Official Statement
I once visited a primary school in a poor area in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city. It was one of the many schools that UNICEF supports with life skills and HIV/AIDS education. An Edzi Toto club – an extra-curricular anti-AIDS club – was in progress. I was invited in and sat at the front of the classroom with 30 curious pairs of eyes peering at me. All activity stopped and silence made way for me to speak out. Instead of making a short speech as I had intended, I decided to find out how much the children knew about child rights and their violations. So I asked the club, “What kinds of abuse are orphaned children in Malawi experiencing?” At least 15 hands shot up instantly, fingers clicking for attention. Here at UNICEF in Malawi, we try to do exactly that. One of our main concerns is to shield children from the devastation caused by AIDS. The epidemic is wiping out whole families and depleting community resources. Malawi has one million orphans, half of whom have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Their needs are enormous. Fortunately a lot of good work is happening in communities to look after vulnerable children and protect their rights. The Malawian Government is helping to keep parents alive by rapidly scaling up antiretroviral treatment of AIDS patients. More than 130,000 people were receiving free ARVs by the end of 2007. Our next step is to improve the quality of services and scale up their coverage so that we stop babies from becoming HIV positive. We ensure treatment for those who are already infected and help prevent new infections among young people. Ultimately we try and create an environment where all children benefit from protection, love and supportive guidance. We are proud of the progress we have made in the area of child health. Infant and child mortality rates have fallen as a result of strategies and programmes that address child survival in an integrated and community-based manner. More than 10,000 children were receiving antiretrovirals by the end of 2007, less than half of the 23,000 who still needed these essential life-saving drugs. We are making tremendous progress and this number is expected to increase by the end of 2008. Our efforts to vaccinate children against preventable diseases have meant that Malawi is close to eradicating polio, measles and neonatal tetanus. UNICEF support has also helped bring safe water and sanitation to 60 percent of Malawi’s rural communities. More than 5 million bed nets have been distributed to mothers and children to prevent malaria, the country’s single largest cause of child death. The challenge now is to tackle child malnutrition, which hasn’t improved for more than a decade. Malawi is prone to droughts and recurrent food shortages yet we continue to look for ways of cushioning the blow on children. Basic education is another area where great strides have been made. In 1994, Malawi introduced free primary education. Children streamed to school in their thousands. Today 97 percent of children are enrolled in primary education. Gender parity in enrollment has been achieved. However schools are struggling to cope with the huge increase in pupils. Quality of education has been compromised. There are not enough classrooms, school toilets, water supply facilities and playgrounds. This is why UNICEF is implementing a whole package of support in schools. It includes improving teaching standards, providing school supplies, rehabilitating school building and facilities, making schools more child and girl-friendly, involving communities in school governance and introducing life skills and HIV/AIDS education to the curriculum. The Millennium Development Goals, which in essence are about children, are the pillars around which UNICEF is rallying partners to make a difference in children’s lives. Our motto in Malawi is to make children everyone’s business and we never loose sight of this. We hope that this Country Kit will give you a glimpse of how Malawi’s children and women are faring, and what we are doing to help them. Warm wishes, Aida Girma
* Aida Girma has since left Malawi to take up a new appointment as UNICEF Representative in South Africa.
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