Distribution of school Materials

Hope for Girls Education (HOGE) is an organization that has been implementing various health and education projects in Blantyre rural and Thyolo districts all district located in the Southern Region of Malawi. 

HOGE is a registered local Non-Governmental Organisation whose mission is “To improve education status for young girls and women of Malawi living in rural areas and promoting good health”. The organisation is implementing a number of programmes on education and is currently working on expanding its response taking into consideration that most of its target beneficiaries who are in rural areas.

Through the project titled” Health Living and Education for Women and Girls in Rural Areas”HOGE was given a sum of Four Hundred Thousand Malawi Kwacha (MK400,000) which is equivalent to 543 United States Dollars as a reward to support the top three performing girls in the four primary schools by taking them to Chileka International Airport.

 The Distribution of Hygienic and Reading Materials during Covid 19 (DHRMDC

Reduced number of girls dropping out of school during Covid 19

The implementation of this project will keep girls busy with schoolwork whilst in their respective homes. The books provided will motivate girls to keep abreast with their school work despite schools being closed as a COVID – 19 preventive measure and  Communities with controlled COVID -19 cases.The project aims at sensitising and training communities about COVID -19 (what it is, how is spread, preventative measures as well as what to be done if a person is diagnosed Covid 19) so that we reduce number of people to be affected by COVID – 19.

 As highlighted there are information disparities especially among the rural masses who has limited access to measures being put across by the government to mitigate the impact of COVID – 19.

 Malawi has not been spared from the COVID – 19 disease caused by Coronavirus. When declaring the state of disaster, the president announced some measures that needs to be followed to contain the spread of Coronavirus. Some of the measures included ; redeployment of health personnel in all boarder posts and continuous screening and surveillance of people in all entry points, suspension of hosting of international meetings and banning of public servants from attending both regional and international meetings being hosted by the affected countries, closing of all schools and all public gatherings were restricted to less than 100 people and affected countries will be subjected to self or institutional quarantine. 

The immediate closure of all schools and lack of information specifically targeting children has been at the epicentre of the increase in number of girls falling pregnant. For example, Blantyre district which is one of the districts where HOGE is implementing the interventions has recorded an upsurge in the number of children entering into child marriages. According to Section 23 subsection 5 of the constitution of the Republic of Malawi a child is a person under the age of eighteen years of age

The Distribution of Hygienic and Reading Materials during Covid 19 (DHRMDC) project will be implemented at Nkaombe, Mulambala, Thunga and Chinkwende Primary Schools in the area of Traditional Authority Bvumbwe in Thyolo district and Chikuli, Chikumbu, Mchenga schools in the area of Traditional Authority Kunthembwe and Masenjere, Lirangwe school in the area of Traditional Authority Kapeni in Blantyre district. These schools have been carefully selected because they have high number of learners.

Furthermore, these schools have been selected because they are located in rural areas where poverty is widespread and the uptake and the information reach is very minimal. That is why this project aims to reach out to these vulnerable rural communities to ensure protection of girls from child marriages and pregnancies for their continued education. 

the project targets people from the rural areas of Thyolo traditional authority Bvumbwe  and Blantyre traditional authority kunthembwe and kapeni. 

In order to make a greater impact in the communities, HOGE works in good collaboration with Traditional Authorities (TAs) in Blantyre and Thyolo districts, community committees, mother groups, Blantyre District Social Welfare and Thyolo District Social Welfare Offices and Connector Malawi.

However, and now more than ever, simply connecting with one another is
not enough to tackle the urgent and complex challenges our world faces. To
ensure that all people have access to effective health services, quality
education, and safe environments to live and prosper; to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change; and to create awareness among people so that we grow in empathy, wisdom, and love, we need far more than influencers and brands that shape viewer opinions and purchasing patterns. As people feel increasingly powerless against global crises such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Covid 19 is a pandemic that has attacked the whole world and so much threat has been brought up in our countries .people have died ,economies have been unstable in trying to address the problem .so the distribution of school materials and hygienic is considered to be on of the import project in this covid 19 crisis.

as mentioned above our organisation is focusing on four important aspects 

1.poverty alleviation

2.education

3. health

4. economic empowerment

however we should say coming up with the distribution of school resources and hygienic material project was not an easy thing considering the the sustainable development goals (SDGs) that our organisation is focusing on .

but this is done because we understand that there can not be development if people in the area are not health due to corona virus which has affected the whole world thus the only reason we decided to distribute these materials so that we can promote literacy during covid 19 at the same time we should be able to help people in rural areas who have little information on covid to be aware about how they can protect themselves from the pandemic.

the distribution of hygienic and school resources is very important to us because we would like to achieve the following:

To build confidence of 4000 girls living in rural areas through the provision of textbooks and handouts as a means to promote reading culture amongst girls during COVID – 19 by August, 2020.

 To sensitize three communities on the best ways of halting the spread of COVID – 19 by September, 2020

 To support communities in the rural areas of Thyolo and Blantyre with sanitation training's on hand washing facilities and well as the importance of wearing face masks by September, 2020.

 To continuously monitor and evaluate project interventions by September, 2020.

The Distribution of Hygienic and Reading Materials during Covid 19 (DHRMDC) project will be implemented at Nkaombe, Mulambala, Thunga and Chinkwende Primary Schools in the area of Traditional Authority Bvumbwe in Thyolo district and Chikuli, Chikumbu, Mchenga schools in the area of Traditional Authority Kunthembwe and Masenjere, Lirangwe school in the area of Traditional Authority Kapeni in Blantyre district. These schools have been carefully selected because they have high number of learners.

We are an operational NGO, meaning we plan and carry out boots-on-the-ground projects to accomplish our objectives. This requires a great deal of careful planning, communication, and local involvement for each project.

HOGE in partnership with Blantyre social welfare managed to train formulated community committees as well as teachers on on gender awareness responsibilities of a leader and importance of parents involvement on girl child education. 

HOGE  has also managed to make traditional and cultural  leaders and to realise the negative impacts the traditions has on the girl child education .

so regarding to what our organisation is doing in the rural areas of thyolo and Blantyre we feel we will be in apposition to take up the distribution role

Malawi  has been declared a State of Disaster by the Government in the way Covid 19 cases has risen.  Like many other countries, schools are closed, gatherings should be no more than 100 people and no foreigners are allowed to enter the country.

Although some of the specific projects are not running in the usual way, as we also need to protect our own field staff, it is vital that our stakeholders (girls) are in good  healthy, and that communities have a proper understanding about Covid 19 including how best to protect and prevent this virus escalating across the country.  At the moment, our team of incredible Field Officers are visiting every centre to conduct training sessions on hand washing and sanitation.  These sessions are also  attended by caregivers, centre management committees and chiefs who are  asked to cascade the information across their communities. Extra buckets and soap need to be provided and extra supplies will need to be purchased for distribution.

 Malawi has very inadequate health service provision.  We are committed  to address the worst but we are hoping for the best.  We are hoping to doing everything we can to keep supporting the vulnerable communities we work.

 HOGE works in good collaboration with Traditional Authorities (TAs) in Blantyre and Thyolo districts, community committees, mother groups, Blantyre District Social Welfare and Thyolo District Social Welfare Offices and Connector Malawi.

through the partnerships HOGE has taken top three performing girls to chileka airport and where they saw an aircraft landing and taking off and then surprise lunch in one of the fancy place in Blantyre 

HOGE has also managed to gather girls from the thyolo and Blantyre for motivation talks performed by influential ladies from Blantyre who are doctors nurses engineers business administrator as well as police women all these were done just to show girls that everything is possible if they have a purpose in their lives .

also HOGE  has trained teachers and community committees on a number of topics gender awareness ,roles of a leader and importance of educating a girl child .On top of that we also working with members of parliament meaning we have good communication skills that made them understand what we are doing and how important it is to the society.

GOVERNMENT under the ministry of gender and social welfare 

we are working with the social welfare for Blantyre and Thyolo district

we are in a partnership that aims at protecting children across the nation with the sustainable development goals.

the projects targets girls in the rural areas and we believe through the provision of the books will have a lot of girls busy with school work

Project Outcomes

The implementation of the project will aim to realise the following three fold outcomes as follows;

• Reduced number of girls dropping out of school during Covid 19
  • The implementation of this project will keep girls busy with schoolwork whilst in their respective homes. The books provided will motivate girls to keep abreast with their school work despite schools being closed as a COVID – 19 preventive measure.

• Communities with controlled COVID -19 cases
  • The project aims at sensitizing and training communities about COVID -19 (what it is, how is spread, preventative measures as well as what to be done if a person is diagnosed Covid 19) so that we reduce number of people to be affected by COVID – 19. As highlighted there are information disparities especially among the rural masses who has limited access to measures being put across by the government to mitigate the impact of COVID – 19.

• Improved provision of sanitation and hygienic materials
  • The organisation intends to provide the sanitation and hygiene materials that will help girls in their homes. Leaflets about the virus will be distributed and these will be published in local vernacular language. Extra buckets and soap will also be provided leading to increased protection of girls from COVID -19.

Currently our solution which is currently on trial  our target is to go from targeting many girls in rural areas of thyolo and Blantyre  inhabitants one year, expanding to reach at least thousands of girls in other areas of malawi  

These are plans for this year:

• To build confidence of 4000 girls living in rural areas through the provision of textbooks and handouts as a means to promote reading culture amongst girls during COVID – 19 by August, 2020.

our goal as an organisation is to reach  20,000 girls in the rural of the other districts not only Blantyre and thyolo but other remaining regions.

to make sure there is no poverty in the communities through the education given to girls + an increase in development structures in the communities where the girls are coming from

lack of finances to carry out a number of activities

lack of  transport:to take us into the areas of work

the best way we can solve the problem is to increase the parnerships

HOGE works in good collaboration with Traditional Authorities (T/As) in Blantyre and Thyolo districts, community committees, mother groups, Blantyre District Social Welfare and Thyolo District Social Welfare Offices and Connector Malawi.

through our project health living related to education 450 girls from thyolo and Blantyre rural areas have been motivated with the role models that have been going into there areas and now we have 43% of girls who have been selected into good secondary schools across the country.

also the awards that HOGE has been providing to the girls have boosted up the capacity of more girls so that they should be among others who do better as the term closes.

the training which to the community committees and teachers also gave them the capacity to do there jobs better than before.

HOGE with financial support from its board members has been implementing a project titled “Health Living and Education for Every Woman and Girl in the Rural Area”. The project is aimed at ensuring a health and stable population growth and poverty reduction through the provision of mentoring and motivation lessons to girls and women in the rural areas of Thyolo district in the area of Traditional Authority Bvumbwe since January 2019. And this services are very important to the communities we serve because through our project we have seeing so many girls going to school with a purpose and now they have being on top of their performance and are well selected into secondaryschools

basically as an organisation we depend on donor/grants but due to the pandemic its been really hard for us an organisation .

hence the distribution of books and handouts of 450 books which happened on 10th June 2020 to few selected areas of Blantyre and Thyolo has been a donation money from the member of parliament and the organisation board looking at the pandemic the fear is that we will loose a lot of girls due to the period of idleness

quarterly community meetings with religious and traditional leaders :these meetings are funded by the board and the amount given towards the function is MK300,000 which is 407 us dollars and the money is used to buy food for the participants,snacks and refreshments,notebooks,printing out of documents ,transport refunds for every one,pens and fuel +hiring of car to the meeting place.

the awarding trip under the project was funded by the members of parliament Mr Ephraim nayeja and DR C.Z Chagaluka which provided MK400,0OO which is 543 in us dollars.and this amount was used to hire a minbus that took girls from thyolo to chileka from chileka to food lovers in blantyre and back to their respective homes . the contribution was also used to buy lunch for the top 3 performing girls and every one got a gift at the end.

formulation of the community committees : this project has been funded by the Board of organisation with an amount of MK500,000 and 679 in us dollars which has been used for communication ,transport for the staff in five days formulation of the community clubs,snacks and refreshments for the participants,transport refunds since some people comes from far areas.notebooks ,pens and accommodation for the staff.

training the community committees and teachers had MK450,000 which  was a donation from the government partnership and was used to buy food for participants,drinks and refreshments ,transport refunds ,note books ,masking tape,pens,transport for the staff(fuel +min bus hire),communication ,media and airing the program

HOGE seek a funding of MK 3,000,000 which is 4075 us dollars

which will be used for 

formulation of studying groups of three in the communities stationary and paper work(printing out of books and other learing materials distribution of books training communities and girls on covid 19 distribution of buckets and soap Honoraria for technical experts transport communication monitoring and evaluation result analysis and compilation buckets and soap

we expect to spend MK 7,000,000 due to the covid 19 pandemic much as we understand we cant perform any other activity without the observation of social distance,hand washing and all 

hoge is providing these materialsbecause of the following reasons :

To build confidence of 4000 girls living in rural areas through the provision of textbooks and handouts as a means to promote reading culture amongst girls during COVID – 19 by August, 2020.
 To sensitize three communities on the best ways of halting the spread of COVID – 19 by September, 2020

To support communities in the rural areas of Thyolo and Blantyre with sanitation trainings on hand washing facilities and well as the importance of wearing face masks by September, 2020.
 To continuously monitor and evaluate project interventions by September, 2020.

we would like to help 500,000 girls across the country so having a partner who is willing to go this far with us will be one of the great achievement to HOGE.

UNICEF 

save the children

plan international 

the above mentioned organisations can appreciate the work we are doing and see  how best they can work with HOGE