LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawian children in both primary and secondary schools are demanding standalone emergency centers in readiness for disasters.
The demand is meant to caution classes’ disturbances whereby classrooms are used as shelters when communities are hit with disasters including cyclones, floods, hail winds and among others.
Speaking during the sideline of the National Youth Network on Climate Change (NYNCC)’s Pre-COP29 Children and Youth consultation workshop on Saturday, May 25, 2024, in the capital Lilongwe, learners expressed dissatisfaction with how authorities for sake them during a disaster.
One of form 3 learners from Mbidzi Secondary School in Lilongwe, Zainabu Tawakali observes that authorities are fully aware of prone disaster areas, “Why does the government allow us to miss lessons when disasters strike in our areas? Why do our classrooms become houses for communities who are affected by the floods?”
“We want government and civil rights groups to construct standalone emergency centers for disaster victims, not our classrooms. They keep us denying our rights to education by closing schools due to disaster”.
Tawakali added, “If emergency centers are constructed in all disasters prone areas across the country, lessons will not be disturbed. It’s our rights to education at all cost”.
NYNCC National Coordinator Dominic Nyasulu told The Maravi Post in an interview that the grouping agrees with children and youth demands for emergency centers in readiness for disasters.
Nyasulu hinted that authorities must listen to children and young people demands towards sustaining their rights sustainability.
“What children and young people are raising is very crucial in disaster risk management whereby the need for emergency centers is ignored. Learners suffer a lot during disasters. We need authorities to consider the request as soon as possible,” said Nyasulu.
With financial support from Sweden Sverige in partnership with Save the Children, NGO CCR, the youth consultation meeting attracted 10 schools; seven secondary and three primary schools from Lilongwe and Ntchisi districts.
The workshop aimed at soliciting views from children and young people ahead of COP29 which they (young people and children) will be given a chance to voice out their concerns on how climate change keeps on affecting them.
