A COWLHA-Trocaire initiative (with funding from the Irish Aid) advancing gender equality and ending violence against women and girls through Malawi’s faith communities
For many women and girls in Malawi, the place they turn to on a Sunday morning or during Friday prayers is also where harmful attitudes about gender get quietly reinforced, or, when the work is done right, dismantled. That insight sits at the heart of SASA! Faith, one of the flagship gender-transformative programs implemented by the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA).
COWLHA has spent years working alongside communities, civil society, government structures, and traditional and faith leaders to defend the rights, dignity, health, and well-being of women and girls, particularly those living with and affected by HIV. Ending violence against women and girls sits close to the center of that mission, because violence and vulnerability to HIV so often travel together. SASA! Faith is where that work meets the pulpit, the mosque floor, and the fellowship hall.
Why start with faith communities?
Faith leaders carry a kind of authority that outlasts election cycles and survives changes in government. A pastor’s sermon or an imam’s Friday address reaches households that a policy brief never will. SASA! Faith works with that reality rather than around it, engaging faith leaders and other faith-based community actors to examine the harmful gender norms, power imbalances, and attitudes that let violence persist and too often go unquestioned.
Through local activism, holistic community engagement, benefits-based activism, and gender power analysis, COWLHA guides faith communities through a deliberate journey from Start, to Awareness, to Support and critical reflection to Action and sustained change. Along the way are Bible and faith-based study sessions, preaching and teaching on gender equality and non-violence, couples’ counselling and dialogue, ecumenical fellowships, and community activism shaped around what actually works locally. Christian and Muslim communities are brought into shared conversation, working side by side toward the same goal: peaceful, respectful, and equitable relationships.
Bringing men into the room
SASA! Faith does not treat men as bystanders to this work. It treats them as necessary participants. Through the same faith spaces and community structures, men are invited to reflect on power, masculinity, caregiving, and non-violent ways to resolve conflict. Faith leaders and community activists, many of them men, are equipped to model and champion behavior change from within their own communities, an approach that tends to land differently than instruction from an outsider ever could.
A model built to outlast the project
What makes SASA! Faith worth watching is not only its content but also its architecture. By working through structures communities already trust, faith institutions, respected local leaders, and existing fellowships, the program is designed to keep working long after any single funding cycle ends. Change that takes root inside a congregation does not need a project vehicle to sustain it; the community carries it forward.
For COWLHA’s partners and donors, SASA! Faith represents an investment in a proven, gender-transformative violence-prevention approach, adapted for one of the most trusted and least leveraged entry points into community life in Malawi. It is work that is locally owned, measurable, and replicable across denominations and districts, rooted in relationships that outlast any grant cycle. Ultimately, it is an investment in communities where women and girls live free from violence and discrimination and where women and men build relationships defined by respect and equity rather than power and fear.
Explore the Google links below to learn more about the SASA! Faith Initiative, featuring recent content from project sites in Balaka and Machinga districts, where COWLHA is actively implementing this work:
https://docs.google.com/videos/d/1FfqF3UlTfQ6UOmH8IGjgpsQwlH-vPmc6f-vWcIfvAKE/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NAkC0WfZgHByrkbx2ePvFyMi6t3Iq-KZ?usp=sharing
