Malawi: Mhub Equips Mtandire Children With Digital Skills for Reporting Rape Cases

Adolescent boys and girls from Mtandire Township in Lilongwe will no longer have to go to a police unit or station to report cases of gender based violence (GBV), rape and defilement cases.

For the past three days, mHub – which champions the development of local technology solutions – hosted a three-day day digital skills workshop for young boys and girls from Mtandire.

The children were trained on how they can use basic technology such short message service (SMS) to report on Gender Based Violence and any form of human rights violation.

Since 2017, mHub has been training adolescents from Mtandire in football activities and life skills under Our Shared Goal program, a project being implemented by British Council in partnership with Tingathe, Play football Malawi, and mHub; as one way of ending Gender Based Violence and promoting gender equality.

But as part of the celebration of this year’s 16 Days of Activism, mHub decided to train the young boys and girls from Mtandire in basic digital skills to fight Gender Based Violence (GBV), rape and defilement through use of a simple mobile phone.

The digital skills training brought together GBV experts from the Gender and Justice Unit, Women Lawyers Association of Malawi and the Victim Support Unit.

Monica Madulira-Ndalama, one of the programme managers at mHub, said the program will help in the fight against gender based violence, as the young girls have been impacted with knowledge on GBV and how to report on gender based violence using a basic mobile phone.

Madulira-Ndalama disclosed that they thought of equipping the adolescent boys and girls with digital skills that can enable them report any cases of violation of human rights whilst seated in the comfort of their homesteads.

“We have taught the girls on the process they have to follow when they want to use the digital platforms to report cases to relevant authorities such as the Victim Support Unit of the Malawi Police Service, Women Lawyers Association and the Ministry of Gender, among others,” she said.

Madulira-Ndalama said this will also reduce the cost the boys and girls are currently incurring to travel to the police unit to report a human rights violation.

The Women Lawyers Association executive member, Tiyamike Chigoneka, described the initiative a breakthrough in addressing privacy issues in reporting cases of GBV, rape and defilement in the country.

mHub champions the development of local technology solutions. It trains children, girls and youth with digital skills and support emerging entrepreneurs.

The hub is a social enterprise that champions the development of local technology solutions. The hub nurtures young innovators and entrepreneurs with technology, technical and business skills to create sustainable social and business solutions.

mHub’s vision is to be a premium resource center for sustainable technology solutions in Malawi.

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