On 12 August, International Youth Day, Team Chibavi - volunteering with local partner organisation - Centre for Girls and Interaction (CEGI) - started a march from Mzuzu town to the Chibavi community ground to spread our message of HIV & AIDS prevention, ending early marriage and sexual reproductive health.
We were joined by other Progressio ICS volunteers from teams Tovwirane Mzuzu and SPRODETA Mzuzu and a representative from Africa Future - Enellness Pemba, who commented on the event, ‘The International Youth Day was great, I enjoyed mingling around with my fellow youth activists. Many youth were inspired. With one heart we walked united and Mzuzu was on fire with our raised voices on health issues; HIV & AIDS, strategic development goals and a lot more. It is about time we move on with a vision and make the Malawi that we want, it starts with us youths.’’
At the community ground we organised four workshops for the youth covering the creative arts, gender equity, sexual reproductive health and self-esteem. To spice up the event we also had a couple of performances from local dancers, who are especially popular with the youth.
Again we had free HIV testing and counselling available to the youth and we managed to get 104 people tested in three hours, of which 49 were girls, which was a really positive turnout.
We have also started forming more new youth groups. At the International Youth Day event we recruited 32 members to form a new youth club at CEGI - which they elected to call the United Club. We spoke to one of the girls from the CEGI youth club, Memory Sibande who said, “I am enjoying these discussions as they keep us busy and we gain knowledge to use in our lives and even help others rather than just staying home, which results into making irrational decisions.’’
Written by ICS volunteer Tanaka Chirombo
