Fedus Youth Ministries 

PRIMARY SCHOOLS ARTS (DRAMA) FESTIVAL

More than half of the world’s population is composed of the youth. The same is with our country, Malawi, meaning that the nation is a youthful nation.

Some of the challenges among young people include

• High poverty: over 60 % of the country’s population is in abject poverty and this makes it difficult for the youth (especially orphans and vulnerable children) to progress with their studies and other social and economic development activities.
• HIV/AIDS: The country is faced with 10% HIV/Aids prevalence threatening more youth and causing orphan problems. .
• Unemployment: Job scarcity is a problem. In addition, the school curriculum orients the youth to white collar jobs rather than making the youth self-reliant and self employers and even employers of others. There are also inadequate vocational centers to impart entrepreneurial skills to the youth.
• Inadequate Capacity and Life Skills: Youth literacy rate is very low. Moreover, most of the youth are undertrained and face problems in making decisions about their own life due to inadequate life skills.
• Peer Pressure: Leading to drug and alcohol abuse and premarital sex. This is made worse by inadequate counseling and career guidance.

It is for this reason that Fedus Youth Ministries (FYM) is implementing a project called Generation “Y” Impact – drama competition, a program whose aim is to promote talents and skills amongst young people in schools. Additionally, the project seeks to encourage the culture of English speaking in our schools. The young people try to find solutions to problems surrounding them as well as the society at large through the plays that they will stage. Experienced volunteer youth are identified and engaged in facilitating the preparations of the schools’ children’s drama groups. The volunteers develop play scripts for the drama groups and equip them with acting skills so that they can release the best talents out of them.

The volunteers are first oriented on the purpose of the festival and what is expected of them. Since the service that these volunteers offer is free of charge, FEDUS provides the volunteers with computer training as an incentive. Each school is required to produce a 25 minute play under a chosen theme. The best three schools receive prizes, with the first receiving a trophy.

Three well experienced, independent and mature individuals in art are engaged to monitor the performances with the highest focus on acting skills and the speaking of English and the theme of the play. Three judges will be engaged to monitor the performances and finally announce the winners. Prizes will include books, t-shirts, finances and a trophy.