Encouraging girls’ education in rural Malawi

Flossie Bottomani and Texious Masoamphambe, two prominent Malawian women, have triumphed over enormous challenges.

From covering long distances to school, waking up at night to access water from remote sources, studying under grass torchlight and going to bed on empty stomachs, Flossie and Texious have shunned the challenges of their childhood and made a decision to wrestle their way to success.

Today, Flossie is the Malawi Human Rights Commission’s information education and training officer, while Texious is an assistant registrar at the High Court of Malawi.

“I could not have been where I am today,” says Flossie, “had it been I succumbed to the poverty I was in and if my parents were not strong enough to resist men who kept promising large sums of money.”

Flossie and Texious tell their stories to a crowd in rural Malawi.

At this community event, supported by World Vision, the two women have been invited to encourage young girls, and their families, to continue with their education. The women call for girls to thrive in high school and to attend university. 

Sacrificing education for early marriage

In Malawi, only one in every seven girls enrols in secondary school. Very few girls graduate.

The number of girls who drop out of school is much higher in rural areas, according to the 2010 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, produced by the Malawi National Statistics Office.

“Some parents and corrupt community leaders are influencing young girls into early marriage with the aim of benefiting from the bride price [matrimonial incentives],” says one of the organisers of the event.

Ben Sakwata, World Vision’s manager for the Nkaya Area Development Programme, says that the number of girls who are dropping out of school in his community is increasing.

Promoting Girls’ Education

World Vision has partnered with concerned community members to address the problem.

“We deliberately invited some of the high-profile individuals to this meeting,” the manager explains, ‟so that they can act as role models and encourage the children to concentrate on their studies, rather than getting married at an early stage.”

Stressing the importance of education in this changing world, Flossie urges both community leaders and parents to desist from the practice of marrying girls at an early stage.

Flossie says that she strongly disagrees with local leaders and parents who say girls are not capable of learning and succeeding in life because they will be provided for by their husbands.

“The young girls you are marrying are not mature enough to act as wives and most of them are at risk of dying prematurely due to complications from early pregnancies. Isn’t this suicidal?” Flossie asks as the audience responds to her statement with loud cheering and clapping.