Mission statement | Patimalawi

Guiding Principles

The NGO YCD (Youth Coalition for the Consolidation of Democracy) is our partner organization in Malawi. They implement the jointly developed projects in southern Malawi, while Patimalawi is active in Switzerland and southern Germany to raise awareness about the living conditions of families and children in Malawi and to collect donations.
In the collaboration between the two organizations, we are guided by shared values, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Human Rights Convention. We understand Patimalawi’s commitment as an act of civil society solidarity.
We distance ourselves from the terms “development aid” as well as “development cooperation.” These terms imply that African countries have some kind of development to catch up on, which “donor countries” have already completed. The primary focus is on economic development. It is also implied that the “developed” countries or their representatives could judge what is needed and right in the countries to be developed.
YCD and Patimalawi jointly pursue the goal of supporting children, youth, and young adults in the Chickwawa district in a partnership based on equality. Both use the resources available to them in the best possible way.
Our common orientation, shared with our partners in Malawi, is based on universal values such as human rights and children’s rights. We agree in the conviction that their validity must not be debated or relativized by arguments of cultural differences. Hunger, malnutrition, lack of access to education, poor treatment in prisons, etc., are unacceptable, and we work together to improve these conditions.
The design of the support is based on the needs of those being supported. We pursue an empowerment approach that does not cement long-term dependencies but helps people to live independently again as soon as possible.
Thus, we implement projects that are suitable to strengthen autonomy. The goat project to finance school fees, or the business starter project for released prisoners, are examples where this is already working well today.

On the Path to Sustainability

In designing all our projects, it is very important to us to structure support in a way that includes a perspective to reduce or even completely eliminate the one-sided financial dependence of projects in Malawi on funds from Switzerland.
This is especially challenging, for example, in the school project: It is neither understandable nor right that the school fees we have to pay are not covered by the state. Furthermore, YCD can only support 150 children. According to estimates by Francis Folley, up to 1,000 children per year would rely on this support to attend primary and secondary school. Here, an especially original idea from Francis Folley comes into play, which we support as a pilot project: Thanks to a generous private donation, YCD was able to purchase a large piece of land and 100 goats. Through the profit generated from selling the bred goats, it should become possible within two years for YCD to independently finance the school fees for the 150 children. Additionally, this creates jobs for two people to care for the goats. If the project succeeds, the available donation funds could then be used to support another 150 children. Furthermore, YCD and Francis Folley are making efforts to raise awareness among politicians about the necessity of state support for these children. However, his influence in this regard is still very limited but is steadily growing through our work.
The sustainable impact we achieve through the Business Starter Project is very impressive. As Francis Folley demonstrated in a precise evaluation, this relatively small initial amount paid to prisoners who have completed the “Life Skills Program” in prison significantly reduces the recidivism rate (see study). To further increase this sustainable impact, we are currently exploring whether we could create a small sales market in Switzerland for some of the small businesses emerging from this initiative.
During this year’s visit, we learned that the Child Marriage Project has so far been successful in removing children from these marriages. However, it is then extremely important that these child mothers either attend school or benefit from the Business Starter Project. We are working on making this systematically possible. Unfortunately, this field has recently suffered a major setback. Due to COVID measures taken by the Malawian government, many girls could not attend school, and the precarious income of families was further reduced. This led to a marked increase in child marriages in 2021 and 2022.
Another initiative to be jointly implemented over the next four years is our Micro-Finance Project. The goal of this project is to support young entrepreneurs not with donations but through the provision of low-interest loans. In the first phase, approximately 10 to 15 borrowers are expected to benefit from the 5,000 Swiss francs made available for five years. Ideally, expected repayment shortfalls can be compensated by the interest rate, and the 5,000 francs will be repaid to the lender (however, due to inflation-related devaluation during the loan period, some loss is to be expected). This pilot project is conducted outside the Patimalawi association’s structures with a private individual’s loan. If results are satisfactory, we will consider expanding this form of support.