In a bid to raise awareness about sanitation, over 50 youths around Khwisa township in the area of Sub-traditional authority Matola in Balaka stormed Khwisa market with a clean-up exercise campaign.
The youths, under Chisa youth club, which is an affiliate of Chisangalalo Free Nursery School, didn’t want to be left behind in as far as the development of the area and the Nation is concerned.
According to communications officer for Chisangalalo Free Nursery School Mustaph Komanje, the organization noted that there was a big gap interms of youth participation in development activities in the area mainly due to the high unemployment rate among the youths in the area.
Instead, many young people resort to smoking, drinking acoholic beverages and other promiscuous behaviours.
As such, the organization decided to form youth clubs at village level so that they can act as a forum where the youths can brainstorm on a number of challenges affecting them in their communities but also find alternative solutions to such problems.
“We believe that young people are the drivers and changers of the country’s socio-economic development. Sadly, in many situations we tend to leave them behind when making decisions.
“This is why we thought that if we can bring the young boys and girls together in form of a youth club, we can certainly be on a right path in terms of instilling good manners in them, which is essential to the development of the area as well as the district and the Nation,” Komanje said.
He added that the idea to conduct a clean up exercise campaign was a product of the youths themselves after noting that sanitation levels were dwindling at the facility.
The interventions by the youths met with a cheerful applause from the vendors at the market.
Febby Mpoola, chairperson for Khwisa market vendors Association, said the initiative by Chisa youth club has inspired them a lot adding that it is everybody’s responsibility to take a good care of their sanitation.
“Let me take this chance to urge all vendors plying their trade in this market and any other market user who benefits from this facility to have a sense of ownership. We should not just wait for the district council to fix the problems we might face here but as primary users we should be in the forefront,” she explained.
Founded in 2018 by Michael Ndelemani, Chisangalalo Free Nursery School is a non-profit making organization. Initially it focused on providing free early childhood development education to children in the remote areas but it has so far expanded its thematic areas to different projects since it was recently registered as a non-governmental organization.
According to Komanje, the organization has a lot of dreams to fulfill but they have financial and resource constraints in carrying out their activities since funds for running the organization are sourced from individual members.
“We ask for well wishers, the donor community, to help us in cash and kind so that we can have a much bigger impact in our projects,” Komanje said.
The event was spiced up by different activities including poetry recitals, music, acrobatics and drama only to mention a few.
Gracing the occasion were traditional leaders, members of the Balaka civil society Network, Balaka district council officials and people from all Walks of life.
