Youth and women for Development Initiative ( YAWDI)

Youth and Women for Development Initiative was founded in 2018 while on the Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation program in Uganda. Our exchange was meant to take a period of 12 months while in Uganda supporting the most vulnerable young people and women while training them in entrepreneurship and vocational skills training. While interacting with communities in Uganda, we noticed that Malawi as an African country like Uganda, shares the same challenges with Uganda and we decided to start Youth and Women for Development Initiative such while back in Malawi, we could address the challenges that our communities in Malawi face. YAWDI legally registered as a Non-Governmental Organization in Malawi. aiming at supporting the less privileged and marginalized individuals specially women and youths to uplift their livelihoods through empowering youth and women socio-economic opportunities. All YAWDI activities are anchored on the 4 main areas; career education, entrepreneurship, climate change, vocational training, poverty reduction, gender equity and networking. YAWDI objectives: a) Building the teenage mother capacity to start own businesses and that of young entrepreneurs to run effective ventures that stand out effective for success. b) Reducing the levels of dependency and vulnerability among the youths and women in our communities. c) Promote mobility and exchange programs that offer skills that matter for international development and creation of dignified opportunities. d) Reducing levels of illiteracy among the youths and women in Malawi. e) Provide vocational skills training. f) Create collaboration and networking avenues with in YAWDI interventions in order to bring other international development actors for the common cause internationally.