Plan empowering Malawi school girls to pursue their dreams through career talks

In continuing commemoration of the International Girl Child Day, which falls on November 11, Plan International Malawi,  Mulanje programme area, mobilized girls from four secondary schools for career talks with various corporate companies and hospitality institutions in the district on Wednesday.

This is being done under the Plan International’s global theme of GirlsGet Equal campaign and Mulanje programme area’s them is Girls Takeover — as a drive to smash inequality power that exists between men and women.

It is one way of exposing and empowering the girls to appreciate what is in store for them as they pursue their preferred career dreams.

In groups, they visited Kara O Mula Country Lodge, Hapuwani Court, Mulanje Child Justice Court, First Capital Bank, National Bank of Malawi, Reunion Insurance, Youth Net and Counseling (Yoneco), the District Education Manager’s offices as well as Plan International Malawi’s Mulanje programme area’s offices.

For career talks at the hospitality places at Hapuwani Court at Chitakale and at Kara O Mula Country Lodge, the girls were appraised by its manager Tumalike Mwalubunju that this is another career worth pursuing since the hotel business is huge and they can be trained in hotel catering and management at Malawi Institute of Tourism.

One of the girl child, Tadala Kachinga, a Form 4 student Namphungo Community Day Secondary School, aspires to be a physical fitness trainer on top of the career path she will choose and on Tuesday night she led an aerobics session at Hapuwani Village’s gym under the guidance of the gym’s trainer Elias Maluwa.

Maluwa was very inspired by the enthusiasm portrayed by Tadala, saying its very encouraging that she has decided to try a shot at physical fitness training, a career predominantly being done by men.

“But there are lots of other women physical fitness trainers out who are doing exactly what we men do and one can combine it with whatever career they may choose to pursue,” he told Tadala.

Yoneco’s core objective is to empower the girl child and most of the programme officers they interacted with were young women with the passion to enhance the girl child’s academic pursuits.

Most of the girls expressed their appreciation for this initiative by Plan International Malawi, saying they know very little of career opportunities they could pursue.

Most of them said what they immediately know are academic careers on offer if they are to go through public universities but they have been enlightened that there are so many vocational institutions offering skills that can help them sustain themselves to become self-reliant entrepreneurs.

The girls, accompanied by their teachers were treated to special hospitality services where they were accommodated at Mulanje Motel and taken on bus rides to the various institutions they were taken to for the career talks.

They also had an inspiration chat with Mulanje’s female traditional authority (T/A) Chikumbu, who told them that they should always aspire to become the best as future leaders of the country.