"LOVE is sharing information and preparing for the future" - Why and how Blantyre Synod, Malawi, prioritise SRHR as an act of faith

Tell us a little about yourself.

Hello, my name is Matthews Msiska, and I work with and for the Church of Central African Presbyterian Blantyre Synod and am excited to be able to share our work and represent Malawi. Our church presence covers? the whole southern part of Malawi, which has a large population and a significant constituency. I am part of the community through my faith, and my professional role is as a sexual and reproductive health rights consultant.

What do you do in your role?

I work as an advisor on all issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), providing technical knowledge, sometimes coordinating activity and as a spokesperson as needed on this theme. I started my journey with Plan International Malawi and then with faith communities through the Act Alliance, bringing together the churches in Malawi and globally. This is vital work to ensure everyone can learn and understand their health and rights within their religion.?

And why is this relevant to your community?

Blantyre Synod has a very vibrant and large youth population, and they are vulnerable. We want to support them to grow as strong, healthy community members and also in their learning. We always work through a faith-based approach, and the main issues we see amidst youth are related to pregnancies, unplanned pregnancies and early (child) marriage.?

There was a previous approach which was reactive in nature and it emphasised excommunicating these members from the church, but this does not get to the root cause or change things. There is a gap between parents/adults and church leaders, as important sources of sexual and reproductive rights information for adolescents and young people, and this is where our work comes in.?

Many young people otherwise are learning about these things from the media, their peers, initiation ceremonies or unreliable sources. We must do better by them and provide them with accurate information. They can’t be left in a vacuum.?

How has this been received in the community??

Most still consider it taboo to discuss and communicate sexual and reproductive health and rights issues and information, especially with adolescents. However, we were experiencing some problems because of the silence. The intergenerational gap and uncomfortable feelings when discussing this meant that there were no discussions about legal issues of sex between adults and youths and a lack of reliable sources on biological aspects of sexual and reproductive rights. So this results in early and unintended pregnancies.

What is the place of the Church in talking about SRHR?

We are people who are supposed to take care of our bodies. These are regarded as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and whoever destroys their body is destroying the temple of the Holy Spirit. So the values of taking care, being a steward and respect are fundamental to our faith and practice.

We contribute to an interfaith approach, a way forward; where people can be healthy, respected and able to speak about their sexual and reproductive health as fitting in the faith doctrine. As part of my work, we use the scriptures to guide and defend sexual and reproductive health and rights.??

We have a duty to our community and society. Our faith is founded on the values of love. Especially care for others and to love one another as we love ourselves. This

We can't talk about not destroying the Temple of God without referring to sexual health and looking after each of our bodies, as God is within us.?

We are also part of an international community, and there is strength in working together to understand Comprehensive Sexuality Education from an interfaith and faith-led lens.?

How and with what activities has the Blantyre Synod carried this out??

We started the dialogues, organising these between young people and using the arts as part of this. We also had some sessions aimed at sensitization, where we brought in health, sexual and reproductive health and rights experts from the Ministry Of Health Malawi .?

This ministerial expertise was combined with the lived experience of young people, who have been trained as facilitators and are critical to the work's success. They are peer educational leaders and work in tandem with the faith-based approach for information.

We have also used sporting activities and organised tournaments as a tool to mobilise the youth and use the opportunity to disseminate information on sexual and reproductive health and rights to the young people themselves. We're encouraging health and remaining healthy - we can reach many people and are happy with the impact.

To attract many young people from the interfaith community, we took advantage of the World Cup fever and held football and netball tournaments. We would use breaks between games to share short messages on SRHR through the PA loudspeakers from many different people, who shared several aspects of SRHR. This activity was supported and contributed to by the Government of Malawi. There were also stations by the pitch where people could ask questions on SRHR. These were frequently on contraception, HIV (and testing), AIDS and counselling.

Then to the masses and broader public, we’re using radio to sensitise and educate. We have also been on TV and shared things/activities on social media, WhatsApp, Facebook etc. We know this is not only an issue within our community; we want everyone to have this information.

I also want to highlight that alongside education about SRHR, we also saw it as a need that we should develop the adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive rights policy for Blantyre Synod. This was achieved with some funding from Act Urbano. It has been vital as we now have a living document that everyone in the community can access, view and refer to; it guides our responses and action as the Blantyre Synod.

What has been the impact?

We are closing the intergenerational gap through dialogue, believing that we can all learn from each other, and respecting perspectives and experiences. This has also led to more conversations and stronger relationships between young people and elders.

Sports-led initiatives have now impacted 2.8 million young people, and we target 60% of females to males. We have also held sessions at the Mega Youth Conference 2022, working with 800 young leaders. We have a higher focus on girls as we have found them less inclined and eager to participate to date. This may be due to previous expectations and permissions. We want to change this and for all children, especially girls, to know their bodies and rights and to rebalance the current gender inequalities that lead to vulnerabilities and fewer girls pursuing their potential in work and life within society. We are acting deliberately so that no one is left behind due to gender! By having strong female role models, other girls see what is possible.

We now also have a document that is known and understood by the whole community. We have the policy in both English and Chichewa, the local language in Malawi. We dedicated 2018-2019 as a year of sensitising the Synod and involving them in the concept and policy creation which is crucial if they respect, support and implement the policies. This has resulted in a reduction in the number of cases and issues which are brought to the Disciplinary Committee about pregnancies and early marriages. We also hear anecdotally that conversations are easier between parents, children and elders on topics relating to SRHR. There has been a shift and change of attitude, which should be celebrated whilst not taking away from ongoing efforts. We are not there yet.

And finally, we have strong relationships and ongoing dialogue with the government; continuous efforts to collaborate with and complement their existing work. We could only impact and provide education for the benefit of the community with it.?

And how does it complement the government's work?

Schools are already teaching children about SRHR through activities and topics which are taught in school, including life skills currently. Our sports projects complement this education which begins in primary schools.?

I am also grateful for the collaboration with the Government of Malawi; the Minister of Health, in particular, has helped me so much because they have been updating me on emerging issues and feeding me with information that has been updating our work and practice.

What do you see next for this work and SRHR progress in your community?

Firstly, we thank God because of this project. We initially thought it was too secular, but we've realised that youth today, starting from a young age, are aware of and think about their bodies and rights. We had seen the early pregnancies of the past but had not acknowledged them openly. We want to increase the church's role in working with young people to guide them through this life stage and provide them with accurate information.?

We are also excited that our work in Malawi is considered a pilot and there is a discussion of scaling this activity across the country, at a national level, with other faith communities. We can not recommend this enough, SRHR is vital for young people, and we are thrilled to be playing this part in the country's health, happiness and success for future generations.

Personally, I am committed to the work in Malawi and to continue learning and growing within the Faith to Action Network . The network has helped me interact with several actors and discuss our challenges, learnings and successes with people from different countries, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, Cameroon and Kenya. I learn a lot from these international perspectives; we are all interconnected.?

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