Clear graduates seven service providers
The Child Labour Elimination Actions for Real Change (Clear) Project has graduated seven community agents who will be supporting and training others how to run village savings and loans (VSL) groups.
Speaking after the graduation in Mchinji, Clear national project manager Phathisiwe Ngwenya said the graduates learnt how to form and run VSL groups, business management and how to identify and exploit business opportunities.
Ngwenya said poverty is a major driver of child labour, hence the need for people to form VSL groups so that they become economically secure to provide for their families.
“The aim of VSL initiative is to enable households to save and raise money to enable them send their children to school rather than asking them to work in tobacco estates as breadwinners,” she said.
One of the graduates, James Blackson Saini, could not hide his excitement.
“I am so excited to achieve this today. I owe it to my community for choosing me to go through this training. I will work to the best of my ability to support VSL members,” he said.
In his remarks, village head Dambe commended Clear for the good work it is doing in his area. The traditional leader said many children in his area are now in school because of Clear’s initiative.
Clear—which is fighting child labour in tobacco growing districts of Mchinji, Ntchisi and Rumphi—is a consortium of Malawi Government, Total Land Care (TLC), Creative Centre for Community Mobilisation (Creccom) and Save the Children as a coordinating partner.
