A Huge Thank You to Trinity Lutheran Church in Ashland, Ohio!!!!!!
Kanyenyeva Ministries, with the help of Malawi Orphan Care Project, Inc, has received a $10,000 grant from the Trinity Lutheran Church Outreach Fund in Ashland, Ohio. This grant is seed money for a Girl’s Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in Malawi. These dollars will build the first hostel building to house young women that are at risk or have been rescued from early marriages.
Kanyenyeva Ministries has been in operation for over 14 years. Over the years, the ministry has interacted with over 5,000 young people, mainly from the Kanyenyeva area. Through these interactions and ministry, the leadership of Kanyenyeva has witnessed how girls are marginalized in their society. There have been several incidents where girls have been forced, mainly by circumstances and poverty, to marry while they are as young as 15.
This observation agrees with the fact that girls in Malawi face more difficulties, as compared to their male counterparts, that either make it difficult for them to do well in school or cause them to drop out of school altogether. One of the major factors responsible for a large number of school dropout in girls is early marriages. About 46 per cent of girls are married before the age of 18, and 9 per cent before the age of 15. Poverty and societal illiteracy contributes to the belief that a girl child is not worthy of education and is lesser in value as compared to a male child.
In this regard, Kanyenyeva Ministries plans to build a centre that will be dedicated to minister to girls and women in their society who have been rescued from underage marriages and also those who are at risk. The centre will provide spiritual, physical, psychological and emotional support to girls and women from all society in Malawi.
The complex is planned to be located in the Mchinji district of Malawi, purposely distant from the Kanyenyeva village to protect those at risk. The long range goal is to have hostels that will house 100 girls at a time, contain duplex apartments for volunteer works, a chapel, meeting hall, skills center, a medical clinic, classrooms and homes for the head teacher/administrator and clinic workers. Kanyenyeva Ministries is currently hoping to raise funds and buy land so that the first hostel building can be constructed.