By Sr. Teresa Mulenga and Sr. Maureen Ogundeph
Globally some progress on women’s rights has been achieved in Malawi, a good percentage of legal frameworks that promote, enforce, and monitor gender equality under the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) indicator, with a focus on violence against women are in place by UN Women-Women Count Hub (2016). However work still needs to be done in Malawi from a gender perspective to fill the gaps in key areas like the lack of information and communications technology skills, poverty physical and sexual harassment.
As a result of the above situation, the Teresian Sisters in Malawi collaborate with the Catholic Women’s Organisation to fill the above gaps.
Teresian sister's Charism is liberating people. They work in hospitals, schools, and social ministries where they pay special attention to women. In the year 2021 most of the women in Malawi were stricken with poverty: this was a major impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This further induced the number of gender-based violence among women and girls.
Sr Teresa Mulenga, a member of the Teresian sisters and an ambassador of the World Women’s Observatory (WWO) in coordination with the Catholic Women’s Organisation resorted to skills development in order to empower women who faced a lot of challenges. The women turned up to be trained in soap making, briquette making, body ointments, manure making, and others. The training has greatly improved the lives of women, for instance, those women and girls who faced violence as they were not engaged in anything concrete are now safe and most of them have small-scale businesses while others have begun registration of their companies. Chatting with three of the women who got employed due to the skills they learned from Sr. Teresa, the women said nobody can abuse nor underrate them because they can contribute to the welfare of the family. It is important to understand that the percentage of women who are literate in Malawi is still low. Skills development has been found as a better solution while for young girls campaigns are there to encourage them to go to schools. Teresian sisters also have a special project in the Dedza district with women living with Hiv/Aids who also face a lot of discrimination and stigma.
Photos credits Sr. Teresa Mulenga
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