Regions: Africa   Asia   Latin America


Name of Organization: Youth Net and Counselling

Country: Malawi

Project Title: "Stop Harming and Exploitation of Children through Alternate Basic Education (SHECBE)"

Project Timeframe: 12 months

Location of Project: Zomba District

Budget Amount: $44,500

NGO contact and website:
P.O.Box 471, Kazembe Location (Near Likangala Secondary School)
Zomba, Malawi
Phone: 265-1-525-674 or 265-9-953-542
E-mail: yoneco@sdnp.org.mw

Project's Primary Objective: Strengthen formal and transitional education systems that encourage working children and those at risk of working to attend school.

Description of Organization: Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) is a non-political, non-profit making NGO that was formed in 1997 to address the social injustice and reproductive health issues affecting the youth, women and children. YONECO registered with National Youth Council of Malawi under the National Youth Council (1996) Act in 1998, under the Trustees Incorporation Act (1962) in October 1999 and with the NGO Board in November 2003. YONECO is a member to a number of networks like Council for Non Governmental Organizations in Malawi (CONGOMA), Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education (CSCQBE), Malawi Network of AIDS Service Organization (MANASO) and Human Rights Consultative Committee.

YONECO activities include advocacy and lobbying on issues relating to youth, women and children on HIV/AIDS, human rights and democracy, counselling for behaviour change, HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation, drug and substance abuse; information, education and counselling on HIV/AIDS, human rights, girl children, women rights etc; community mobilization; care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans and those affected by HIV/AIDS with comprehensive home based care programme; income generating activities and economic empowerment for vulnerable groups to prevent and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on children, women and old people; networking, community capacity building (training, leadership development for youth, women groups and community based groups), peer education and health care activities at community level for youth, sex workers, young mothers and teen mothers and workplace , gender and HIV/AIDS awareness for communities and life skills development for youth, women and children at community level.

Description of Project funded by CIRCLE: In Malawi, child domestic work and child prostitution has been on the rise. Children have been taken from rural communities, recruited through friends and relatives, and are trafficked through promises that they will access good employment and alleviate their poverty. These children are usually from very poor families with HIV/AIDS and could also be orphans.

Access to education for these girls and boys has been limited and their employers are finding it challenging to let them attend even basic education. The Convention on the Rights of Child, to which Malawi is a party, and the Section 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi are meant to protect the children.

YONECO's CIRCLE project will contribute to the progressive elimination of child labour and exploitation in Malawi. Child domestic servants and children invloved in child prostitution will be educated in their own comunities. The project's purpose is to have sustainable formal and informal education systems, structures and facilities for children in domestic work and those in child prostitution in the target districts. The specific objectives are:
  • To increase access to education for child domestic laborers, child prostitutes and at-risk children in order to reduce child labor and prevent any kind of exploitation and abuse;
  • To increase awareness among communities on the dangers of domestic child labor and child prostitution on the education, health and development of children; and
  • To rehabilitate and reintegrate children who have been exposed to domestic child labor, child abuse and child prostitution and exploitation.
The proposed interventions will use a mix of cross-sectoral and integrated strategies to respect and fulfill children and women's rights as expressed in the CRC and other international legal instruments, and create an enabling environment to prevent child labour and protect and rehabilitate children already in child domestic labour and children in prostitution internationally.

The project will conduct aadvocacy, lobbying and awareness raising on domestic servants and child prostitution and its impact of the right to education for the children. Secondly, the project will provide alternative basic education system for domestic servants and child prostitutes. The component will ensure that the children attend their special basic education sessions after work. A special curriculum will be developed for these children and community based classes will be developed for the children.
Thirdly, life skills education will be offered for children in domestic work and prostitution. The strategy will provide counselling services, follow up session, and support services in order to rehabilitate the children better. The counselling services will also extend to their parents and guardians. The component shall also have a non formal skills development for children in particular in prostitution like tailoring, carpentry. Lastly, YONECO will pursue community social mobilization, an effective tool to combat domestic child labour, child prostitution and exploitation. Community based monitoring committees (watch-dogs) comprising of predominantly children and youth advocates will gather data and information on vulnerable children who are more at risk of exploitation and abuses, reporting cases where exploitation and abuse have occurred and linking with appropriate police and social services.

Project Targets (Common Indicators):
Enrollment: 550
Persistence: 80%
Transition: no transition to other non-CIRCLE funded programs
Completion: 80%