Numbers of street children appear to be increasing, but again, official figures are scarce. Children on the street are mainly found in Blantyre, Zomba, Lilongwe and Mzuzu. CCDR is advocating for de-institutionalization where street children have to be integrated into their families or next to kin so that they grow in a family/community setting for optimal development.
CCDR recognizing the role of information and communication technology for positive youth development is targeting girls and boys in Community Day Secondary School with basic computer lessons using science clubs as existing structures. Thus, CCDR would like to appeal for donations of used computers to further the objectives of the initiative of ensuring that 1200 girls and 900 boys in the 7 community day secondary schools where the initiative is being piloted have access to ICT services.
CCDR works with families, communities, and other partners to create a caring, protective, and supportive environment for children through research and practice for sustainable socio-economic progress.
In Malawi, the challenge of school retention especially for girls is still significant and more profound in the rural areas with school drop-out rate for girls pegged at 27% according to Education Statistics (2012). As maintained by (UNICEF, 2012) girls stop their education because of different reasons: early marriages and pregnancies, lack of school fees, and child abuse among others. CCDR through the mentorship program is offering role modeling services to rural schools targeting girls in the upper primary school bearing the current statistics which puts dropout rate for girls from standard 5-8 at 55.1% (Education Statistics, 2012).
Research in human development reveals that children and young people undergo several psychosocial challenges as they go through different stages of development such as puberty. The need for psychosocial counseling is enormous due to interplay of factors that affect optimal child development such as HIV and AIDS, menstruation, peer pressure, orphan hood, and poverty. CCDR is therefore working in partnership with Guidance and Counseling Centre for Africa, Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare, Zomba Mental Hospital and other Partners to provide psychosocial counseling by targeting adolescents in refugee camps, floods victim camps, reformatory centers, and in schools. At Zomba Mental Hospital we strengthen the recreation program by encouraging children activities of sports and child play. However we need Resources support and partnerhips to scale up these initiatives.
