The Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) in Malawi is an NGO that was set up in 2002 to promote and protect human rights by assisting vulnerable and marginalised people to access justice through advocacy, legal advice and assistance. The Centre has several projects, including:
Promoting sanitary health in prisons
(Rule 5, Chapter 4)
This project aimed at lobbying and advocating for the inclusion of menstrual hygiene packages in the Malawi Prison health budget for women and girls in detention. In Malawi, there are about 300 women in prison, most of whom cannot afford to buy sanitary pads. As such, they end up using small pieces of clothes or old pieces of blankets which are a health hazard and can result in contracting chlamydia.
Improving access to paralegal aid services
(Rule 26, Chapter 6)
Owing to a high prevalence rate of sexual violence offences and lack of trial progress on the sexual violence cases against children, CHREAA in collaboration with partners designed a project with interventions that aimed at combating the increasing cases of sexual violence offences in Blantyre, particularly against children. Apart from aiming to end the increasing cases of child sexual abuse, the project was also designed to address challenges in accessing justice and health services. The One-Stop Center is a government initiative that provides services to children, women and men who are survivors of physical and sexual violence.