Mangochi, Malawi Facts & Statistics
Where is Mangochi, malawi?
Mangochi is a township in the Southern Region of Malawi located on the shores of Lake Malawi. Lake Malawi, also know as the Lake of Stars, is the third largest lake in Africa and accounts for almost 1/5 of the country's area. RiseUp Malawi serves 6 villages under the Traditional Authority Mponda in the Mangochi District: Matuwi, Kella, Makawa, Makokola, Mpemba 1 & Mpemba 2. In total, we serve the 21,879 people that live across these villages.
What is the educational situation in Mangochi?
Mangochi has a population of approximately 1.2 million people. Of the total population, 260,000 children are primary school age but only 16% of these children complete primary school. For girls, this statistic drops to 13%, as they drop out due to early marriages or parents that fail to pay their school fees. Mangochi has a drop out rate of 6.7% yearly. Many boys drop out of school to fish and contribute to the family income.
Unfortunately, the percentage of females and males aged 25+ years that have some secondary education in Malawi is 39.2% and 58.2% respectively. These are among the worst education statistics of sub-Saharan Africa.
Although free secondary school education was introduced to Malawi in late 2018, it is predicated that like 2004, when free primary school was introduced, there will be a national shortage of classrooms and qualified teachers to deal with the huge increase in students. So although more students now have access to secondary education in Malawi, the quality of education is likely to decrease, with under-resourced, under-staffed, and under-funded, creating extremely challenging teaching and learning conditions for teachers and students alike. In addition, a lack of secondary schools in total means that many students in Malawi have to walk great distances just to attend school each day, which obviously has a huge impact on attendance. As a result, we provide scholarship funds and bicycle transport for outstanding youth in need to attend private boarding schools where the quality of eduction is higher (www.rippleafrica.org)
WHAT IS THE HEALTH SITUATION IN MALAWI?
At current mortality levels, 1 in every 16 Malawian children does not survive to their fifth birthday
Nearly 4 in 10 (37%) of children under five in Malawi are stunted, or too short for their age. Stunting is an indication of chronic undernutrition. This percentage is higher (45%) in Mangochi.
In Malawi, nearly six million suspected cases of malaria are treated annually. The burden of malaria disease has been clinically observed to be disproportionately suffered by children. Malawi has one of the highest rates of malaria in all of Africa.
WHAT IS THE HIV/AIDS SITUATION IN MALAWI?
Malawi’s HIV prevalence is one of the highest in the world, with 9.2% of the adult population (aged 15-64) living with HIV. An estimated one million Malawians were living with HIV in 2016. The Malawian HIV epidemic plays a critical role in the country’s low life expectancy of just 57 years for men and 60 years for women.
Young people account for 50% of new HIV infections in Malawi, with HIV prevalence highest amongst 15-17 year olds.
Early sexual activity is high in Malawi with around 15% of young women and 18% of young men (aged 15-24) reporting having sex before the age of 15. Furthermore, girls aged 15-19 are 10 times more likely to be married than their male counterparts, with 45.9% of women having their first marriage before they turn 18 years old.
There is estimated to be 530,000 orphans in Malawi as a result of AIDS (avert.org)
WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE TO LIVE IN MALAWI?
Sources:
2015-16 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, avert.org