NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

On a gray Wednesday morning in the Malawian capital of Lilonge, a group of young people perform a skit for philanthropist Melinda Gates who has come to visit their recreational centre, a drafty room with wooden, board walls and a corrugated iron roof that don’t quite meet.

In the skit, a persistent teenaged boy tries to pressure his unwilling girlfriend into having sex.

“If you want to have sex, we’re using this,” she says, pulling a condom out of her back pocket.

The boy is affronted and bellows excuses.

“Okay, if you don’t want that, maybe this one,” says the girl, pulling a female condom out of another pocket.

There are titters of laughter from the teens, members of the Lilongwe Youth Action Movement, a part of the Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM). Gates is as amused as they are.