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Fieldnotes from Malawi

Prisca is 27 and she is an advocate for young people’s rights. She works for an NGO that runs several projects with youth and their sexual reproductive rights (think teenager pregnancy and HIV awareness). Malawi has one of the world’s highest rates of child marriage. Half of girls are married before the age of 18, many because their families are too poor to support them. Teen pregnancies contribute to 20-30 per cent of maternal deaths in the country, and the low share of girls, only about 45 per cent, remaining in school past the 8th grade (UN statistics from 2017). But Prisca is relentlessly hopeful for the young people of Malawi. Her laugh is contagious. She is a total hero. 

Prisca and me in Lilongwe.

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