and other provinces. Humana People to People India, one of our members, is collaborating with Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission in Chhattisgarh State in bringing education to students in a safe environment at home and in the village. Through building synergies and decentralising access to education, Humana People to People India use their extensive experience when building capacity of local teachers and volunteers to reach many children disconnected with access to education.
Despite the many micro-level initiatives being pursued in remote communities, there is need to bolster partnerships and actions to carry the shared responsibility in safeguarding education in the wake of COVID-19 attack and other future incidences. We appreciate the noble first steps of the Save Our Future campaign, which has culminated in the UNESCO Global Coalition on Education that has rallied 160 partners since its launch in March 2020. It has brought organisations together to advocate and galvanize support to education. We find it critical for the multi-lateral organisations and the international development partners to support education in the developing countries in:
Taking every measure to reopen schools safely and inclusively;
Supporting all teachers as frontline workers and prioritizing their training and professional development;
Investing in skills development for inclusive recovery;
Narrowing the digital divide that has prevented one third of the world’s students from accessing education during school closures;
Protecting if not increasing education budgets; ensuring that stimulus packages support measures to mitigate learning losses and get the most vulnerable back to school; and increasing the volume, effectiveness and predictability of aid to education.
We call upon the international community and the national governments to ensure that learning systems and structures are built back better to reflect the lived experiences of children around the world, particularly in already-struggling fragile and disadvantaged community settings.
