Our students want to choose their own future.
A third of young adults in Malawi is unemployed. Many of those are girls and young women without a high school education and who subsequently are unable to find work, meaning most have few future prospects. The lucky few who are able to find work face extremely low salaries and substandard or dangerous working conditions. In 2017, 60% of employed Malawians lived in moderate to extreme poverty (working poverty). In 2019, this grew to a staggering 86%.
Young people who manage to complete their high school education enter a job market where only 4.5% of people find formal employment. In other words, 95,5% of work in Malawi is informal. This means that starting a business or becoming a micro-entrepreneur is often the only way for a young person to lift themselves out of poverty. However, many lack the skills to start a business, let alone do so profitably. (We define profitable as earning an income above the poverty line.).
Our students are talented, creative, inspiring young adults who want nothing more than the chance to decide their own future, free from the constraints of poverty.
Former student Lovemore Bandawe
“Since I've had my own business I can earn money. Now I am an entrepreneur. People buy products that I have made. I am very proud of this.".
Business at Danja Lalemba Carpentry is so good that Lovemore has been able to take on an employee, his friend Stafford. Together, these two young men make sofa's beds, tables, chairs, and doors, for which Lovemore is famous in Mulanje. Not only can Lovemore now provide an income for himself, he is also an employer in the region.