Tiwale Creative Women Project
I am an experienced educator and journalist with with over eight years work experience in Malawi. I have worked as a Secondary School Teacher in Malawi Government for three years in rural and peri-urban schools in Malawi. I have also worked as Communications Officer for UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking, a regional NGO. I am Founder of Purple Innovation for Women and Girls, a local NGO, in Mzuzu where lead in facilitating capacity building with women and girls and I manage stakeholder fundraising through various social media channels. I also am a current Secretary for the new Internet Society-Malawi Chapter where I engage members with various communication from our Secretariat. I am a global member of Internet Society and Secretary of Internet Society ,Malawi Chapter. I possess a Masters Degree in Organizational Psychology with UNICAF University and . Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism.
Women in Mzimba District live under e higher levels of poverty due to unempoyment and lack of business opportunities propagated by due to the social-cultural landscape bred from polygamy and mass illegal labour migration of men to South Africa Mzimba. In the wake of COVID19 which hit Malawi in March 2020, women in both rural and urban parts of Mzimba District have been experiencing increased poverty to closure of many businesses. The proposed project will involve vocational skills training for women and girls with disabilities in Area in Mzimba District. The project will construct a spacious women community technical vocational centre that will be utilized for training vulnerable women, unemployed women, teenage mothers and women with disabilities in vocational skills that include; tailoring, soap-making so that the women and girls are able to earn and income by providing COVID19 prevention products and contribute to overcome extreme poverty inline with SDG1.
Mzimba District has an estimated population of 794,000 has a community led by strong Ngoni cultures which are patrilineal and tend to promote economic marginalization of women and promotes gender based violence. Mzimba is one of the hot spot districts of gender-based violence cases with females as victims at (81.3%) and males as perpetrators (83%).This proposed project will reach 1000 women in Mzimba District. The coming of the COVID19 has caused increased problems for women as incomes have been reduced due to closure of businesses such as schools and borders. Government has also warned that the COVID19 pandemic semi-lockdown could increase vulnerability of women to economic strain and domestic violence. The World Economic Forum has predicted that women and youth are expected to experience high unemployment due to the COVID19 pandemic in Africa with an estimated 20 million jobs set to be lost in Africa. Globally, the World Health Organization is yet to release statistic but has confirmed that stress, the disruption of social and protective networks, loss of income and decreased access to services all can exacerbate the risk of violence for women.
Through the Project, Purple Innovation provides vocational skills training to vulnerable women in production of international standard garments including PPEs and face masks for COVID19 prevention during this time of the pandemic. Purple Innovation will also find local and national markets for the garments and soap products of the women made at the Centre targeting hospitals, guarding companies and individuals. After the COVID19 Pandemic, the Project will enable the women to return to producing uniforms for schools and other industries, profitably.
Currently, the Project is directly benefitting 70 women with disabilities in Mzuzu in Mzimba District though training in knitting, tailoring and carpet-making. Over 200 children and dependents of the women are also benefiting from this Project through improved livelihoods and food in the homes. We consulted the Traditional leader and Community members during a consultative meeting in February 2020. Additionally, we have held focus group discussions with the 100 women in the Community. The main need highlighted is the need for a large training space for production of garments, face masks, clothes and industrial uniforms which are highly demanded for in Mzuzu. The women also asked for training in production of medical face masks and provision of advanced sewing machines in addition to financial investment for procurement of cloth and other sewing materials. The Tiwale Creative Women's Project has so far provided refresher training in tailoring for the 70 women. The Project has paid for a temporary workspace and is constructing a spacious disability-friendly vocational centre where women with disabilities and other vulnerable women in Mzimba can obtain training in vocational skills and in gender-based violence prevention.
- Elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind
Our Project is elevating women with disabilities and enabling them to gain economic opportunity as well as to contribute to the fight against COVID19. These are a group of society that are normally left behind in the development agenda.
I was working as reporter covering election news in Mzuzu City in 2018 when I met Joyce Sichali a then Councilor representing people with Disabilities and Judith Chiume, a Councilor who represented women in the Council https://www.mbc.mw/news/sports/item/7402-female-councilors-fight-council-s-decision-to-kick-out-110-disabled-people The women explained their plight to me of lack of space for the women with disabilities. Since then, I began to mobilize resources and people to support the creative women with disabilities in Mzuzu. in 2019, contacted World Connect who supported the Project with $5900 from January 2020. Since then, the women with disabilities have a centre to operate from. Our team has trained the women in marketing and professional tailoring. The women have been producing some tailored items and supplying to schools until late March when some industries were closed due to the COVID19 pandemic.
I am passionate about promoting and advancing women, women with disabilities especially move my heart due to the enormous lack of consideration for these women in local development projects in Mzuzu and Mzimba District. I am passionate about arts and crafts and realising that these women can become more through their creativity is a huge motivator. In particular, anybody who has lived in Mzimba District can see the high disregard for women due to the patrilineal system of culture whereby girls are raised to become a means of exchange with cows (bride price) . The culture in Mzimba is that in rural areas few families invest in educating girls as a result many girls are married off early and end up bearing many children and living in extreme poverty. Women with disabilities are even less regarded in Northern Region hence we would like to empower these women to become self-reliant and able to equally participate in the economic development of their community and the Nation of Malawi especially now that economic opportunities have reduced due to the COVID19 pandemic.
OUR PROJECT TEAM
-Project Manager. Patricia Mtungila is a is a seasoned communicator and women’s rights activist with over five years experience in development communications in Mzuzu and Lilongwe, Malawi.
-Amelias Sichinga- Project Officer at Purple Innovation is an environmental health and safety expert with over six years experience in
community health awareness in Chitipa and NkhataBay, Northern Malawi. Amelias posses a Bachelor of Science
Degree in Environmental Health from the University of Malawi-The Polytechnic. -Lumbani Sichinga – Project
Accountant. Chartered Accountant with over 20 years work experience gained from FAWEMA in Blantyre and
Lilongwe, Malawi.
-Linessie Kwatae- Project Assistant. Linessie Volunteers at Purple Innovation and provides project implementation
support to the creative women programme in Mzimba, Malawi. Linessie holds a Bachelors Degree Community Development from University of Livingstonia
-Agness Maliana-Consultant Designer-Agness is a creative who produces for major fashion shows in Malawi such as the Mzuzu Fashion Week. Agness will train the women in tailoring of PPEs and other outfits.
With support from World Connect, we are implementing an income generating activity for a community of 70 women with disabilities with vocational skills training, where the women were making and selling knitted jerseys, school and nurse’s uniforms and handmade carpets in Mzuzu. On March 20, 2020, the Government imposed COVID19 restrictions on working whereby schools were closed and industries were told to half reduce the number of people working in a space by reducing production and introducing working in shifts for essential services. As the leader of Purple Innovation, wI called for a meeting, we discussed our options, we agreed to tell the women under our Project to stay at home except for about five at a time who can work on the products. Since, the schools which were the main customers have closed and so there are no orders for knitted and sewn items coming, therefore no income was being generated in the Project until May when we shift from production of uniforms to production of face masks. Further, in response to COVID19, we have bought a water dispenser and we have distributed exactly 770 bars of soap to the 70 women under the Project .
I established a partnership with Civil Society Network on Agriculture, where women in agri-business in Mzuzu , under Purple innovation, are receiving capacity training in open contracting and reporting corruption in the public sector. Due to these and earlier efforts, a corrupt public official at Mzuzu City Council was reported and removed from public office in April and women are now able to bid and openly participate in business contracts at the Council without bribing anyone.
- Nonprofit
Purrple Innovation for Women and Girls is our Organization.