Empowering and educating women will change Malawi.  Just like allowing women into the workforce changed the US.  The point is to give them a choice.  In the villages the women raise the kids and take care of the homes.  Education is a lower priority than getting married.  Education is the key to give them an option other than getting married. 

The schools in Chilinza are amazing.  They have big formal classrooms on beautiful grounds.  It makes me forget I’m in a village and looks more like a well funded city school.  They said parents that value education will send their children here, even if it is a further walk. 

The girls still have more pressure to get married young so Live Love Malawi dreamed of a girls only school in 2016. Now it is a campus nearly as big as Chilinza complete with dorms so the girls don’t have to commute.  It’s called Girl Shine.  It also has a fully funded stem school with a computer lab to help prepare them for college if they choose.  Now Girl Shine has their third round of students graduating college, with several going to African Bible College.  Miracle is one of the girls from Girl Shine who has now graduated college.  She was leading us around during our time on campus before moving on to her next big thing. 

Live Love Malawi also supports the women in the villages.  They have weekly Bible studies.  They have also been teaching women to read and write if they didn’t learn in primary school.  Every year while the US team is in Malawi they also host a women’s conference.  This year was the 14th annual conference with hundreds of women joining from the villages.  They also bussed the teenagers from the villages to the college campus to have both men’s and women’s conference for the teens.