Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare has called for partnerships to empower people with albinism (PWAs) to enhance, enable and engage them economically so that they acquire decent skills and income to reduce their poverty.
Principal Secretary in the ministry Nertha Semphere Mgala said this in Lilongwe on Thursday during the launch of a three-year 600 000 euro (about K1.2 billion) Titukulane Project targeting PWAs with education assistance, start-ups, and capacity building to increase their potential.
She observed that the project, implemented by Standing Voice and co-funded by the European Union, will strengthen the socio-economic resilience of persons with albinism through increased access to education, healthcare and better livelihoods.
Said Semphere Mgala: “Through the combined efforts of the government, Standing Voices, Beyond Suncare, Apam [Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi] and many other development partners and local communities, Malawi has made significant progress in ensuring security, justice, and public awareness on albinism.”
In his remarks, Malawi Council of Disability Affairs director general George Chiusiwa said as a stakeholder in the disability sector, they are keen on implementing and raising awareness on the right to education and economic independence for people with disabilities.
He said more initiatives need to be put in place to ensure that such persons are empowered to enable them to attain their full potential.
Said Chiusiwa: “The project is in line with the newly-launched National Development Disability Plan which hinges on economic empowerment and self-empowerment. It is also looking at economically empowering people with albinism through vocational skills, training, provision of start-up capital, and other avenues that are key in empowerment.”
Apam deputy secretary general Virginia Chimodzi said the project has come at the right time when most persons with albinism are struggling with various economic challenges.
She hailed authorities for the coordinated efforts that will help in the drive to help PWAs with economic independence, adding that the project will build a future in which persons with albinism are recognised not as passive recipients of aid, but as active agents of economic and social change.
The project is being implemented in partnership with Girls Empowerment Network and Beyond Suncare.
It aims to reach over four million people through awareness campaigns, and further seeks to provide direct health and security support to 2 440 persons with albinism, and enable 880 individuals to access training and livelihood opportunities.
From April 2025 to March 2028, the project will focus its interventions in 14 districts, namely Balaka, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Dedza, Lilongwe, Machinga, Mangochi, Mulanje, Ntcheu, Phalombe, Salima, Thyolo, and Zomba, which account for the majority of reported attacks against people with albinism and where poverty and unemployment rates remain critically high.
