Edoovillage #1495 - Malawi, Chikwawa: Sustainable Rural Community Development Org Partner Service Civil International (SCI)

Free computer lessons for youth is a project that is looking at the youth situation by building their capacity to self and national development. The youth in the country are facing challenges in relation to unemployment opportunities. Their lack of self awareness keeps promoting desperate decision making which keep causing youth miserable lives. The situation is also observed to promoting drug and substance abuse, theft, prostitution which also keep promoting corruption, HIV/AIDS etc. The effects from this are promoting poverty levels among communities and are slowing down the nations's development. As an organization, we have take a role to empower the youth in our community by introducing the concept of free computer lessons which will promote youth volunteerism as well as competence building as a way to keep the youth busy doing productive things while they build their skills. The majority of the populations of Sub-Saharan Africa still live in rural areas and facing youth unemployment as high as 23 % in Malawi. Youth unemployment has become a significant problem in both rural and urban areas in the country, with a high demographic growth rate leading to a young population that has inundated the job market with more labor than employment opportunities (Chigunta, 2002). In Chikwawa, rural youths are unable to access employment opportunities and partake in sustainable livelihood strategies. The political environment is generally marred by corruption most of which is perpetuated by the youth coerced for their economic vulnerability. The nation unemployment rate stands at 23% according to https://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi-youth-unemployment-cause-worry/ with 20% in Chikwawa (Pop: 400, 000). Most youths graduating from the few schools, colleges and universities find themselves without employment. This is leaving the youth at the mercy of unscrupulous politicians who manipulate them for their political gain. In desperation and frustration, the youth indulge themselves into malicious behaviors that also enhance HIV/AIDS prevalence alongside related diseases. Poverty levels still increase and prices getting high everyday including for tertially education. Youths are also viewed as passive recipients of support, rather than active agents capable of solving problems within their communities. It is very tragic to note that the majority of rural communities are not benefiting fully from this untapped human resource. Henceforth, the UN initiated programmes focusing on integrating both economic and social investments in rural development, in order to re-establish a more sustainable rural-urban dynamic (WYR 2011; Chigunta, 2002). The experience of SURCOD in working with the youths shows that the youth have the knowledge, resources, enterprising ideas and the potential to grow ideas that determine their own sustainable development initiatives, yet, their capacities to contribute to rural development and transformation remain impeded and largely unexploited, and their potential unrecognized. This is therefore the innovation behind this proposed initiative; to educate, empower and incubate Chikwawa youth with rural entrepreneurs and innovators to develop and breakthrough solutions that will tackle the challenges being faced in their communities. We believe that the empowered youth through our program will lay foundations for economic growth that will fuel demand in other sectors and create off-farm jobs. This, in turn, will offer the youth opportunities to create prosperous and vibrant rural communities. From the onset, participation of youths is guaranteed through their involvement in the designing of this program. Our volunteer concept is already interfacing meetings with the youth who despite their willingness in establishing their own youth-led agro and non-agro initiatives, they still see the need for support in mentorship, skills development and access to investment opportunities to effectively establish and run their initiatives. Our program seeks to freely offer this. Thus, being a part in the program design, they already bare ownership to the program.
www.surcodmalawi.org