| AYISE |


	DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION PROJECT - BLANTYRE - PENDING
	This project, which is awaiting confirmation of funding from the US AID Democracy and Human Rights fund, would address the following of AYISE's core areas of work: Human Rights and Democracy - this will be the main focus of the project Education - this project will take place in schools, and thus will aim to improve the observance of human rights among the teachers and pupils, making a safer and happier learning environment, where children will be more enthusiastic to learn, and less likely to truant Child Protection - by raising awareness of human rights among teachers there should be less use of gratuitous violence against pupils, and by increasing awareness among the pupils there should be less violence and bullying Gender - gender equality shall be included as a section of the human rights training The Issues - click here to read more Malawi changed from a one-party to multi-party system of Government in 1994. This ushered in a democratic Government and a constitution which offered a comprehensive bill of rights for the individual. This was a big step forward considering that for the thirty years prior to 1994 Malawi was a one-party dictatorial state where democracy was non-existent and it was criminal to fight for ones rights. The change from one-party dictatorial, to multi-party democratic government was so rapid that there was insufficient time to prepare Malawians of the system of Government through civic education. The initial civic education was politically based and there is still a great amount of educational work which needs to be done in the area of awareness of democracy and human rights. Malawian schools hold the opportunity to address many more issues than the standard curriculum of literacy and numeracy, and AYISE believes that human rights and democracy education should form a key part of a child or young adult’s development. Also, it is well known that attitudes learned in school can be transferred to the home, and held for life. Currently in many schools there is violence, gender inequality, and ambivalence to democratic participation. If this is propagated around each family which sends a child to that school, and stays with those pupils for life (so he/she passes on those values to his/her children) Malawi will have a violent, undemocratic population of inequality. To address this we must reach the children and youth at an impressionable age, captivate their attention and provide them with the knowledge to challenge the status quo. The Project - click here to read more The project is a Human Rights and Democracy education campaign to in-school youth. It will be implemented in 30 secondary schools in Blantyre Urban and Rural districts. Primarily, we will target government secondary schools. However considering that there has even been violence and anti-social behavior reported in some private schools, efforts will be made to reach out to these institutions also. In this vein, the following broad activities have been planned: 1 Civic Education meetings 2 Training of Democracy and Human Rights Clubs 3 Training of patrons of the democracy and human rights clubs 4 Conducting a democracy and human rights essay competition among the participating schools 5 Production of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials. Expected Outcomes- click here to read more To improve the knowledge and implementation of Human Rights and Democracy among 24,000 pupils and 30 teachers at selected schools nationwide To leave a legacy of a Human Rights and Democracy Club at each school, run by teachers and populated by pupils To increase the knowledge and implementation of Human Rights and Democracy within the communities the selected schools reside within - through pupils disseminating the information they have gained to their families and friends. To help establish and maintain a democratic culture among children and youth.