What we do
Empowering families, transforming communities
Our vision is to end the historic and systemic behaviours of abuse and disrespect against women and girls in Malawi. Our work is at the community level. We bring people together to share new skills and strategies to become advocates for the rights of women and girls, and support men and boys to shift into attitudes and behaviours that are safe and respectful.
scroll to learn about our areas of focus
our new signature program
Peer Mediation & Conflict Resolution Training
Equipping youth with conflict-resolution skills creates a ripple effect in the community.
We’re conducting peer-to-peer conflict resolution workshops to impart foundational principles of peace-building and conflict resolution to young learners — teaching them active listening, emotional literacy, and effective communication with a focus on promoting mediation skills to prevent and resolve disputes peacefully.
This initiative was designed to give learners the tools to address conflicts in their personal and community lives, ultimately contributing to a reduction in violence, including Gender-Based Violence.
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UNICEF report highlights that 275 million children worldwide are exposed to violence in their homes, often witnessing intimate partner violence. These children are at a higher risk of experiencing or perpetuating violence in their adult relationships.
In societies where harmful and violent attitudes toward women and girls are normalized by both men and women, these cycles continue. Children observe and internalize the beliefs and behaviors modeled by their parents and communities. When conflict is resolved through violence at home, children are more likely to replicate these patterns in their own relationships as adults.
Education for girls
We support girls with the opportunity to access education.
We are working with government and community groups to improve opportunities for girls to attend school and complete their secondary school education.
We are meeting with families to encourage them to send their girls to school. We are fundraising, internationally, to bring much needed funds to help families make choices to support educating their children.
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It costs about $100 USD to send a girl to school for one year. but many families in Malawi cannot afford to pay this. Instead of going to school, girls earn money for the family by working the land or are forced into early marriage. Without an education, girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse, household labour, early pregnancy, and no power over their lives.
Malawi has one of the highest rates of child marriages in the world. About half of all girls are married before the age of 18, with close to 10 percent married off before their 15th birthday. Only 13 percent of girls complete upper secondary school, and only 2 percent in the poorest regions.
Climate resilience
Our primary focus is to promote sustainable agriculture interventions and improve the current levels of food insecurity.
To accomplish this, we mobilize the women farmers, the youth, and vulnerable communities to strengthen their capacities to anticipate, prepare and respond to climate disasters.
Mobilizing community members to plant trees and grasses has proven to work wonders to restore both the land and community life. Supporting agricultural practices will also free up girls to return to school, support women to develop their own income-generating business, and help families and communities build strength and stability.
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Although women produce 70% of the food consumed locally, very few have control over land or any of the production processes involved.
In many cases, they are left out of decision-making, which has significant impacts on their economic activities.
About 80% of Malawi’s economy is based on agriculture. With climate change, the occurrences of droughts, floods, and inconsistent rainfall have become more frequent posing serious challenges to both the environment and the economy leaving them susceptible to devastation.
The result is a cycle of reduced food production, loss of jobs, and poverty. This, in turn, often leads to abuse including sexual assault and violence against women and girls
Economic Empowerment
We work with women to help them start their own micro-businesses, so they can achieve financial security.
We work with women on an individual basis and find out what their strengths and interests are. We then match them to a mentor who can help guide them in creating an income in the way they feel most suited to.
We provide women with business-building strategies and business-development skills so they can start their own business with knowledge and confidence. We support women with mentorship to support their business-building efforts. Mentors guide their success with information about how to manage money and how to use it to grow their business.
We’re also working with government agencies and the community to create more accessibility for women to get small business loans.
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Without a means to generate income, women are dependent on men to support them.
This dependency often leads to issues of abuse and violence, leaving the women with no power in their family or community. Women who have the opportunity to run their own small business can help support their family and become less vulnerable to partner abuse.