Distance, poverty and limited services are narrowing choices for young people in remote Bayani.
At 16, “Martha Adrian” lived away from home to continue secondary school.
The nearest school was over 30 kilometres from Bayani, and her subsistence-farming parents could provide only K5,000 a month for food and basic needs.
As the pressure of surviving alone grew, she entered a relationship with a kabaza operator and later became pregnant.
Her name has been changed, but her experience reflects the narrow choices facing many girls where education, health care and income are limited.
Bayani, under Traditional Authority Phambala in Ntcheu District, lies about 100 kilometres from Ntcheu Boma and has no secondary school.
Learners must travel more than 30 kilometres to Mtsangano Community Day Secondary School or find accommodation nearby—an option beyond most farming families.
Group Village Head Mdzawira said the absence of a nearby school lowers children’s expectations before they even finish primary education.
“Many children here reach Standard 7 and 8 knowing they are about to finish school because there is no nearby secondary school,” he said.
“They are expected to stay near the school, but most parents cannot afford that.”
For girls, leaving school increases vulnerability to child marriage, teenage pregnancy and economic dependence.
Barriers extend to health care. Bayani Health Centre has limited capacity and does not offer some essential services, including certain family-planning methods. Patients must be referred elsewhere, adding transport costs and long journeys.
These realities came into focus during a community Open Day organised by Innovations for Change under the Initiative for Full Empowerment and Youth Options (IFEYO) Project, funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through GIZ.
The event formed part of IFEYO’s Music-to-Action process, which begins by listening to young people, identifying gaps and facilitating dialogue with health workers.
Young people create locally relevant messages through music, drama, poetry, print and social media.
At Bayani, the event combined youth-created messages, sport and dialogue with on-site health services.
Innovations for Change coordinated engagement, while the Family Planning Association of Malawi joined health workers from Ntcheu District Hospital and Bayani Health Centre to provide outreach. More than 300 people accessed care, including family-planning services.
IFEYO Project Officer Kotanive Khoromana said the initiative aims to improve young people’s health and empowerment by expanding access to youth-friendly information and services on sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV and gender-based violence, while building trust with health workers.
Engagement continues beyond the Open Day through two-way SMS, youth radio programmes, social media and community meetings, allowing young people to ask sensitive questions and receive referrals.
Bosco Kaluwa, Chief Preventive Health Officer for Ntcheu, described the situation as concerning. He said the district health office would engage stakeholders on deploying mobile clinics to hard-to-reach communities, including for family planning.
The project also provided football and netball equipment to Bayani Youth-Friendly Health Service Centre, using recreation and peer interaction as entry points for health education.
GIZ Component Manager Chimwemwe Mthempheya said the challenges require sustained collaboration among development organisations, government, traditional leaders, communities and service providers.
“What we have seen here is that there are many challenges that require a lot of support,” she said. “For these to be addressed, there is a need for collaboration among all stakeholders.”
The Open Day showed what coordinated action can achieve: young people shared messages they helped create, hundreds received services, and public institutions heard directly about life in a hard-to-reach community.
But outreach cannot replace a nearby school, reliable transport or consistently available health services.
For young people like Martha, distance is measured not only in kilometres, but in missed lessons, unaffordable meals, delayed care and choices made under pressure.
Closing that distance will require continued collaboration—and a commitment that where a young person is born does not determine how far they can learn, how quickly they receive care, or how freely they can imagine their future.
By Geoffrey Chinawa
