How Do You Protect Your Child’s Health In Malawi? Talk About It.

Iman has lived her entire life in the eastern Malawian countryside.

Her mom died from malaria when she was just 17. Now she has five kids of her own. Like many young women in more remote areas of Malawi, Iman had her first child at an early age and had to drop out of school shortly after. Now she’s devoted to raising her family and hoping to give her kids the opportunities she never had: a completed education, a good job, and the chance to determine their own future.

When we met her on a sunny morning in 2019, she was carrying her youngest, 9-month-old Shaban, strapped close on her back in a bright blue wrap tied over her shoulder.

“My dream is for my children to finish their education,” she said, “and for myself I dream of employment and a permanent home with a roof.”

Iman had just returned from attending a weekly parenting group near her home where she and other parents and caregivers learned how to better communicate with their children — including ways to keep them from getting HIV, one of her country’s greatest health threats.

These meetings — part of a five-year partnership between Project HOPE, Johns Hopkins University, Plan International, and the Global Interfaith AIDS Alliance that ran from 2016 to 2020 — were part of a larger strategy to help keep children in school, prevent HIV, and build stronger futures for young people in Malawi.

In 2019 and 2020, nearly 3,000 parents and caregivers attended the meetings, learning skills that would benefit more than 5,800 children.

For Iman, the knowledge didn’t just help her become a more confident parent; it also helped her husband feel more able to speak openly and honestly with their children.

“I appreciate this group because I’m learning how to communicate better with my children,” Iman said. “My mother never taught me how.”

Iman was one of the few participants who lived within easy walking distance to the group’s meeting place in the village of Ngokwe. For Patuma and her husband, Devsom, the journey took a little longer.

The two of them walked six miles every week to get to the group. Though all four of their children were HIV-negative, Patuma said, the group helped her and her husband chart a healthier course for their kids’ future.

“It’s so important to us to be able to speak with our kids and teach them about going to school, not doing drugs or drinking, and not engaging in unsafe sex,” she said.

Their kids participated, too. The groups focused on kids ages 9-14, and after four sessions young people were invited to join their parents so they could pair up and practice having more difficult conversations.

“We agreed we would each choose a child to bring with us,” Patuma said. “I chose our only daughter, Mariyamu, and he chose our 13-year-old son, Ediwadi.

“We’ve seen a lot of our relatives and friends whose kids are getting pregnant very young. This is my chance to learn the skills so that I’m able to talk to my daughter through open communication so she doesn’t have an early pregnancy,” she said.

For Ediwadi, like other parents in the group, the meetings were a chance to break a cycle with his kids and parent differently than the way he was raised.

“I chose my son because I wanted to discuss things like smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol with him,” he said. “I feel more confident now and prepared to speak not only with him but my other children. I didn’t learn good communication from my parents.”

Malawi has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world. Even though AIDS-related deaths have been cut in half over the past decade, 1.1 million people still live with the illness, and women and children are at highest risk.

Malawi also has one of the world’s youngest populations, with nearly two-thirds of the country under 24. That has led to high rates of early marriage and teen pregnancies: Half of all women are married before turning 18, and most miss out on the education they need to earn a good income and lead a productive life.

As a community health volunteer, Joyce became a trusted local leader during the course of the program, teaching a group of mothers and caregivers health practices that can keep their kids healthy and growing strong.

During a 2019 meeting, we watched as she stood at the front of the group, recapping what they covered in their last meeting: how to keep water safely covered and the importance of washing hands before nursing. After that, Joyce confidently led a conversation on the importance of education.

She listened patiently as the mothers held a lively discussion, occasionally offering up questions that stir new conversations. After the meeting, Joyce pulled out a small measuring band and walked child to child, measuring their arms to check they were receiving the proper nutrition and that their development was on track. The mothers who held them all shared a common goal: giving their sons and daughters every chance they never had themselves.

For Patuma and Devsom back in Ngokwe, that meant giving their kids a future determined not by their health, but by their dreams: Mariyamu wants to become a lawyer; 13-year-old Ediwadi, a mechanic.

As the family turned to retrace the miles back home, Patuma shared her own wish: the same one held by mothers in her parenting group, in Chiponde, and across Malawi.

“Our dream is to always be able to provide the basic needs for our home and children,” she said.