The department has been very active in working with the Police Victim Support Units in Blantyre and Lilongwe and the Child Justice Courts and the Case Review Board than any other year since the establishment of the Organization. It is the year when the organization received orders from the Case Review Board to provide Case Management, assessments and Counselling services to 764 children in conflict with the law and those in prison. We have reach out to 273 victims of domestic and commercial child labor; and 118 girls rescued from arranged and forced Prostitution in Blantyre and Lilongwe. We have also rescued and removed 233 children from harmful orphanages and rescued 63 children from arranged and forced child marriages. We provided counselling and protection services to 49 victims of defilement.
It is the year when the organization provided counselling support and safe repatriation of a Mozambican girl aged 12 years who was trafficked to Malawi for an arranged Marriage with a man aged 36 in Blantyre and 21 Mozambican Children who were rescued in the hands of a human traffickers, Mr. Salikuchepa now in prison and his friend Luka Chidothi who is on the run for purposes of labor exploitation in July 2015. The children testified in court that when they left Mozambique the accused advised them to be telling anyone who asks about their journey that they were going to a football match.
The 2022 highlight would not be complete if we don’t report on a case involving two children trafficked from South Africa to Malawi. Eye of the Child received a report from its South Africa Partners that two Children were trafficked to Malawi as a transit country for processing Passports to be used in entering the United Kingdom as a final destination. We want to say thank you to the Malawi Police Services and the Ministry of Gender, Disability and Social Welfare Service for responding favorably to our call whose investigation and action ended up with the rescue in Mulanje and safe repatriation of the two children back to South Africa.
The highlight for 2022 in our records includes that of a disabled 12 years old girl whom we rescued from the hands of a man who was using her to beg money from well-wishers in Lilongwe. The girl has been paraded on a wheel chair along the main road.
Four months later she discovered that the child could not seat on her own and also her body was not strong as compared to her age. This is when the mother suspected that something was wrong with the child. After a year, the child was not doing anything on her own and she started going with her to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital for Physiotherapy. It is sad that people could use a child with multiple disabilities including: Hearing impairment, Speech and language disorder, Down syndrome and physically impaired for financial gain.
In the year 2016, the department would like to establish a special fund that will be used to support and rehabilitate the many children who require our services but we could not reach out to them due to limited financial resources. The Eye of the Child Department of Social Welfare plays a pivotal role in alleviating the suffering endured by those at risk of serious deprivation such as children, mothers, and persons with disabilities. The department implements remedial, rehabilitative, preventive and supportive services with emphasis on family and community- based interventions targeting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of children. The key services includes: - Provision of children and family counseling and support; Provision of alternative care to neglected, abandoned and deprived children; support to very poor and destitute families; and Rehabilitation and reintegration of children found in unprotected environment.
We welcome all those that wish to join our team as volunteers and interns to reach out to many children in Malawi.
EYE OF THE CHILD AND ADVOCACY WORK IN 2015
Advocacy is the key function that define Eye of the Child work. It involves law reform, Policy development, Social Mobilization, Civic Education, lobbying and strategic litigation.
During the year under review, the organization lead an advocacy team that lobbied Parliament to enact the Marriage, Family Relations and Divorce Act (2015) and the Trafficking in Persons Act (2015) with support from UN Women and Action.