The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWEMA) is a registered non- governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Lilongwe, Malawi, which unites educationalists, with the aim of supporting and promoting girls and women’s education. They seek to empower women and girls through gender responsive education and envision a Malawi where all girls and women have access to education. The organization firmly believes that by empowering women and girls through education, the livelihoods of entire communities are improved and civic education and liberties are enhanced from local to national levels. FAWEMA is confident that educated girls will become tomorrow’s leaders, given the opportunity to excel and learn in their educational pursuits. They believe that empowerment is crucial to sustainable and equitable development in Malawi and that girls and women have the utmost potential in refining the direction of their society and reshaping a better future for all with enthusiasm and leadership.

 

"When you educate a girl you educate the whole nation. FAWEMA is helping develop Malawi—one girl at a time"

The organization was established in 1993 as a chapter of The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) whose secretariat is in Nairobi, Kenya.  In addition to Malawi, FAWE has a presence in 31 African countries where they work hand-in-hand with local communities, schools, civil society members, NGO’s and government bodies to achieve gender equality in education through a variety of outreach programs. FAWE seeks to influence government policy, raise awareness, build capacity, and encourage the adoption of these models governments, organizations and educational institutions while acting as a leader in the field of education.

 

FAWEMA’s passion for gender equality coupled with their creative projects ideas, which enable women and girls to reach their full potential, makes us honored to feature them as organization of the month for March 2012. Make Every Woman Count was on the ground this week in Lilongwe Malawi where we had the opportunity to learn from FAWEMA's National Coordinator  Hendrina M. Givah about the status of women in Malawi and how FAWEMA is challenging a reality that poses a future of uncertainty for many women and girls. Our first observation about the organization beyond their unbounded fervor and determination for equality was the magnitude of their presence in Malawi and the sophistication of their programs as an organization of only seven staff members. FAWEMA’s commitment to women and girls in Malawi is inspiring and we are delighted to share with you some of their ideas, interventions, success stories as well as the challenges they currently face.

In our interview with FAWEMA, Hendrina told us about the various barriers to education for women in Malawi, which included issues of abuse from family, classmates and teachers and a lack of gender-sensitive teaching methods and facilities. The long distance that many girls must walk in potentially unsafe circumstances to school and the family responsibilities that keep girls are home are barriers to their education. Many girls also experience pressure to gain an income due to poverty and the gender dynamics within many families in Malawi. Furthermore, when a girl in Malawi begins to menstruate, in many communities, this signals that she is ready for marriage. Subsequently, due to lack of education on the matter and empowerment, many girls, fall pregnant and this is the end of their formal educational journey. FAWEMA sees early marriage as one of their biggest challenges and is working to challenge this daily through supporting young mothers and educating girls about the negative consequences of early marriage. The organization was instrumental in changing the Malawian policy that forbade girls to return to school after having a baby.  With FAWEMA spearheading a policy dialogue and lobbying government, the readmission guideline was amended to allow mothers, like Ida to attend school.

 

Ida is a 25-year-old woman living in rural Malawi with three children. Several years ago she dropped out of school when she fell pregnant and was unable to return due to threats and violence from her husband who did not want her to receive an education. In 2010, when her husband left her, she moved back to her mother’s village and this is when she was introduced to FAWEMA. Through the reassurance and motivation by one of the organizations ‘Mother Groups’ Ida went back to school. She said, “I have come back to school so that I can get educated. Education is good and I want to be a nurse. This is also because of the counseling and follow-up of the Mother Group… They encouraged me to go back to school and (taught me) the importance of school. They also talked on the effects on early marriage. Every girl who has a good future is the one who is educated.” Ida, now at the Standard 8 level in school, is one of the hundreds of girls supported by FAWEMA who has received the encouragement, self-assurance and resources she needed in order to pursue an education and create a better life for herself and her family.

Today, FAWEMA has local Mother Groups that benefit girls like Ida. Each Mother Group is comprised of reputable women and men selected by the community including 10 female volunteers, as well a community leader, the chairs of the School Management Committee and the Parent-Teacher Association, and the school head teacher. This intervention aims to ensure the enrolment, retention and completion of education by girls. Through these groups, FAWEMA raises awareness about harmful cultural practices that have adverse impacts on girls’ education and advocate for adequate hygiene, nutrition, and opportunity for all girls. A recent sample survey of Mother Groups showed that on average, each group succeeded in successfully advocating for 15 learners to return to school and four girls were rescued from early marriages in 2011 alone. Additionally, many mother groups built bathrooms and bought supplies to support girls with menstrual hygiene. All mother groups in the study conducted school visits, met with learners, provided guidance and counseling to teen mothers, provided psychosocial support to learners and inspected school infrastructures.

Another project that we would like to highlight is FAWEMA’s Tuseme, Chichewa for “Let us speak out,” groups. Tuseme groups were established in effort to give girls in Malawi the agency and self-confidence they need to be successful.  The groups aim to empower girls to understand and overcome problems that hinder their academic and social development, give them a voice to speak out and express their problems and proactively find solutions. In this past year 21 Tuseme Girls Clubs were established. The effectiveness of the clubs has been be evidenced in many ways including an improvement in girls academic performance.  For example, Liwonde Secondary School has seen girls doing well on Junior Certificate Examinations with a girls pass rate of 100% increased from 39% in 2010. In Chibwe Secondary School, the club has contributed to behavior change in girls as there were no dropouts during the 3rd term of the 2011 academic year, compared to seven dropouts during the previous semester—before the club was established.

FAWEMA has several other initiatives currently underway such as awareness campaigns about the importance of girls education and supporting women in becoming teachers as means to create role models for young girls. They also provide training courses in college to sensitize future teachers on gender issues and offer bursaries to some of the most at-risk girls pursuing an education. They have also created a Center for Excellence, a gender sensitive school, and hope to create more in the near future.  These schools will act as leaders offering quality education and proactively respond to the physical, academic and social dimensions of every student while modeling interventions to support girl children to succeed in school.

 

 

Because of FAWEMA, many girls have had the chance to receive an education and the opportunity for a better future. Moreover, issues of school material deprivation, neglect towards girls and overarching issues of social and political exclusion are being challenged to overcome adversity. When we asked FAWEMA what their main challenges were, they said that like most NGO’s they lack the necessary funding and supplies to adequately roll out their interventions to reach the neediest girls in Malawi, which is their dream. Hendrina told MEWC that even though many girls would like to pursue an education; school beyond primary levels requires fees. FAWEMA would like to continue to grow their scholarship fund to send more girls to school. Additionally, they feel that that communities themselves need to become sensitized on the importance of girls education and change harmful cultural practices such as early marriages, violence against women, gender bias, HIV/Aids and abuse of women’s sexual and reproductive health rights. Any help on how to effectively do this would be very helpful to the organization. Additionally, FAWEMA would like to create a girls education network to bring organizations working towards educational equality to a common forum. Ultimately, the group needs more funding and networking opportunities to grow in the way they see ideal.

FAWEMA is not short of ideas on how to make every woman and girl in Malawi count, and they adamantly work each day to create a world in which all girls have access to education and the support needed to perform and excel. Working towards the attainment of a society where gender disparities in education are eliminated, FAWEMA will continue to triumph over obstacles as leaders in the development of their beloved country.  As part of an international movement to empower girls and achieve human rights for all global citizens- the women and men of FAWEMA are truly making a difference in the lives of women and girls in Malawi.