Care Humanity Network: Empowering Youth Economically and Bringing Hope

Care Humanity Network (CHN) is a non-profit organisation based in Mangochi, Malawi. 

Its major focus is changing the living standards through the exercise of human rights by transforming people’s mindset in communities and empowering youth and women with promoting skills towards easier employment.

Founded in 2018, the organisation aims to create jobs through empowering the youth with small-scale enterprises, creating new flexible and sustainable economic sectors and growing the existing ones.

Besides, it aspires towards ending violence against women and girls in communities.

To put things into perspective, all these become even more crucial if we recall that the Malawian population is still very young, representing 51% of the total population of people with the age of 18. 

This has been identified as a factor causing youth and women unemployment, because of limited work opportunities.

Therefore, entrepreneurship has been regarded as an end solution and an obvious need for paving a way for youth and women in entrepreneurships prevails.

Swally Daud, Founder and Managing Director, CHN, elaborates for Youth Time where his inspiration came from and how they achieve their mission and spread their work.

A Start Bridging a Huge Gap

Daud initially explains that the very idea came to him after witnessing a large percentage of youth being unemployed after graduating at different schools, and not even going to school at all.

“This made me believe it was because of the gap that existed between the youth and industries to connect them together and share the common goal.”, he says.

He emphasises that this is where he created a network that will empower the youth and industries to access human resource assets like youth who are unemployed even though they have ability and skills to work.

“And looking out, how our communities are being polluted in the way of governance, access to education for many children and women to access small-medium enterprise business activities. 

“That’s how the Care Humanity Network Organisation came into existence.”

Walking Alongside Communities’ Needs

CHN constantly understands and matches the communities’ needs. They conduct surveys in their communities to find out challenges people are facing.

“Through those challenges encountered we develop strategies to reach out to those heading the role of governance in communities and educate them what governance is, how they and their people can achieve good governance in communities.”

These lessons are done through community meetings, youth weekend HUB meetings, and performing of role plays in communities.

Challenged in Finding Resources, Still Empowering Youth and Women

In the past two years, CHN has been struggling to reach out to the masses of people due to lack of financial resources, and it mostly used to reach youth through WhatsApp group meetings, and schools mobilisation.

However, this was until one local medium enterprise called SQ’S Innovations committed to support the Care Humanity Network with carpentry tools that helped to empower youth with carpentry skills and generate income through it to support other programs that contained in its constitution.

“So far in 2021 the CHN has established the Hub in the Mangochi district where youth are practicing different technical skills, women are being invited to attend finance management skills that help them run their business smoothly.”

Daud shares the belief that doing these programs will help Malawian youth and women be economically independent and empowered in their life.

He continues: “They will also reduce the unemployment gap that is existing in many developing countries like Malawi in particular.”

So far, CHN has achieved distinct changes in communities through leadership programs like;

• job creations,
• children embracing school in communities unlike the past years,
• women being economically empowered,
• forest restoration by planting 2000 trees in the past two years,
• secondary school learner’s scholarship programs and providing internship programs to unemployed scholars.

Understanding Challenges Faced by Youth

“Experience is the best teacher”, is the saying that Daud brought into discussion while adding that interacting with a lot of young people in the past years made him understand the key challenges they face.

He lists them:

• youth of today in communities are lacking a platform where their voices can be aired.
• financial capacity for start-up businesses is still a challenge resulting to a high rate of unemployment as a result.
• large number of youth are being exposed to unacceptable norms of societies, like sexual harassment, drug abuse, dropout of school and resulting early marriages.

The last one, he recalls, has contributed to spread of HIV and Aids in Malawian youth at large.

Encouraging Supporters to Donate and Improve Lives

Lastly, CHN asks from well-wishers to donate any amount of dollar/money and technical equipment they can support to the organisation as one way to realize their aims.

“Items like, electric tailoring machines, electric carpentry tools, welding tools, used clothes and shoes to give those that don’t have one here.

“Let’s instigate the change together.” 

Photos: Care Humanity Network

Here’s another inspiring story of a passionate youth activist seeking to create vocational work experiences for unemployed youth and up-skilling through education and training. 

Tackling Youth Unemployment in South Africa: An interview with Luthando Kolwapi

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