EMPLOYMENT
Youth of Malawi believes in hiring local labor, from within the village if possible. We also believe in engaging Malawian professionals in small businesses who are eager for contracts in development. We make every effort to pay livable wages and to supplement the wages of any of our government provided workers. Rather than just give handouts, however, Youth of Malawi insists on a return on investment in all of our projects.
The teachers at Legson Kayira School are paid by the Government of Malawi but the wage is insufficient to incentivize the quality and caliber of professional work we expect. A teacher worried about transportation costs or feeding a family cannot be expected to perform optimally. We created an after-school children’s reading program run by our teachers which includes individual and small group instruction to our students. Using our 4,000 book library, the teachers spend 3 hours daily, after school in more manageable groups, reading, writing and listening to students. When the teacher student ratio is often 200 to 1 during the regular school day in Malawi – these groups of 20 really have an incredible impact.
Youth of Malawi also employs a farming crew at our Kachule Livestock Center and the Center has spurred a secondary market of ambitious young people who resell eggs at a profit at the local trading posts.
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Youth of Malawi also employs 7 young adults, many of whom were on our first beach trip to Lake Malawi in 2010. These orphans from the Home of Hope all lost their parents to HIV and Malaria, and we were able to keep in touch with them over the years as they finished their education. Youth of Malawi has hired them to manage our programs in the village. Several of them run an adult English literacy program, one runs our soccer field and movie theatre rentals, one assist our Malawian Program Directors with odd jobs, and the rest help with communications, general labor, maintenance and tutoring.
For 5 years Youth of Malawi has been consistently constructing buildings in Chimphamba, which has provided work and income for countless men and women either in cement production, brick-making, mat-weaving, fence production, farming, and sanitation.