{"id":359,"date":"2015-03-27T04:50:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T04:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asdhostingservices.com\/awdf-2\/?p=359"},"modified":"2015-11-25T01:10:31","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T01:10:31","slug":"agnes-story-from-abused-to-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/OldSite\/agnes-story-from-abused-to-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"Grantee highlight: Agnes\u2019 Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"en\">Agnes Filimoni\u2019s story begins typically for this 30-year old mother from Mtembo\u00a0Village in Malawi\u2019s Chitera traditional authority. Here, the high rate of child\u00a0marriages and pregnancies is often motivated by desperation to escape poverty\u00a0and have food to eat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Agnes was pushed into an early marriage to seek refuge from sexual abuse by\u00a0her stepfather. At fifteen she ran away from home to live with her grandparents\u00a0but soon ended up in a relationship with a man who helped her to finish primary\u00a0school after which the two were married.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">But her husband became abusive following the birth of her first child. With no\u00a0source of help she endured years of marital abuse. On top of that, her first child\u00a0dropped out of school.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Invited to attend a community awareness programme on the rights of women\u00a0organized by Girls Empowerment Network (GENET), Agnes took the bold step to\u00a0join this network. When they saw her natural leadership qualities, she was\u00a0encouraged to set up a GENET network in her own village. She did and is\u00a0currently the chair of the Tikondane Women\u2019s group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Agnes and the eighteen members of her new group were given crash courses in\u00a0business management, life and leadership skills and a start-up capital of 250,000\u00a0Kwacha (About $600) in June 2013. Out of this, Agnes obtained a loan of 15,000\u00a0Kwacha (About $35) with which she started hawking ladies\u2019 bags from village to village. During market days she would go sell in the market. Within months, she\u00a0had diversified her wares and included the Malawian traditional cloth \u201cZitenje,\u201d\u00a0and children\u2019s clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">In about 10 months her capital had shot up to 80,000 Kwacha ($190). She put\u00a030,000 Kwacha ($70) of her capital into farming corn and beans. Currently Agnes\u00a0has a business capital of 50,000 Kwacha ($120) and hopes to continue to grow it.\u00a0She is also expecting a good harvest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">With the increased income and improved confidence she is now able to support\u00a0her two children in school. They are better fed, have soap and pomade to use,\u00a0dress better and are happier, she says. Now she is encouraging her sixteen-year old\u00a0son who dropped out of school to return to the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">And what about her four-year-old daughter?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">\u201cAs long as I am alive, I\u2019ll not allow my daughter to marry early,\u201d Agnes vows.\u00a0\u201cShe will finish school and get a means of earning income first. \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">Agnes\u2019 hard work, sense of business, assertiveness and leadership skills have\u00a0already paid off. She now sits on the village Development Committee (VDC) and\u00a0has attained the coveted post of a secretary. As a result of her advocacy, Agnes\u00a0has been made the chair of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)\u00a0committee in the village.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">\u201cThe AWDF funded project has been of great benefit to me and I wish the project\u00a0came earlier before I got lost,\u201d Agnes said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\">As a result of the work being done by GENET and other civil society\u00a0organisations in the traditional authority, the Chitera traditional authority has\u00a0banned marriages by subjects less than 21 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/africlub.net\/awdf\/take-action\/#make_a_donation\">Join us in supporting work like this by making a contribution to AWDF today!\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment-and-livelihoods","category-grantees"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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