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Turning Dropouts into Dream Builders: How Skills Training is Changing Futures in Dowa

In Malawi, the education system continues to face enormous challenges. In Dowa district, for example, school dropout is also high. According to the 2023 Education Management Information System (EMIS) Report, in Dowa alone, more than 6,700 children, 3,244 boys and 3,532 girls, left school in a single academic year. This means 3 percent of boys and 4 percent of girls never made it back to the classroom. For many, this exit from school is the start of lifelong hardship, often leading to early marriages, teenage pregnancies, and cycles of poverty. For girls, it can be even worse.

Behind these numbers are real lives, like that of Debora Mankhokwe from Madisi. Debora, the daughter of subsistence farmers, was forced to leave school in Form 2 when her parents could no longer afford her education. Faced with uncertainty, she refused to follow the all-too-common path of early marriage or idleness. Instead, she made a bold decision: to train in Carpentry and Joinery at There Is Hope (TIH).

 

“I have seen many girls drop out of school and end up pregnant or married too young. I didn’t want that. I wanted to shape my own future,” Debora says.

In a male-dominated field, her decision raised eyebrows. She endured stereotypes and doubts but pressed on. After six months of vocational training through TIH’s Skill Up! project, Debora is now completing an internship in Lumbadzi, gaining industry experience and preparing to stand tall as a professional carpenter. Her dream is to prove that women can excel in carpentry and to inspire others to follow her lead.

“I chose carpentry because I want to challenge stereotypes and inspire other young women to see that they too can do this work, and do it well,” Debora says.

Her colleague, Hosea Lazarus, shares a similar story. At 21, Hosea also dropped out of school in Form 2 due to financial struggles. As the eldest of four children in a farming household, education had always been a luxury his family could not sustain. Yet his ambition to become a carpenter never died. At TIH, he found more than technical skills he discovered entrepreneurship and life skills that now equip him to dream bigger.

“I want to start my own carpentry business, be independent, and help my family and community,” Hosea says with determination.

Today, both Debora and Hosea are interning at a carpentry workshop, sharpening their craft while learning the ins and outs of running a business. Their journeys represent more than personal victories, they are evidence of how skills training can break the cycle of poverty and rewrite the narrative of school dropouts in Dowa.

For every child forced out of school, there lies a risk of wasted potential. But initiatives like TIH’s Skill Up! project prove that with the right opportunities, those same children can build dignified, productive lives.

In a district where dropout rates continue to threaten futures, Debora and Hosea stand as proof that investing in vocational training is not just about skills, it is about hope.