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Life for Girls in Malawi
This is Martha, she is one of the young orphan girls that Memory Chazeza has been working with at an orphanage near Baraka, in the Southern Region of Malawi. Martha lost both of her parents at a young age and at the time this picture was taken, she was living alone and trying to continue going to school. Memory describes her as one of the brightest girls she has ever met. Shortly after Memory took this photo, Martha became pregnant and dropped out of school. Within a very short time Martha was pressured into early marriage.
Martha's story is heartbreakingly common in Malawi where girls are so desperate for money that they will have sex with men to pay for their own school uniform or their younger sister's school fees. Even the brighest and most promising students must run the gauntlet of sexual abuse from their own teachers and male classmates. Young girls can not even dream of a future in which they have the power and right to make their own decisions. Education is their only hope and it is an almost unattainable goal. With education comes self esteem and confidence and the ability and reason to say no to sex. Girls need to believe that their life has value and that they have the power to choose their own path and set their own goals. Only education can do this for them. Beyond this, girls need marketable skills that they can use to make their own living, giving them yet another reason to value themselves and say no to unwanted sex. Education is their only hope and if you've ever met one of these incredible girls and looked into their eyes, you will know that hope is one thing that they have an abundance of.
Memory, Henry, Christie, and all of their supporters spanning the globe, are doing everything in their power to keep this hope alive.
Malawi has very few secondary schools and the vast majority of students in these schools are boys. School fees are expensive and sons are selected above daughters to attend these schools. Even if the girls do manage to go to school, the emotional and physical abuse is often enough to make them give up their dreams and give in to the urgings of their families to get married at a very young age. This is not what these girls want. All they need to be able to hold their heads up and withstand the pressure is a chance to go to a school that will protect them from harm and teach them well. This is what Memory plans to do. Her school will offer scholarships to girls, and it will give them training in trades as well as the academic rigor that will lead to further education.
"Female education is one of the most powerful tools to empower women within the family and society. As that happens, women not only improve their own welfare but, through their "agency," act to improve the well-being of their children and help transform society itself." (Amartya Sen, 2000. Development as Freedom. New York: Anchor Books)
Educated women...
Under the [Malawi] Constitution, women have the right to full and equal protection by law and may not be discriminated against on the basis of sex or marital status; however, in practice discrimination against women is pervasive, and women do not have opportunities equal to those available to men. Women have significantly lower levels of literacy, education, formal and nontraditional employment opportunities, and access to resources to increase agricultural productivity. The literacy rate among women between the ages of 15 and 45 is less than 37 percent. Male literacy in the same age group is approximately 45 percent. (Source: US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Malawi. Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 4, 2002) Click_Here to read more.
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