Malawi
Malawi ranks among the ten poorest nations in the world. Currently, 6.7 million people living below the poverty line and 2.7 million people are unable to meet daily food requirements. Save the Children has implemented an array of programs to help mitigate the chronic hunger and malnutrition that is rampant here. Our programs also address the fast growing HIV/AIDS crisis and provide for much needed basic health care, education and livelihood support.
Save the Children in Malawi
By drawing on our experience in large scale humanitarian assistance, Save the Children has been able to implement innovative and effective programs in Malawi—some of which are models for the rest of the world. For millions of people in this country, these programs have meant the difference between life and death.
Challenges for Children
Malnutrition is among the highest in Africa, with 49% of the children under five with stunted mental and physical development, and half of these are severely stunted. Malnutrition is known to be a factor in half the deaths of children under the age of five. The lack of proper health care and education has fueled a fast growing HIV/AIDS crisis which is taking a devastating toll on the population. Infant and child mortality rates are extremely high and the maternal mortality rate has doubled since 1992, due in large part to HIV/AIDS.
Numbers at a Glance
- Average life expectancy in Malawi is 43 years
- Infant mortality rate is 92 per 1000 live births
- Maternal mortality rate is 1120 per 100,000 live births
- Over half a million children are already orphaned by AIDS
Our Response
In Malawi, Save the Children's response is guided by our belief that the greatest impact can be had by mobilizing community involvement and support as well as advocating for and achieving changes in policies and practices at the national level. This approach helps ensure sustainability for our programs and brings us closer to our main goal: to break the cycle of poverty for children in need.
Specifically, our programs in Malawi include the following areas:
HIV/AIDS
Save the Children's approach is multi-tiered. It includes assisting children and families living with HIV/AIDS in obtaining community-based care that prolongs and improves their quality of life; minimizing the impact of HIV/AIDS on orphans and other vulnerable children by bringing together communities to secure food, livelihoods and other needs of AIDS-affected households; and preventing new infections through education on safe lifestyles.
Health
Save the Children has a myriad of programs to improve and sustain the health of Malawian children and their families. We focus on promoting the use of low-cost and effective, proven interventions at both the health facility and household level. This includes increasing the number of health service providers trained in newborn and maternal care as well as supporting interventions for common childhood illnesses such as malaria, acute respiratory tract infections and diarrhea. Programs in health can overlap programs in other areas, e.g., The School Health and Nutrition Program seeks to improve the health of school age children through malaria and bilharzia treatment and prevention, vitamin A supplementation, vision and hearing screening and water and sanitation activities, thereby improving school performance and completion. This program in Malawi is recognized as a model program around the world.
Sources: CIA World Factbook, World Bank, UNDP |
Education
Save the Children's education work is based on two simple principles: increase access to high quality basic education and enhance the quality of that education. In Malawi, we increase access by supporting school renovation and construction, thereby opening up thousands of spaces for new students every year (with a particular emphasis on enrolling more girls). We also enhance the quality of that education by enhancing teachers' professional skills and content knowledge and using a mentoring program for new teachers.
Food Security /Hunger Prevention
Food security is always a big challenge for a large portion of the population in Malawi, but is a severe problem among the most vulnerable groups—female headed households, smaller farm owners, rural laborers and orphans due to AIDS. Save the Children utilizes targeted food distribution for chronically sick adults and orphans and addresses childhood malnutrition through growth monitoring and supplemental feeding when necessary. We also help communities build key feeder roads to ensure access to food security services and as well as support farmers with training in new technologies, crop diversification and irrigation.
Economic Opportunities/Livelihoods
Much of our focus in this area is on improving income-earning opportunities among rural households. Save the Children has established village home savings and loan groups, facilitated collective production and marketing groups and promoted income generation through small lot sales.
Plans for the Future
One of Save the Children's overall goals in Malawi includes expanding the cross-fertilization of our programming in order to deliver better quality activities. For example, we've overlapped programming in Education and HIV/AIDS, as well as in Food Security and HIV/AIDS. Cross fertilization of programs as well as funding sources not only enhances our impact on the ground, but also positions us more strategically to impact on national policy.
Life in Malawi
Often dubbed the "Warm Heart of Africa" due to the friendliness of its people, Malawi is a small country, located along the western shores of Lake Malawi in southeast Africa. The landscape is varied and presents four types of terrain: the Great Rift Valley, highlands, mountains and the central plateau. Malawi's climate is sub-tropical and features a rainy season from November to May and a dry season from June to October.
Most of the citizens of Malawi are black Africans of Bantu heritage. The official language is Chichewa, although English is also widely spoken. The majority of people are Christian—primarily Protestant—and 20% are Muslim. A smaller percentage practice traditional African religions.
