“End School Drop Out”
Ntcheu, Malawi | Ntcheu Shifters | 2022
We are 15 young people from the rural area of Ntcheu in traditional authority Kwataine, Machira village, Malawi.
We want to empower children and youth to stay in school.
The Right-Sized Problem
They say ‘knowledge is power’ but unfortunately many young people in our community, particularly girls, don’t see the benefits of staying in school. However, addressing this issue goes beyond the youth themselves – it’s also about getting parents, teachers and the adults involved.
What did we do?
To reduce school drop-out rates in the village, we are campaigning to celebrate children who go to school as role models in the community. We’re also holding inter-generational dialogues, targeting traditional leaders and religious leaders as well as influential community figures and parents in the village, to discuss cultural norms and parental negligence. With this, we hope more and more parents will become more driven to motivate their children to go back to school!
We’re also working with head teachers to monitor class attendance, and even bicycle and motorcycle taxi operators to respect girls’ rights and help create a safe environment for them to go to school.
How we did it?
Impact on students in the community
With our campaign, we were able to link up with the Ntcheu children parliament members to learn more from each other about improving children’s rights in our community. They’ve also taken our campaign to other communities to spread our “back to school” message.
As of 2023, 115 out of 116 students went back to school.
Words from Ntcheu Shifters
“We’ve seen our power to create change both at the community and district level.”
“Through the inter-generational dialogues we’re organizing with our Shift campaign, our voice is being heard and we can now question and challenge the status quo on children’s and girls’ rights.”
