One of the lawmakers in the Romanian Parliament, Cosmih Poteras, has expressed satisfaction with youth involvement in Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) interventions in Malawi.

Poteras, who is currently in Malawi, said it was pleasing to note that Malawi is making strides in mindset change as the country is trying to find solutions to address population growth.

“The young we meet today are really smart, motivated as well as engaged and I believe they can do the difference. When we return back home I think we should create events that increase awareness in our countries and this may lead to some help provided by some organizations that are really doing a great job. We discussed funding and funding is essential in what they are doing. They need the funds to provide training services and awareness to people, so that’s what we are going to do when we get back home,” Poteras said.

Executive Director for Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM), Donald Makwakwa, said the engagement of the visiting team with the youths was very important as the country is looking for more youths to take lead in many aspects.

“As an organization we have been working with young people and we listen to them and this engagement has given as an opportunity to explore more on how best we can engage young people to address their particular needs, like from the discussion we had this afternoon there are quite a number of things we can take and we will take it from there as an organization on how best we can be engaging with Youth Wave as well as other youth lead organizations to advance their rights as young people,” he highlighted.

Executive Director at Youth Wave, a youth lead organization, John Nyirenda, lamented that funding systems are not youth friendly, a development that affects most of youth-led organizations.

Nyirenda pleaded for more funding towards interventions initiated to improve the social and economic livelihoods of young people.