Art and Global Health Centre Africa executive director Helen Todd has said university students have a greater role in ending the further spread of gender-based violence (GBV) as well as HIV and Aids within and outside their campuses.
She made the remarks at Chancellor College (Chanco) in Zomba on Friday when the organisation’s Make Art for Sustainable Actions (Masa) project squad members from Chanco and Domasi College of Education shared drama, poems and songs based on real-life experiences.
The event comprised interactive aspects that engaged the audience in dialogue about issues of gender inequality and gender-based violence as they apply to Malawian students and the citizenry.
Todd highlighted that her organisation harnesses the power of art to nurture creative leadership and ignite bold conversations and actions.
“Our aim is to ensure that communities are healthy, open, active and people are free to be who they are by engaging university students in advocating for gender balance and fight against the HIV and Aids pandemic,” she said.
In their song titled Nzonamaye [It’s a lie], Domasi College students criticised taboos that depicts females as failures.
In her poem And So I Stayed, Chanco student Ngasha Mushani illustrated how societal attitudes force a wife to stay in an abusive marriage.
“People need to understand that it is difficult for an abused victim to leave as fear and shame hold them back. They need the society to assist them to build inner strength that will help them leave or seek help,” she said. n
