The three objectives set for the AECL project in Malawi are:

1. To provide children with quality, accessible and affordable learning institutions
2. To raise awareness on the consequences of child labour and the importance of education (local population, village headmen/headwomen, estate owners)
3. To monitor, evaluate, document and disseminate lessons learnt

For the full text on this project's objectives, please see the original project document, here.

With the joint efforts of child labour committees, local and national government officials, trade unions and multinationals based in Malawi, the project’s objectives are well on their way to being fulfilled.

Objective 1 - School building – Schooling
The construction of the junior primary school was completed in October 2003, as well as the two teacher’s houses. Classes started on 19 January 2004, and with the help of the District Education Manager, 4 full-time teachers have been assigned to the school. In order to support the proper management of the school and to follow-up on the child attendance rate, school-managing and child labour control committees have been formed.
There is a total of 322 pupils at the school, of which approximately 150 are attending school for the first time.

The Tadwe/Mwansambo district school	The teacher's houses, built next to the school	Children in class

Objective 2 - Training sessions - awareness-raising on child labour
120 people have been trained in basic bookkeeping during 4 one-day sessions and there have been additional 2 two-day sessions for tenants, farm workers and estate owners and managers.
There have been 4 one-day sessions on rights and laws, child labour sensitisation and education for committee members, community leaders and estate personnel.
Training sessions are ongoing and reach beyond the school catchment area with sessions also organised in neighbouring schools.

An awareness-raising session

Objective 3 - Participatory Evaluation
In the final stage of the project, an internal participatory evaluation of the AECL Tadwe school project took place in April 2004. It was conducted jointly by AECL and the ECLT Foundation, with the help of a translator and facilitator.

The methodology followed was the "SWOT" process (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). It consisted of short brainstorming sessions with the different groups of actors during which people come out with their own findings and solutions.

These SWOT sessions took place with:

1. AECL Board
2. School management committee
3. Parent-teachers association
4. Child labour committee
5. A group composed of tenants, estates owners and managers
6. Traditional authorities
7. Trade unionists

The neighbouring school's head teacher and district officials have also been interviewed.

This process highlighted:

• A strong mobilisation dynamic, both for the school building itself and for the campaigning against child labour
• A strong increase in school attendance, due to growing awareness and school accessibility
• A decrease in child labour occurrence
• An improved dialogue and understanding within the communities and between all actors

For further infomation on the evaluation’s conclusions, please click here.

This evaluation report was discussed on 22 June 2004 at the eighth ECLT Foundation Board meeting. The Foundation Board members expressed their satisfaction as to the achievements made by the AECL project so far.

Geneva, 2 September 2004