Malawi: Efforts to reduce school absenteeism pay off

An anti-child labour body's efforts to renovate schools and increase access to water has helped reduce school absenteeism among communities in Malawi's Central region. "We have recorded a 22.1 percent increase in school enrollment in the 100 villages that we work in, and a 36 percent decline in absenteeism," Bobby Maynard, coordinator of the initiative for the NGO, Together Ensuring Children's Security (TECS), told IRIN. The organisation, based in the capital, Lilongwe, has been working in the tobacco-growing region for the past two years.