Travelling on a Thursday morning of 14th February, 2019 across the Shire River from Mangochi district via a 50-kilometer meandering hilly road through Chowe Hills towards Malawi and Mozambique boarder. We eventually arrived at Chiponde Community Based Organization (CBO) Ground in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Jalasi for a monitoring visit to a Project which the Malawi Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Alliance is implementing with support from Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).
Throughout the 40
minute-drive, Susan, a female official from the Canadian Embassy wanted to know
the uniqueness of the Malawi SRHR Alliance’s strategies. She was
brought to an understanding that the Alliance draws on and utilizes the capacities
and contributions of various institutions both non-governmental and
governmental entities which have varying knowledge, experience, structures and
other traits which one institution cannot have.
Arriving at Chiponde CBO where an SRHR Outreach Clinic Site was set by one of the Alliance’s members, FPAM, the visitors’ faces conspicuously brightened up after a warm reception by the Alliance members and some community members who visited the site for a group counselling on family planning.
The two-hour event targeting two project sites firstly offered an opportunity for the visitors to appreciate a practical SRHR outreach service delivery process. During the exercise, the team had a briefing meeting with the health service providers who manned the site. Later, proceeded to Chiponde Teacher Development Centre hall located right at the Malawi-Mozambique boarder post for an interactive meeting with members of various community structures that support in implementation of the project.
Timothy Mtambo, the Executive Director for CHRR who is also the Chairperson for the Malawi SRHR Alliance opened the meeting. In his address, Mtambo thanked the donors for their time to appreciate how community members are benefitting from the project. Mtambo further thanked the various stakeholders who turned up for the meeting.
He also explained that the Alliance which was formulated in 2010, uses a Rights Based Approach (RBA) in its programming before urging all participants to actively participate in the discussions on how the project had impacted on their lives.Mtambo also said that the Alliance still intends to reach out to more people who live in rural as well as hard-to-reach areas.
Leading the proceedings with a passionate delight to see participants express themselves openly, one courageous adolescent girl stood up to narrate her story. She explained how she managed to mobilize her friends to encourage a fellow primaruy school learner who was also present in the meeting to abandon a forced marriage and return to school with the support of patriotic traditional leaders who were also in the room and corroborated the girl’s account. Among the 17 people that participated in this meeting, 8 were young people from two targeted primary schools of Chiponde and Mandimba.
A smile on Daniel’s (CFLI Program Manager for Political, Economic and Public Affairs) face when he was asking each pupil to share their goals in life placed the young people on a footing of innocent familiarity with the visitors and the rest of the people in the room. Ambitions ranged from becoming a teacher, medical doctor, pilot to a Police Officer to serve victimized community members.
Daniel saluted the Alliance for being unique in tackling identified community health issues using various expertise and approaches. He also expressed willingness to continue supporting such interventions with funding future initiatives.
In his closing remarks, T/A Jalasithanked the donors for their support and the SRHR Alliance for choosing to visit his area.He added that most adolescent girls and boys in his area face serious sexual reproductive health challenges and he appealed for longer projects so that the young people could get adequate support to realize their dreams in life.
The project’s catchment areas in the district are characterized by strong cultural values and harmful practices like initiation rituals that expose young people to early and unprotected sexual debut. As such, the Alliance considered the areas in order to promote SRH rights of girls and women through capacity strengthening and community-based SRH services delivery.