A local Non- Governmental Organization ( NGO) called Passion for Women and Children (PAWOC), will implement a – 12 months She matters project in Dowa and Ntchisi districts.
In Dowa, the project will be in Mponela, Chibwata, Mvera, Kapita and Nalunga zones while in Ntchisi, it will be in the area Traditional Authority Kalumo targeting 10 primary schools of Mpherere, Makanda and Mbuyedziko zones focussing in areas of health, education, gender, water, sanitation and hygiene.
The project is primarily targeting adolescent girls in primary schools, teachers, mother groups, school management committees, Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and Community Health workers with the Ministry’s of Health and Education, Science and Technology as the key stakeholders.
Speaking during a District executive council committee meeting held at the Dowa boma over viewing the project, the organization’s Executive Director, Mackson Harawa,said the project will aim at building capacity of girls in primary schools to be able to make reusable sanitary pads using locally available resources.
Harawa said the project will also raise awareness among community members towards creating a platform where issues can be discussed openly to help breaking the stigma, and discrimination that comes because of the myths and misconceptions held by the community members.
…” This project will build capacity of school management structures to construct low cost girls washrooms to help keep girls in school “,…said Harawa.
He said the project will use a Trainer of Trainers( ToTs) model by training teachers, 400 adolescent girls and mother groups representatives to scale up to training approximately 1,500 adolescent girls and mother groups representative.
On project sustainability plan, Harawa said the project will use a capacity building strategy to ensure that the target beneficiaries are left with skills to continuity and prioritizing using locally available resources to enable the women and girls continue making reusable sanitary pads after the initial project period.
In his remarks, Dowa District Council’s Director of Administration, Bonface Macheka, expressed optimistic that the project will reach out to all girls in the district calling on stakeholders and NGOs implementing a similar intervention in the district to support it for the good of the people.
She Matters project will be implemented in the two districts of Dowa and Ntchisi with funding from Grand Challenges of Canada amounting to 100,000 Canadian Dollars which is equivalent to Mk54 million.
