STEKAskills

STEKAskills is a grassroots Malawian-led SCIO with Malawian/diaspora/Scots trustees partnered with Malawian NGO STEKA (Step Kids Awareness) run by women/children’s rights campaigners Helen and Godknows Maseko. STEKA is a home where 100+ trauma and poverty-experienced children/young adults find alternative family and stability. STEKAskills extends STEKA’s impact beyond the home so that more poverty & trauma experienced Malawians can empower themselves by developing the vocational skills, confidence, & agency needed to challenge structural inequalities. This is achieved through (1) the use of an innovative model of critical dialogue (the STEKAskills model), developed to help oppressed people build the power needed to overcome the challenges they face (including ritualised gender based violence experienced by many local women & girls ) & (2) the development of our STEKA Centre for Vocational Skills & Community Enterprise..
In Scotland, we build solidarity by challenging aid framed narratives of the Global majority and engage communities through events, workshops, presentations and, short films where poverty experienced Malawians speak for themselves demonstrating their resilience, ambition and focus. We have co-produced award winning Dialogue Groups as an alternative to voluntourism in Malawi whereby tourists pay for workshops run by a STEKA team instead of doing jobs on their behalf.