Agriculture is the most important sector in Malawi’s economy. It employs over 80% of the population and contributes approximately 70% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. This means that the current price increase of chemical fertilizers has adversely affected a large part of Malawi’s population and has resulted in dire food shortages due to the poor harvests of many subsistence farmers.

Recognising this gap in the economy, and with the support from the FutureLife-Now! Programme, learners from Mbinzi Community Day Secondary School in the Lilongwe District have started producing low-cost and environmentally-friendly composted manure.

Mbinzi Community Day Secondary School learners mixing eco-friendly composted manure

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Lesotho’s Ministries of Education and Training and of Health have long recognized the importance of the linkages between them for aiding young people to access youth-friendly health services. Both have used the former’s Extracurricular Risk Reduction and Avoidance Handbook for Youth to assist learners and out-of-school youth to cope with the challenges they face growing up—such as developing positive relationships and protecting their sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR)—and to improve the situation they find themselves in their communities.

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In recent years, so much research, writing and action has been directed towards the girl child, but little or practically nothing was done for the boy child. In fact, the phrase “boy child” has only come to prominence recently. Even in the FutureLife-Now! schools, there is a lot of work done by other organizations specifically for girls. For example, one of these organizations has recently built a state-of-the-art girl’s toilet in one of the schools.

Such work is, of course, salutary and necessary, but FutureLife-Now! recognises that boys too have needs; they too are vulnerable. To truly address gender-inequality, those vulnerabilities also need to be addressed. Boys and young men feeling neglected later causes many of the gender-related problems that we see in our communities.

FutureLife-Now! in Zimbabwe started boys mentorship clubs, the main purpose of which was to give boys a platform to talk and discuss the issues that they face, and then to find solutions together. But the boys themselves need to be heard. So, here, in their voices, are what some of the young men, members of the mentorship clubs, have to say.

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Youth Action for Success and Development ,YASD has been conducting four research models to develop alternative fertilizers to drive a sustainable solution in eradicating poverty and food insecurity while improving livelihoods in the communities. Since 2019, YASD has been on the frontline promoting alternative solutions for organic farmers who constantly face rising input costs.

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The President of South Africa has officially cited the Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) framework during his keynote address at the 2023 Basic Education Sector Lekgotla last week. He said: “Care and support for teaching and learning must be institutionalised as a tool to improve learner outcomes and retention rates.” In partnership with SADC and its Member States, and with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, MIET AFRICA developed and tested the CSTL model in response to the many vulnerabilities hindering the learning and development of children and youth in the SADC region, and in 2016,  the CSTL Policy Framework was adopted by the 16 SADC Ministers of Education. The Framework mandates Ministries of Education to mainstream care and support and provides guidelines for the provision of integrated services through their schools. The various care and support needs of learners are addressed through a policy framework of 10 pillars, namely: safety and protection, psychosocial support, nutrition, health, social welfare, material support, infrastructure, community participation, curriculum support, extra-curricular support.

The CSTL model is one which views all stakeholders as co-educators within a learning ecosystem. Ministries of Education create a policy environment that mandates, enables and supports the development of all schools as CSTL coordinating hubs that facilitate the provision of:

•  Services and support provided by a range of partners to ensure inclusion, retention and completion of school by vulnerable children and youth
• Quality, relevant 21st century education for agency to address pressing development challenges

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Teachers from the 40 FutureLife-Now! schools reflect on the 2022 academic year. This is what they had to say. 

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Learners listening to a talk during the expo

Moomba Boarding Secondary School held a Health Expo, giving 150 learners from grades 8 to 12 the opportunity to access vital health information and services.

Sepiso Lisulo, FutureLife-Now! focal person, organized the Health Expo at the FutureLife-Now! pilot school. The event, that took place on Sunday, 18 September, focused on providing a range of health services to learners.

School principal Maxwell Nyirenda officially opened the Health Expo by informing the learners that this would give them a rare opportunity to obtain critical information to help them make safe and healthy decisions regarding their future. The event was tailored in such a way that learners were provided with and given access to integrated, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services.

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Pride of place: Nashville High School. FutureLife-Now! Leadership Club members present their winning business plan

As part of the FutureLife-Now! programme, Nashville High School has implemented many initiatives to empower young people on issues around health, education and development. One particular initiative has been to use clubs to encourage and enable youth agency. The most successful of these is the FutureLife-Now! Leadership Club.

Club chairperson, Calton Nemutenzi, was inspired by FutureLife-Now! to use his “power within” to think of a way to implement his knowledge for the benefit of many. He and a group of fellow learners noticed that many farmers in their area were keeping rabbits for meat production. At the same time, these farmers were forced to spend a large amount of money on costly chemical fertilisers for their crops, which created financial challenges.

For Nemutenzi and his friends, a light went on – the rabbits could provide the perfect solution to the farmers’ problems – and so the rabbit urine fertilizer project was born.

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A participant keenly following the discussions during the workshop

Did you know that a third of HIV infections in adults are among young women aged 15-24?  Did you know that women are almost twice as likely to have HIV as men? These alarming facts underscore the urgent need to address societal and structural barriers, including economic and legal constraints, to access equitable HIV prevention, treatment, and care.

In response, the FutureLife-Now! programme in Malawi, through the Ministry of Education and in partnership with the Ministry of Health, developed an HIV manual tailored for use by school health and nutrition (SHN) teachers and youth facilitators.

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