YONECO conducted an orientation session for 50 community facilitators who will take the lead in engaging fathers in the upbringing of their children across Mchinji District.
For many communities, the limited participation of fathers in child-rearing has contributed to communication gaps within families, often leaving adolescents to depend on unreliable sources for information, especially on sensitive issues. The newly trained facilitators will champion the Lead the fathers component, complementing ongoing Parent-Child Communication (PCC) sessions happening at community level.
The broader goal of the intervention is to nurture healthy intergenerational dialogue and ensure that young people’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) are fully upheld.
The facilitators were selected by their own communities for being exemplary fathers and role models. During the training, they were equipped with practical skills and approaches to support other men in challenging outdated beliefs that raising children is “women’s work.” Their efforts are expected to promote more balanced parenting roles and encourage fathers to take an active, positive presence in their children’s lives.
The orientation was conducted under the Addressing Challenges to Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment through Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ACE) Project, funded by KOICA and UNFPA. Implemented in Mchinji and Dedza, the ACE Project seeks to strengthen the individual and collective agency of adolescent girls, including teenage mothers, to make informed choices about their futures and exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights with confidence.
