THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL

Open call for applications: Projects working to end child marriage.

1. Institutional Information
Organization name

Meaningful action on Hiv / Aids support network Association (MASUNA)

Physical address
(Country, Region, Area, Province, Town...)

Malawi Lilongwe central region (Off M1 Lilongwe, Blantyre Road, Adjacent to share
world Open University)

P.O. Box Phone

C/O MANET + Private Bag B377 LL3 00265 991 884 995 / 881 250 143

masunaorg@gmail.com Not applicable

/masunaorg2012@gmail.com

Social media
(Facebook, Twitter...)

dymanmbwana@yahoo.com

Date of constitution

2000

Official constitution date

(If different from constitution date)

2005

1/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

Registration Number:

RG, 20754/1M/ 5.2005

50,000 Euros

Annual audit
Does the audit annual accounts? YES-NOT

Yes

Girls Not Bridesmembership

Is the organization a member of the Girls Not Bridesglobal partnership? YES-NO

Yes

Human resources

Staff members Volunteers

Women Nº 6 150

Men Nº 4 21

Top five current funding sources

1. Non

2.

3.

4.

5.

2/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

Institutional goals

Overall goal:
The overall goal of MASUNA is “to facilitate and promote development that caters adequately for the
whole person: Soul, Spirit and Body.”

Previous experience working on projects against child marriage

(The last five years as reference)
Describe previous carried out actions and initiatives. If possible, identify each project title and total
budget cost.

1.
Since the year 2011 to 2015, MASUNAwith financial and technical
support fromHIVOsFoundation has been implementing interventions on
Curbing Child marriage in Lilongwe and surrounding areas with a tune
of 100,000 Euros for the period of 5 years, in areas of influencing
enforcement of marriage Law, Advocacy and facilitating on modification
of harmful cultures and Building of capacity of community structures.
.

2.

3.

4.

5.

3/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

2. Project Information
Project description

Sexual and Reproductive Health problems are significant challenges affecting the adolescents in Malawi.
Among the leading shocks facing Malawian adolescents are early marriages, teenage and unplanned
pregnancies resulting in procuring unsafe abortions and most importantly the high prevalence rate of the
HIV and AIDS epidemic. Malawi has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with girls
contributing awesomely to the deaths as a result of unsafe abortion and delivery complications.
Vulnerability to these complexities is heightened by limited knowledge of Sexual and Reproductive
Health and Rights of the youth particularly girls. Restrictive Laws on abortion also play a part in these
alarming maternal deaths. The situation has been compounded by the increase in incidences of Sexual
Gender Based Violence (SGBV); which has again led to early pregnancies, early marriages, and the
spread of HIV and AIDS, hence contributing to the high maternal mortality rates as well. Despite all the
efforts that the Malawi Government has tried to put in place, the problem still persists due to failure in
applying a Rights Based approach to Sexual and Reproductive Health issues affecting the adolescent
youth. It is for this reason that MASUNA with its mandate of promoting child and youth rights, through
advocacy and capacity building, wishes to embark on a project titled: “Combating the Problem of Early
Marriages through the Promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health of the Youth of Malawi.” Activities
under the proposed project will focus on raising awareness about youth adolescent SGBV, HIV/AIDS,
education pertaining to sexual reproductive health and right’s needs. The project will also embark on
advocacy for the enactment of non -restrictive laws that would create youth friendly sexual and
reproductive health services. The project will target service providers, law and policy makers, traditional
leaders, media and other relevant structures. This project aims at empowering the youth of Malawi to
claim their rights in SRH. In its effort to reach out to the above target groups, MASUNA seeks to mobilize
resources in order to raise awareness and drum up support from community leaders towards an
advocacy for reduction of early marriages among young people in Malawi.

Location
Specify precisely where the project will take place.

The project will be implemented in the traditional authority Masula, Lilongwe district. T/A Masulahas 37
Village Development Committees, 525 villages.

Beneficiary population description

(Max 1 sheet)
Indicate the total number of people who will benefit from the project, as well as their social and economic
profile. Indicate how beneficiaries (particularly girls) will be selected among your target population

Population of 106,991 people (51,891 male, 55,100 female) and 24 schools according to Lilongwe
District Council Social Economic Profile 2016.

Direct beneficiaries numbers Indirect beneficiaries numbers

4/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

50,000 100,000

Number of girls

40,000

Girls age range

13 – 18

5/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

3. Project Plan (Matrix)

Please outline the main (overall) and specific goals of your project and the results you aim
to achieve. Please include indicators and sources you will use to monitor and evaluate the
impact.
Also list in the table below the activities to be carried out, describing clearly the actions
involved.

Overall goal

The project will use a positive rights based approach which will mainstream human rights into all activities.
MASUNA will strive to ensure that all activities will further the realization of human rights as laid down in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments that Malawi has
signed and ratified. The rights-based approach demands that aspects of project implementation are looked
at with a human rights lens taking into consideration the different needs hierarchies that diverse groups of
people may possess. The constitution of Malawi provides guarantees for equality and non-discrimination for
all. The programme will involve young people, including girls and young women, in meaningful ways,
systematically placing them at the centre of programming and engaging them at all structural levels of
decision-making and in all phases of programming, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Outcomes
Outcome 1: Empowered young people increasingly voice their SRH rights
Society has socialized its members to believe that young people in Malawi are to be seen and not heard.
This means that young people’s voices are inadequately considered in the development of society or in key
decision making processes. When they do speak, their voice is associated with trouble making and
disrespect of elders. Therefore for young people to be empowered to increasingly voice their rights, the
program believes that it needs the following conditions to be realized.
Firstly, society should have conducive norms and values for young people to voice their rights. This entails
creating an enabling environment in which young people are firstly respected as humans and equal partners
in development so that their voice carries equal respect and weight in decisions affecting their lives as that of
an adult. This means that adults need to have a paradigm shift in their experience of young people. When
societies create a space for the equal engagement of young people’s voices, they will begin to appreciate the
value young people can add when they are not easily written off as being trouble makers. This will result in
adults and young people forming healthy and strong partnerships for the development of young people and
the future they want to live in. For this to be realized, adults in the homes, adults who hold authority such as
chiefs, teachers, health care providers, religious leaders and law enforcers will be engaged so that they can
transfer the power they have to empower young people to voice their rights and equally participate in
influential decisions especially those affecting the youth.
For this to happen, these actors will have their capacities built to understand, create and facilitate healthy
youth adult relationships. This will be done in addition to raising their awareness of young people’s rights to
participate and more specially, their sexual reproductive health rights. Building capacity will entail training
adults in different spaces in meaningful youth participation, young people’s SRHR and youth adult
relationships. Young people will also be key in raising awareness of their own rights to the adults so that
adults can facilitate the realization of their participation.
Outcome 2: Increased utilization of comprehensive SRHR information and education by all young people.

6/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

Most young people, including adolescents, identify themselves as healthy. However, this is not always the
case since young people are exposed to various reproductive health challenges. Reproductive maturity and
the initiation of sexual activity expose young people to the risk of unintended pregnancies and sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV. It is obvious that identifying and understanding health behaviour of
adolescents and youth is a key in developing appropriate policies and services. Young people therefore
require robust age appropriate gender sensitive Comprehensive Sexuality Education and youth friendly
health services. Empowered with the information, young people will be able to utilize the information and
make informed decisions based on their developmental phase and accompanied issues and dilemmas. The
need for comprehensive sexuality education and youth friendly services has been acute and therefore
various stakeholders (service providers, peer educators, teachers; youth club members; community
gatekeepers and parents) need to support the various youth focused reproductive health interventions and
strategies that use comprehensive approach to address youth needs in sexual and reproductive health
(SRH) through increase of knowledge, change of attitudes, increase of safe practices among young people
and improving access to services.

In order to provide with ownership and meaningful youth participation in planning, implementation and
evaluation of youth SRHR programs, the programme will support the establishment of drop in and resource
centres as well as strengthening the district and community youth networks in the programme
implementation districts. . The drop in and resource centres will serve as Youth Peer Centres for young
people to build capacity of youth in peer education, SRHR, leadership and advocacy issues. An effective
referral system and linking young people to services will promote confidence amongst young people towards
the information and services provided. Strategies include strengthening of the referral system; publicity of
SRHR service delivery points through mass media; ICT4D initiatives in CSE information dissemination (SMS,
Face Book, Helpline and GBV toll free lines) and internet for youth programming (youth breeze, g-charts,
whatsapp among others) ; Capacity building on CSE for information service points (Helpline counsellors;
teachers; health workers; community based counsellors and life skills facilitators); Periodic supportive
supervision of information service points.

Outcome 3: Improved social-cultural, political and legal environment for gender-sensitive, youth-friendly
SRHR.
Social-cultural, political and legal environment adversely affect young people’s SRHR. Harmful cultural
practices and child marriages are still prevalent in Malawi. The low value attributed to girls, and male sexual
entitlement, lie at the root of teenage pregnancies and early marriages. Transforming these harmful socio-
cultural norms and practices requires all stakeholders to collectively deal away with these norms through
gender transformative methods towards equitable gender and social norms that give a voice to young people
and enable them to access appropriate SRH information, education and services free from stigma and
discrimination. This pathway of change will, therefore, focus on promoting a supportive social-cultural,
political and legal environment, which protects young people’s rights, and enables them to access SRHR
information, education and services, free from stigma and discrimination.
c. Activities
The outcomes of the project will be achieved through the following activities:
OVERVIEW OF THE INTERVENTION: DESIGN, ACTIVITIES AND TIMEFRAME

Objective 1: To Empowered young people increasingly voice their Sexual Reproductive Health rights by
March , 2019
Activities:
 Conduct 2 district Orientation meetings for district executive committee (DEC) in Lilongwe comprises
of 50 participants.
 Strengthen community structures; child protection committees, Area Development Committees,
School Management Committees targeting 100 people

7/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

 Conduct orientation of community structures on SGBV, education and HIV/AIDS targeting 100
people
 Conducting community awareness campaigns on SRHR
 Role modeling for in school
 Establishing Mother Groups
 Orientation of local sport and drama groups

Objective 2: Toincrease utilization of comprehensive SRHR information and education by all young people
by March, 2018
Activities
 Conducting advocacy forums at district and community levels on SRHR
 Orientation on pieces of legislations on SRHR
 Conduct meetings of the District child protection committee
 Distribution of already translated of pieces of legislation on early marriages
General expected outcomes
Objective 3: To Improved social-cultural, political and legal environment for gender-sensitive, youth-friendly
SRHR.
Activities
a. Conduct mobilization of custodians of cultures
b. Conduct awareness on social cultural issues
c. Facilitate by-laws on SRHR and child marriages

RESULTS: WHAT OUTPUTS AND OUTCOMES ARE EXPECTED

Increased public knowledge and general awareness about early marriages, sexual and reproductive health and
rights by the youth, parents and guardians, traditional leaders, faith groups and service providers.
Improved public perception on early marriage, sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Increased support, from traditional leaders, in lobbying and advocating for efforts for the enactment/review of
laws on marriage age through theatre and sports.
Decreased number of adolescent girls entering marriage before the age of 18.
Increased number of teenage mothers going back to school.
Increased access to justice by the adolescents on issues related to child marriages. Improved justice
delivery by service providers through usage of existing pieces of legislation. Increased access to evidence
based media coverage on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Inclusive special SRH related needs of
adolescents with disabilities

Specific goals

To contribute towards reduction of incidences of early child marriages in Malawi by 2019.

8/13
 THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

Objectives Activities Outputs Means of Outcome

verifications
1. Toincrease Conduct 2 district 50 DEC members DEC report Increased public knowledge
utilization of Orientation meetings for oriented in Lilongwe and general awareness about
comprehensive district executive council early marriages, sexual and
SRHR committee (DEC) in reproductive health and rights
information and Lilongwe comprises of 50 by the youth, parents and
education by all participants. guardians, traditional leaders,
young people faith groups and service
by March, 2018 providers
To Improved social- Conduct Sports for life on # of games played Sports for life Increased reporting and redress
cultural, SGBV, HIV/AIDS and reports of cases of violence and abuse
political Education activities therefore 90 percent reduced
and legal targeted schools future occurrence of SGBV,
environme HIV/AIDS and abuse of girls.
nt for peer social groups are
gender- established and youth, and girls
sensitive, and young women shared their
youth- own aspirations independent of
friendly the influences of men and boys
SRHR against cultural and traditional
notions

Conduct meetings of the # of meetings Reports Increased knowledge on piece

District child protection conducted and of legislations
committee district child
protection
committee formed
Distribution of already # of pieces of Reports Increased access to evidence
translated pieces of legislation based information on
legislation on early distributed legislation through media
marriages coverage on sexual and
reproductive health and rights

9/13
 THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

ActivitiesPlan and Time Table

Months
ACTIVITY PLAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Responsible
Conduct 2 district Orientation meetings for district
executive committee (DEC) in Lilongwe comprises of 50
participants. ED
Conduct Sports for life on SGBV, HIV/AIDS and
Education activities targeted schools Project Coord
Strengthen community structures; child protection
committees, Area Development Committees, School
Management Committees targeting 100 people Proj. Coord
Conduct orientation of community structures on SGBV,
education and HIV/AIDS targeting 100 people Proj. Coord
Community Awareness campaigns Proj. Coord
Social Mobilization Campaigns Prog. Coord
Strengthening of Child Rights Clubs/ All Girls Clubs Proj. Coord
Children's Open Days Proj. Coord
Establishment of Mother Groups Proj. Coord
Orientation of Local Drama Group Pro. Coord
Role Modelling Sessions Proj. Coord
Printing of Assorted IEC Materials Proj. Coord
Advocacy Forums Proj. Coord
Orientation Meetings on Pieces of Legislation ED
District Child Protection Committee Meetings Proj. Coord
Distribution of already translated pieces of legislation on
early marriages Proj. Coord

Time table

Project duration Starting date proposed

(In months)

One year 1st march, 2018

Months of execution

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Activity 1.

10/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

Activity 2.

Activity 3.

Activity 4.

Activity 5.

Activity 6.

Activity 7.

Activity 8.

...

11/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

Budget

A.I. Land/Infrastructure
(Buy/Renting)

Applicant
Description MundoCooperante
Organization
Others* SUBTOTAL

none none none none none

A.II. Building or Renovation

Applicant
Description MundoCooperante
Organization
Others* SUBTOTAL

Human
renovation 2,000 euros 2,000 euros
labour

...

A.III. Equipment and supplies

Applicant
Description MundoCooperante
Organization
Others* SUBTOTAL

Computers and printers 3,000 euros none none 3,000 euros

...

A.IV. Local Staff

Applicant
Charge MundoCooperante
Organization
Others* SUBTOTAL

12/13
THE RIGHT TO BE A GIRL PROJECT FORM

...

A.V. Running expenses

Applicant
Description MundoCooperante
Organization
Others* SUBTOTAL

Project activities 12,600 euros 12,600 euros

...

TOTAL Direct cost 15,600 euros

Indirect cost
4,400 euros
(Management/Administration)Project administration and renovation

GRAND TOTAL 20,000 euros

(*) If others funders are included, please indicate who they are and the amounts they will
contribute to this project.

Name Amount

13/13