Our Mission
Pride Initiative seeks to promote and fight for quality education and economic empowerment for youth and women in Malawi and Africa.
Our Vision
To create an open and free society where youth and women have access to quality education without hindrances, and are encouraged to embark on innovative ventures for their economic wellbeing.
Our Core Values
Equity
We believe that all humans were created equal and all have potential to achieve greatly.
Transparency & Honesty
We believe in being open and honest in our operations as we affect human populations
Reliability
We are definite and reliable in our operations
Objectives
Our objectives include:
- To remove obstacles faced by youth and women in accessing education
- To mobilize individuals, groups and organizations that work to enhance the lives of youth and women.
- To promote, support and complement government policies and programs directed at youth and women empowerment.
- To advocate for youth and women rights.
Our Projects
Girls Guide Project
Under this project, we donate the reusable sanitary pads “Pride Pads” to needy youth in primary and secondary schools as a way of keeping them in school throughout the school calendar year. This is so because most youth in Malawi come from families that live below the poverty line of 1.25USD per day as such they fail not afford proper sanitary pads. And most of them use cloth rags during menstruation which usually stain their dresses and this leads to open shame and bullying at school from boys as such most of them opt to stay home during their menstruation period. This makes them miss important class lessons and subsequently affects their class performance. As a result, most of them drop out of school and go into early marriage which is counterproductive to the society. Currently, we are working with 10 primary schools in Maravi Zone in Chiradzulu District in Malawi. Some of the impacted schools include; Kanje primary School, Maravi primary School, Montfort Demonstration School, St. Theresa primary school and Chiradzulu primary school.
Youth Arise Project
The ‘Youth Arise” project addresses challenges faced by Malawian youths due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These challenges include retrenchment, unemployment and dropping out of school or college. This has led many youths to indulge in bad behaviors like drug and substance abuse, prostitution, and theft. If left unchecked these behaviors would later lead to increased mental illness cases, unexpected pregnancies and contraction of HIV/AIDS amongst the youth which would affect the county’s economic development. Therefore, our interventions through psycho-social trainings and offering vocational skills trainings in Information Communication Technology (ICT), Hairdressing, Tailoring, Carpentry, Pottery, Cellphone Repairing, Baking, and Sausage Making help the youths to be self-reliant and abstain from bad behaviors that may destroy their future.
Clear the Streets- Back-To-School Campaign
In this project Pride initiative focuses on removing Children aged between 3 to 18 years from the streets and send them to school for them to have brighter future and those above school age were given businesses for them to have a better life. Many Street children do exhibit behavioral problems, aggression and substance abuse issues, but these are coping mechanisms of children who are in a great deal of psychological pain because Street Children are traumatized children, abandoned, orphaned, chronically neglected, physically, sexually and mentally abused children, children who are exploited by others to beg for commercial exploitation and other things.
These street children pose a threat to the nation’s security and economic progress which if left unchecked the country would have high levels of armed robberies and illiterate people. Malawi has more than 4,000 street children https://times.mw/blantyre-lilongwe-have-4-000-street-children-government-study/
So as Pride Initiative, we focus on the following to help the children;
- Offering Psycho-Social assistance to street children.
- Offering vocational skills ( such as Motor Vehicle Mechanics, Computer lessons, welding, Tailoring and Carpentry) to street children above school age or those who cannot go back to school.
- Rescuing street youth from forced prostitution due to poverty as most of them are forced to sleep with men or boys in order to receive assistance.
- Rescuing street children from drug and substance abuse which result due to bad companies on the streets.
- Offering education support to street kids as a way of securing a brighter future for them and the nation in general by paying for their fees and giving them basic necessities
Youth Pride Scholarship
Through this project, we offer scholarships for school fees to disabled hardworking and needy youth in public schools as a way of helping them achieve their dreams. These scholarships are provided after a rigorous selection process which is overseen by the District Education Managers (DEM) to assure quality control. When resources permit us, these students are also offered school uniforms, clothes, shoes, bags, exercise books and text books to help them in their daily school life.
Pride Mothers Fund
This a fund specially designed to help single mothers and less privileged mothers in business management and funding. The mothers engage in Agribusinesses, Tailoring and Selling Second-Hand Clothes, among others. These mothers are given loans based on their business proposals which are design with the help of Pride Initiative Officers after three weeks of rigorous business and financial management training. These loans are given at a minimal interest rate of 6% per annum. The aim of this fund is to help women to be economically independent and also to help in educating their children. We offer these services as a way of uplifting the economic wellbeing of women and youth. We believe that once we empower women, we have secured the future of a nation as these women will use funds from their businesses to support their families in education and basic amenities.
Pride Cares Project
Through this project we support orphans by providing them with clothing, shoes, food and stationery for school. We have an orphanage in Namiyango, Blantyre district which we co-partner with named Centre for Development of Vulnerable Children (CEDOVC). In this orphanage we have 150 orphans and vulnerable children whom we support.