Giving goals to girls in Malawi

A project backed by North Lanarkshire council aimed at empowering young women in Malawi is to be extended to all primary schools in the African country.

Charles Fawcett, a retired deputy head teacher from Coatbridge, has played a key role in setting up and supporting Mothers Groups and Girls Go for Health initiatives.

He has recently returned from a trip to the Luchenza area of Malawi and spoke to the BBC Scotland news website about his time there and the difference the projects are making.

Mr Fawcett talks to Malawian pupils (Picture by Jacqui Bradley
Pupils from North Lanarkshire have visited Malawi to support projects there

I first visited Malawi in 2006 as part of a Scottish Government delegation.

It was a humbling and life-changing trip.

I thought about all the skills and knowledge I had accumulated over the years and suddenly I had a very strong sense of purpose.

My role was to look at the health and well being of young women in Malawi.

I saw that they were very disadvantaged and there were huge cultural barriers to educating girls.

They were expected to fetch the water, do the cooking, look after the crops, look after younger siblings and then if they were allowed to go to school they had to walk a very long way.

Once in the classroom they were marginalised and ridiculed.

There were harmful initiation ceremonies within local villages, which increase the spread of HIV/Aids, and the girls also faced the daily threat of violence and sexual assault when they left the village to walk to and from school.

It is not about hand outs, it is about empowerment and making something that is sustainable.
Charles Fawcett
Healthy Lifestyles Coordinator

North Lanarkshire Council formed a partnership with FAWEMA - the Forum for African Women Educationalists in Malawi.

The first thing we focused on was Mother Groups aimed at getting girls into school.

The title is quite deceptive as they involved working with the men in the villages who have the final say in allowing their daughters to attend school.

We realised we also needed something to keep girls in school. We used Girls Go for Health groups that we already have in some of our schools in North Lanarkshire.

Micro-businesses

These aim to empower girls by improving their confidence and self-esteem.

Pupils and staff from North Lanarkshire have helped set up micro-businesses and provided the girls with sewing machines to make their own clothes and sell them.

Some of the young women have been learning photography skills with a view to do weddings and events.

On our most recent trip pupils from North Lanarkshire schools taught the girls dance routines and organised a rugby festival.
Malawian pupils with photographer Jacqui Bradley
Girls in Mendulo have been learning photography skills

It is not about hand outs, it is about empowerment and making something that is sustainable.

These projects give the young people in Malawi a very strong sense of hope and the realisation that their future is in their own hands.

However, the pupils, teachers and others from North Lanarkshire who go out there learn so much.

They see that materialism does not make you happy.

It is the very simple things like caring for one another and having a community spirit.

Young people here get caught up with their Ipods and computers and things.

The Malawians don't have any of that and despite the daily struggles they face the children there are happy.

Going to Malawi is a drain on you emotionally.

But when you see 50 or 60 girls playing a game of rugby, all thoroughly enjoying themselves, and when one team scores about 2,000 people invading the pitch, it is exhilarating and humbling.

You get a very strong sense of what is important in life.