By Esnath Kalawe
Lilongwe, April 2, Mana: Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati has saluted Action Aid Malawi for implementing global fund grant in spearheading diverse projects in 27 districts of the country.
Kaliati made the remarks in Lilongwe during a Malawi’s Global Fund Programme Grant closure Media event where a lot of programmes under global fund through Action Aid were highlighted as to have been implemented.
The Minister said there are a number of areas which Action Aid are supporting in all the clusters under Action aid funded by World Bank.
“We work together in implementation of programmes, Action Aid knows what the government would like to do even if these are global fund, and they know that the focusing areas are policies from government. They help us in implementing the policies.” Kaliati said.
Through Action Aid global fund programme, she said government has witnessed how some projects have improved peoples livelihood saying economically people’s lives have been transformed.
“That is why they are empowering young girls in economic empowerment like tailoring, village banks savings. We want our nation to implement some programmes with young women and girls. They need to be allowed to choose their own programmes.” Kaliati said.
She pointed out the challenge of Gender Based Violence (GBV) as so rampant even in the urban areas saying her Ministry would not condone that but rather women should be fully empowered to understand the dangers as well as marital issues.
Action Aid Executive Director, Assan Golowa said through their global fund Action Aid has made tremendous strides in all the activities they have made among others in TB, HIV as well as achievements in Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) programmes among others.
“Our main achievement is that these programmes were created through the communities based organisations. We have girls that are able to prevent themselves from HIV and Aids through the skills that they have been empowered through our programmes.” he said.
One of the AGYW beneficiaries, Maria Phiri said the project has assisted her to attain more skills in tailoring as well as in radio presentation, hence encouraging fellow youths to emulate.
“I am encouraging my fellow women to join these programmes so that they acquire skills the way I have done through the AGYW,” she suggested.
Action aid has been a principle recipient of global fund, the current phase which catered 27 Districts (minus Likoma) ended in December 2020 and has been working in collaboration with Family Planning Association of Malawi(FPAM), Plan Malawi, World Vision as well as MANET+ among others.
