Malawi has a population of 22 million, more than 50% of whom are children, a nation of children and adolescents, most of whom live in difficult conditions. Infant mortality is 28%, and 37% of children under the age of 5 die from disease or malnutrition.
The country cannot offer them a certain future or access to basic rights such as healthcare and education because of the extreme poverty plaguing the nation. Since the beginning, the Community of Sant'Egidio has been taking care of the poorest children, supporting their education and personal growth through 120 Schools of Peace spread across the poorest areas of the country.
Since 2010, on the outskirts of Blantyre, in the district of Machinjiri, Sant'Egidio has opened a free nutrition centre that welcomes malnourished children aged 3 to 14, guaranteeing them a daily meal and accompanying them growing up. Every day, over 600 children gather at the centre, before or after school, to receive a meal and study. For them, lunch with Sant'Egidio is often their only meal of the day. Their growth and health are constantly monitored by DREAM doctors. All children are registered with the civil registry through Sant'Egidio's Bravo programme to guarantee them a legal identity and protect them from the risk of abuse and exploitation.
Most of the children come from single-parent families, where mothers, busy with agricultural work, have little time to care for their children.
Over time, we realised that many girls did not go to school because they had to take care of their younger siblings. Therefore, Sant'Egidio has also set up a nursery for 60 children aged 3 to 5 in the nutrition centre so that girls can attend school regularly. At the nursery, the children learn to speak English, write, socialise and play with others. It is a place where they can fully enjoy their childhood, often denied them, and at the same time a safe place away from the dangers of the street.
Every month, the centre's coordinators and teachers organise meetings with the mothers to discuss the children's problems and offer health and nutrition courses, providing support to mothers in bringing up their children. Every Saturday, the Youth for Peace welcome 200 children, divided into age groups, to learn and be educated in non-violence and friendship with everyone. Many of these young people are former children who grew up in the nutrition centre and now feel it is their duty to help raise the younger ones, just as they were helped in the past.
The Machinjiri Centre, dedicated to John Paul II, is an important reference point for children throughout the area. It is considered a real ‘children's city’, where the poorest are welcomed, loved and helped to grow, giving them back their dignity and the joy of childhood.
