VP’s wife hails initiative on women, youth

Mary Chilima, wife to Vice-President Saulos Chilima, has hailed the African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) for giving spiritual nurture and technical skills to vulnerable women and the youth, thereby making them discover their God-given potential.

Chilima said this at Bridge View Hotel in Lilongwe on Friday where she was a guest of honour at a graduation ceremony for 29 women who completed a nine-month tailoring course at the AEE Women Tailoring School in Lilongwe’s Area 49.

The event also saw the weaning off of seven girls and boys who completed a year-long intensive grooming by AEE that gave the youth life skills they demonstrated through outreaches by preaching, executing voluntary community work and displaying creative arts under a Fox Fire Youth Programme.

Said Chilima: “The work of African Evangelistic Enterprise is both rare and special, in that it has an effective holistic approach to human development, by transforming the vulnerable women and the youth spiritually and physically. This goal of improving people’s lives is what the government wants.”

She saluted AEE for donating a new sewing machine to each of the graduating women, as start-up capital in their registered hopes of opening tailoring shops when they return to their communities, where some had engaged in prostitution or brewed illicit beer in desperate attempts to earn some money.

Chilima urged the women to reflect their spiritual transformation all the time.

Turning to the Fox Fire Youth, she commended the programme for instilling great spiritual and community development goals. Fox Fire is a Biblical concept (Judges 15:4-5) used by AEE to unleash the youth on communities with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

“Let us guide our children to be patriotic and to discover their God-given potential, which will never be found in beer and substance abuse, nor in sexual immorality and such ill-behaviour,” she added, passing on a K500 000 donation from the Vice-President to AEE.

AEE board chairperson the Reverend Rangford Chokoto thanked the Chilima family and government for the support given to his organisation through the donation and the conducive atmosphere that allows non-governmental organisations to operate freely and in peace in Malawi.

Earlier, AEE Malawi team leader Enoch Phiri said over the past 10 years, his organisation has given spiritual nurture and tailoring skills to over 400 women across the country.