Adolescent Girls' Literacy Project
Canon Collins Trust has worked with the Adolescent Girls’ Literacy Project (AGLIT) since 2005. As a champion of rural women in communities across southern Malawi, the project empowers women to lead their communities out of abject poverty, enabling them to access the education and skills that will change their lives forever.
AGLIT’s community-based clubs for young women and girls are at the centre of communities across the Chikwawa, Mchinji and Rural Lilongwe districts. At the clubs young women and girls that have been excluded from formal schooling due to poverty are able to access programmes that build vital literacy and numeric skills. A recent evaluation of AGLIT’s work found that 61% of members became literate and 75% became numerate as a result of AGLIT’s 2006 programmes.
Denied a means of accessing a meaningful livelihood, uneducated young women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection than any other group. For this reason AGLIT integrates HIV/AIDS and health awareness into its approach.
Economic empowerment is also at the heart of the AGLIT programme. Women and girls participate in micro-enterprise training, helping them to become financially independent and learn lasting income-generation skills.
