NGO gets K830 million for climate change

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

A Norwegian government has granted Lake Chilwa Basin (LCB) Climate Change Adaptation Programme, a local non-governmental organization dealing in issues of climate change, a grant totalling US$5.4 million (about K830 million) to help the organization fight effects of climate change.

The programme, which will run for five years, will be jointly implemented by Leadership for Environment and Development Southern & Eastern Africa (LEAD SEA) based at Chancellor College, WorldFish Centre (WFC) and Forestry Research Institute of Malawi (FRIM).

LCB Programme Manager, Welton Phalira, said in an interview on Tuesday the programme, which has already taken off, is being implemented in ten selected hotspots in the Lake Chilwa Basin, in collaboration with the three district councils of Machinga, Phalombe and Zomba.

“The primary beneficiaries of the programme are local communities dwelling in selected villages within the hotspots,” said Phalira.
It is also expected that local and district institutions dealing in environment and natural resources management will benefit from capacity building programmes LCB will provide.

“The Programme will also support partner institutions with resources to enhance their capacity to deliver essential services to the communities so as to enhance their resilience and adaptation to climate change. LEAD SEA is coordinating implementation of the Programme while funding is being provided by the Norwegian Government through the Norwegian Embassy to Malawi,” Phalira explained.

In the next five years, LCB Climate Change Adaptation Programmes shall strive to secure the livelihood of 1.5 million people in the Lake Chilwa Basin and enhance resilience of their natural resource base.  This will be achieved through development and implementation of basin-wide climate change adaptations in support of the Malawi National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) to enhance the capacity of communities to adopt sustainable livelihood and natural resource management practices.

Among other things, the Programme will endeavour to strengthen local and district institutions to better manage natural resources and build resilience to climate change; facilitate cross-basin and cross-sector natural resource management and planning for climate change throughout the Basin; improve household and enterprise adaptive capacity in basin hotspots; and promote mitigation of the effects of climate change through improved forest management and governance, according to Phalira.
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Dumping sex work for entrepreneurship

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

While many financially-crippled women are going into prostitution as their easiest way out of destitution, 25 sex workers have called it quits.



Regina Mbela readying for customers in the restaurant



They have since ventured into entrepreneurship and they intend “no turning back”.

When thinking about trades that have been around for centuries prostitution is not one that normally comes to mind yet it is claimed to be one of the oldest of professions. And there are many reasons forcing women into sex work.

Some women have gone into sex work due to economic needs like poverty, emotional neediness and susceptibility to pressure from friends.

Some prostitutes have explained that joined prostitution having gone through sexual abuse, grown up without love from the significant adults in their lives, being enticed by a male of female friend or by peer pressure from a group of friends, and needing money.

But one Regina Mbela, 38, of Zalewa Village, Traditional Authority Symon in Neno district; divorce trapped her into ‘this immoral business’ 23 years ago.

Prostitution became her only surest means of survival as she is illiterate and so prospects of securing a job became uncertain; or so she thought.

“I needed money to feed my children left behind by the ex-husband,” Mbela said in an interview with The Sunday Times.

She launched her nocturnal profession at Nchalo in Chikhwawa before migrating to other districts such as Blantyre and Lilongwe where she used to entertain lustful men in pubs. At one time, she went as far as Johannesburg, South Africa where she stayed for two years just selling her precious body.

Difficult circumstances have forced many others into this “much detested immoral means of earning a living” including Mary Tendayi Moyenda. Moyenda, 37, who comes from Zimba Village in Mangochi dropped out of school at a very tender age because of pregnancy.

The man responsible for the pregnancy accepted to marry her, but she refused. She, however, married a few months later to an army officer.

While the family was at the peak of love, the husband died. It was a time when Moyenda had just given birth to their fourth child.

Upon man’s death, his entire death gratuity was accrued to the wife and children. It was a big chunk, and Moyenda accepts that, but since money can be “perishable to others”, she could keep it long time. Today, the widow suspects superstition played a part in her squandering of the money.

But her failure to keep the money did not mean she is done with financial challenges as well.

“When I finished all the money I was paid, more problems crept into the family. I had responsibility to fend for my children in the midst of unemployment and destitution,” Moyenda explained.

“Prostitution looked the easiest way. But people didn’t know I was a sex worker because I used to sell airtime during the day,” she added.

The turning point

One day as she was selling airtime, a seemingly prospective customer availed himself, saying he needed her services. Moyenda was reluctant to follow him because, then, she would shame herself to people who held her in high esteem.

However, what the man offered was somehow irresistible. He told her he had everything she would need in life.

“But I told him I couldn’t go because I didn’t know him. Again, I didn’t know where he was coming from,” Moyenda recalled.

The still man insisted until she could resist no more. But when they arrived at what was supposed to be a ‘room’, Moyenda was surprised to be ushered in a well-decorated office where many sex workers, including Regina Mbela, who were chatting aimlessly.

“Then I realized this man was cheating me. He didn’t need my services, but was up to something else,” she explained.

The man disappeared for a few minutes only to appear with public address to them women. First the man told them where they were: offices of Development Aid from People to Poeple (Dapp).

Moyenda does not remember the name of the man who tricked her into his office, but mission on them will remain with them the rest of their lives.

In his address to the women, the Dapp official said his organization was looking for women who need economic empowerment; and that Moyenda and company were suitable. The organization pledged financial support, but asked each one of them to identify four sex workers each and coax them into entrepreneurship. 



Former sex workers narrating their stories to Watipaso Mzungu

 Birth of Mtendere Restaurant at Zalewa

In January 2008, Partners In Health (PIH), a partner organization in Neno, began collaborating with Dapp, an NGO that was operating a health centre at Zalewa, to work with a group of commercial sex workers in an effort to strengthen health services and help them find alternative forms of employment.

In February 2009, the centre hired 15 of the women to work as community health educators in three busy trading centers. The centre provided them with ongoing training focused on counseling commercial sex workers and their clients on sexual and reproductive health, making referrals for HIV testing and counseling and, more recently, cervical cancer screening.

In the first few months after establishing this partnership, HIV testing at the centre is said to have increased by over 125 percent. The number of commercial sex workers in the catchment area who have started antiretroviral treatment at PIH-supported sites also increased substantially.

On October 2008, Dapp unexpectedly closed the Zalewa centre citing lack of funding, despite acknowledging the success of its programs.

PIH/APZU stepped in and assumed the salaries of the former Dapp employees, as well as all other operational expenses. In January 2009, the centre began offering daily adult literacy training in three sites along the trucking route.

The classes were open to all commercial sex workers in the area; 56 women enrolled. In February, APZU held intensive 7-day training on business management. Based on the training, the participants developed a business plan for opening a restaurant co-operative in Zalewa.

“That’s how we opened Mtendere Restaurant through funding from Raising Malawi Project,” explained Chrispine Ntopola, PIH Program on Social and Economic Rights (POSER) programme assistant.

“Our research indicated that most sex workers face many challenges, which drive them into prostitution where they are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections. Entrepreneurship, therefore, could a necessary tool for empowering the women to become financially self-reliant and thus reduce the number of new infections,” said Ntopola.

The arrangement is such that the women working in the restaurant are sharing dividends at the end of every month as their salaries.

And now two years after retiring from sex work, Mbela does want to remember the days she used to sell herself to men. Today, she believes she sinned against God and her own person.

“I don’t still feel proud that I was a prostitute at one time in my life. But one thing I have to accept is that there some circumstances, which are just too much that you cannot run away avoid committing a sin even against your own self,” she told The Sunday Times.

As an illiterate woman and a mother to two, Mbela solely relied on her husband for everything. Separation from her breadwinner, therefore, was not far from death sentence or life imprisonment passed on her by the highest court on the land.

Although this arrangement seems to have helped Mbela, Moyenda and several others gain some economic independence, the women think time is ripe for them to venture into personal businesses.

“Yes, we take pride in that they have registered a tremendous improvement in our lives, but still something is missing. We’ve done this group business for far too long. We think it is time we started personal businesses now,” said Florence Kapanira, another group member.

“We’d like to cease this opportunity to appeal to money-lending institutions to provide us with individual loans. We’ve to move on so that new comers can find space here,” complemented Nester Chitete.

According to PIH e-bulletin, the organization hopes to develop the Zalewa site as a women’s empowerment center that gives commercial sex workers in the region the tools to find safer ways to support their families by addressing the women’s medical, social, and educational needs.

In addition to strengthening women’s health services, including family planning and risk-reduction counseling, antenatal care, HIV care, prevention of mother-to-child-transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, STI detection and treatment, and cervical cancer screening, the site plans to increase opportunities for adult literacy, vocational training and small-business development.

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NGO prevents Sheikh from marrying 15 year-old girl



            She has been selected to secondary school: Khadija

 BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Human rights activists are the last crop of people Sheikh Abdulrashid Denis Nawani of Mangochi would set his eyes on because they prevented him from marrying a 15 year-old girl having clinched a deal with the girl’s parents.

But National Coordinator for Islamic Information Bureau (IIB) Sheikh Dinala Chabulika has condemned Nawani’s action describing it as irresponsibility not worthy coming from a religious leader who is supposed to be exemplary.

Sheikh Nawani is said to have enticed Khadijah Hashim’s family with financial and material support if they offered him to marry their daughter and a Standard Eight pupil at St. Augustine 3 Primary School.

YouthNet and Counselling (Yoneco) Youth Development and Human Rights Officer, Matthews Malunga, said Tuesday that in December last year, Sheikh Nawani was due to marry Khadijah Hashim of Mosiya Village, Traditional Authority Chowe in the district after making arrangements with her parents.

Khadijah was, however, not aware of the deal until when marriage counsellors started planning for the big day—engagement ceremony.

According to Malunga, the man of God approached the Hashim family where he expressed his desire to marry Khadijah. Nawani confirmed this but explained that discussions were being held behind the girl’s back.

In their verbal agreements, Sheikh Nawani committed himself to look after Hashims’ social and financial needs. He also promised to keep Khadijah in school while at the same time attending to the pressing duties and responsibilities of the family.

“He lured the family by promising to render financial support to the family if they gave in,” said Malunga.

Khadijah’s sister, Habiba, confirmed that the family entered into agreements with Nawani where the Hashims were to marry off the teenager “because our father in South Africa cannot provide for us”.

“We cannot provide for her school needs hence the agreement we made with the Sheikh,” said Habiba.

Marriage counsellors from both sides were identified to facilitate and steer the engagement and eventual wedding ceremonies of Sheikh Nawani to Khadijah.

But the religious leader got a shocker of his life when counsellors rang him in the last minute informing him the cancellation.

Sheikh Nawani blames the human rights activists for foiling his marriage and blames Hashims’ u-turn on the Teacher Counsellor, Jenipher Jeremiah-Salapa, who facilitated the foiling of the marriage.

“I still believe that was not the decision from the girl’s family, but some people from an NGO who had told her parents not to marry off their daughter,” said Nawani.

The Sheikh argues and feels his rights have been violated saying as a man he had all the right to marry a woman of his choice without people interfering with his private life.

“Everything was set until this other day they rang to tell me that what I did not expect from them. I don’t know what exactly happened. I loved my girl and she loved me,” explained a seemingly disappointed Sheikh Nawani who ministers at Mosiya Madrassah and passes by the girl’s home every time he is going to serve at the mosque.

But Khadijah contradicted the Sheikh’s sentiments saying “all the arrangements were done by my sister”.

“I’ve never met him personally. He’s never proposed love to me and I never consented to be her wife,” she said. Habiba corroborated what her younger sister said.

In his remarks, Malunga said Mangochi continues to register increase in cases of child abuse and violation of child right to education as most parents encourage their children to do domestic work instead of sending them to school.

Yoneco has embarked on a project aimed at sensitizing the local people on the need to send their children to school, but the project has met some resistance from parents as well as chiefs.

“Our efforts are heavily resisted. We received resistance from Khadijah’s uncle, sisters and village headman Mosiya, as well because they wanted Khadijah to marry Nawani because he had promised financial assistance,” said Malunga.

“It is disheartening to find that parents are the masterminds of these pre-arranged marriages,” he added.

Khadijah’s father and brother are currently in South Africa, but do not send financial or material assistance back home.

The teacher counsellor, Jenipher Salapa disclosed that the idea behind the practice was the families desire to pull themselves out of excruciating poverty since most suitors come with promises some of which are unattainable.

“In this case, the idea was that the family could be benefiting from Sheikh’s benevolence if he was allowed to marry the girl,” explained Salapa.

“This practice is rampant here in Mangochi. In Mosiya alone, we had three cases. We rescued two; one got married with parental backing,” she said adding that the teen-family ran disappeared from the district because they feared human rights activists could separate them if they remained in their [activists’] sight.

But Sheikh Abdulrashid Denis Nawani does not see any reason why Yoneco had to come in to stop the mariage on the basis that Khadijah’s right to education was being violated.

According to him, the girl would still be in school and he would be providing all the required support for her succes in education.

But National Coordinator for Islamic Information Bureau (IIB) Sheikh Dinala Chabulika has described Nawani’s argument baseless and irresponsibility.

Chabulika said on Wednesday that what Nawani did was pure irresponsibility and violation of the girl’s right to education.

“Islam teaches us to be responsible. You cannot just marry a girl of that age [15]. We expect girls of such age to be in school and not in marriage,” stressed Chabulika.

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Meet Defao Bute: A music promoter

Defao in his Limbe office: Picture by Watipaso

Music promoters play a crucial role in the success of artists. Yet, usually this crop of people has often been accused of ripping off musicians; reaping where they did not sow. Our reporter, Watipaso Mzungu Jnr, caught up with Defao Bute to shed more light on this and other issues. Excerpts:

Can you tell me what your name is?

My name is Defao Bute. I was born in 1973 at Ngabu in Chikhwawa. Basically, I am a music promoter, marketer and seller here at Limbe in Blantyre.

So how can you define a music promoter?

A music promoter is someone who stands between an artist and a other sections of people that matter in the music industry. These could be producers, radio DJs and the consumer (buyer). In summary, I can say a promoter is a link between an artist and the stakeholders. As a promoter, you may also be required to play an advisory role to the artist and vendors (people who sell music on the markets) for the success of the album.

Since you started this business, how many musicians have you promoted, so far?

There are so many; I can’t remember. However, I can only mention a few who have managed to do well on the market. I promoted Thomas Chibade’s Dzina langa, three albums of Katelele Ching’oma and Joseph Nkasa’s Ndakulakwira Chani?

Besides, I have also released five collection albums—Defao Collections whose quality people have appreciated so much on the market.

You have reminded me something. How do musicians you feature in your collections benefit from such albums?

The normal procedure is that different musicians compose songs and sell them to anyone interested in releasing a collection. The price of each depends on how good the song is. The highest I have paid to a musician for a song is K30,000.

You promoters have sometimes been have accused you of ripping artists leaving them desperate and poor.

I am aware of those allegations being levelled against us. It’s very unfortunate that many artists don’t want to understand when the Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) says about how a promoter and an artist can share the proceeds. The Cosoma Act states clearly that a promoter shall and the artist shall share equally (each one of them gets 50 percent of the proceeds fromt the sale of the album).

However, I can understand why some artists choose to disregard this requirement and go about falsely accusing us of reaping where we didn’t sow. One thing you need to know is that most of our musicians are jobless and thus music has become their only source of living.

Hence they become desperate to make big money within a short period—they are lacking patience.

But I must clarify here that this attitude by musicians towards promoters is not synonymous with all musicians. I know of many artists also who are aware of what the promoter is supposed to get such that issues of disagreements and misunderstandings between an artist and the promoter does not exist.

Could you state some of the main challenges anyone interested to be a music promoter is likely to face?

Piracy is the major challenge in this industry. I feel Cosoma lacks the human resource to monitor our trading centres where much of this vice is taking place. I wish the society had enough workforce so that they could be moving around our markets and see for themselves how heartless people are exploiting other people’s art for their sake.

What could be your final word?



Defao busy serving customer: Pic by Watipaso Mzungu Jnr



Well, I would like to thank the media in Malawi for being helpful, especially when it comes to promotion of our music. I also would like to thank music lovers who seem to be appreciating local music at the moment. As you are aware, most Malawians used to like foreign music, but gradually, this trend seems to be changing. More and more people are buying local music today. This spirit should continue if our talent is to be nurtured.

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Chanco students equipped in climate change

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

The brains behind the project: Phalira

University students can play a crucial role in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes necessary for fighting effects of climate change, Lake Chilwa Basin Climate Change Adaptation Programme (LCB) has said.

LCB Climate Change Programme Project Manager, Welton Phalira, made the observation on Monday in Mangochi when he accompanied 40 students from Chancellor College who visited Panda Demonstration Garden at Cape Maclear’s Chembe Village.

The project sponsored the students’ trip to the village for them to learn and appreciate how the garden is helping people in the village in recycling and reusing waste materials as one of the means for conserving natural resources.

Phalira said since climate change has spared no sector of human and economic development, it was necessary that young people, including those in institutions of higher learning, spearhead environmental and natural resources management as well as development initiatives.

He observed that recycling and reusing of office waste such as paper could be one way of conserving natural resources and reducing carbon emission into the air.

“Chancellor College is one such a place where a lot of paper is being wasted through burning. We feel that students should know how they can recycle and reuse the papers thus reduce the amount of carbon being emitted into the air,” Phalira explained.

“We, therefore, want to empower the youths and let them undertake such initiatives to the grassroots. LCB would like to empower the youths so that they understand issues of climate change at the earliest time and help them to develop mechanisms for fighting its effects,” he added.

Phalira stated that the trip to Chembe Village was meant to offer the students an opportunity get first hand information to acquire knowledge and skills on alternative waste management and development initiatives.

Chancellor College assistant registrar, Ellius Chizimba, who was also part of the team to Cape Maclear, welcomed the project, saying it will help the college check the amount of carbon it emits into the air and find the best way of reversing the situation.

“I’m very impressed with the project. Normally, we throw away some of these items, such as paper, not knowing they could be recycled and reused and thereby changing somebody’s life,” Chizimba said.

“I believe this project will benefit a lot of people once students start replicating what they have learnt here in other areas surrounding the college. At the same time, it will help us and the communities around us conserve the environment,” he added.



Heeed Officer explaining briquette-making process



President and founder of Chanco’s Green Campus Initiative, Heather Maseko, thanked LCB for the support and expressed her commitment towards the fight against the effects of climate change.

At Panda Garden, the students were introduced to production of fuel briquettes, hand-made paper products and aquaculture ponds, among others.

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Inadequate funding cripples MAP activities

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR 

                Dzinkambani admiring the newly donated tricyles in Blantyre



Malawi Against Physical Disabilities (MAP) says it is failing to implement some of its core programmes because of the inadequate funding government allocated the organization in its 2010/11 financial year, the organization’s Rehabilitation Services Manager, Alex Dzinkambani has said.

Dzinkambani made the remarks on Saturday when an Austrian charity, Austria Support Malawi, donated 10 tricycles to the organization.

Government had this year reduced by more than 50 percent the allocation to MAP, a development that has crippled to the operations of the organizations. In its 2009/10 financial year, the organization was allocated K236 million, but was this year reduced to K110 million.

“This is too little comparing to the number of programmes we are supposed to carry out. MAP needs more than K35 million just for appliances only in a year. Now if you take into account the salaries of our workforce of 100 people, definitely you’ll see that we are left with nothing for implementing our core programmes,” Dzinkambani said.

“Malawi has about 300,000 people who have some forms of physical disabilities. Of these, 50 percent are children of school-going ages who desperately need our support so that they are empowered to go to school,” Dzinkambani explained.

The manager, therefore, commended an Austrian charity, Austria Support Malawi, for donating 10 tricycles to MAP. Dzinkambani stated that the donation was important in that it will empower beneficiaries to actively take part in socioeconomic activities in their locations.

MAP has already handed over the tricycles to beneficiaries who came from Blantyre, Neno and Thyolo.



  Austrian benefactors with one of beneficiaries



Meanwhile, Austria Support Malawi has pledged to continue providing assistance to people with disabilities in the country through MAP.

“When we go back home, we shall fundraise again so that many more people with disabilities can receive assistance in terms of wheel-chairs, clutches and other items,” said Katharina Koch, one of the officials from the Austrian charity.

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While releases all Yao album

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

That Malawians do not take pleasure in listening to local music is a proven fact.



    Thinking hard?: Dalitso While. Pic: Watipaso Mzungu Jnr



And while other artists are trying very hard to respond to the listeners’ choice by copying foreign music, genres and beats, an upcoming Mangochi-based artist, Dalitso While has decided to defy the market demand by releasing his all Yao album—Ngusanakonda, which means “I love you!”.

In an interview with The Sunday Times on Monday, While said he decided to do all—Yao pieces a way of preserving “our traditional and cultural values”.

“It’s unfortunate that most artists are abandoning their own culture and traditions in their music because of money,” said the musician who is also known as Dea Man among his admirers.

But While faults listeners whom he accuses of forcing local artists to dump their customs, cultural and traditional values in their quest to make ends meet.

“Local artists would not have been copying alien music if listeners where responding favourably to our music. Unfortunately, most people think whoever listens to local stuff is backward,” said the musician who is also an Art Teacher at Heeed Malawi at Cape Maclear in Mangochi.



 Dalitso While in Mangochi: Will his music sell?



This has been a general concern among many artists and has been labelled as the main contributor towards local artists’ failure to survive in the industry.

Unlike many musicians who choose to sell their albums via prominent music dealers such as OG Issa and others, Mr. Dea Man is selling Ngusanakonda CDs and DVDs on his own.

“So far, I’ve managed to released CDs and DVDs only. I’m monitoring the market to see whether there’ll be any need for tapes,” he said.

The album has 14 tracks.

END

Who will bail out tobacco tenants?

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

 



  A tobacco tenant (middle) with his family in Lilongwe



Pregnancy is a cause for joy for every prospective mother as it is to the man that sowed the seed.

But for a tobacco tenant, Marko Mwale, 38, it was cause for worry. Then working for Chikoko Estate in Mchinji, his wife’s pregnancy cost him a job at an estate he worked for ten years.

It was in January 2005, when with pangs of happiness, his wife asked Mwale to arrange transport to Kapiri Mission Hospital about 20km away where she could get professional birth attendance.

 

Mwale did not hesitate to approach his employer for assistance as he [Mwale] did not own a bicycle nor did he have money to hire one to take her to the hospital for professional maternal healthcare. But the landlord could not allow them to.

 

“I was told to choose between caring for my wife or job. He reminded me that I had come alone and that, therefore, he could not be responsible for intruders,” Marko’s former boss and owner of Chikoko Estate told him.

 

Confused and feeling helpless, he left his boss and returned to his grass-thatched hut, which could best be described as a kraal. He found his wife lying in agony and motionless. Only a sound of groaning, a sign that she was really in deep pain, could be heard from a distance.

 

“For fear of losing my job and annual payments, I relented, went back to my house where I found my wife groaning in pain. I assumed the role of a traditional birth attendant to help my wife deliver,” Marko told officials from the Ministries of Labour, Agriculture and Centre For Social Concern (CFSC) during a “review of the working and living conditions of tobacco tenants and other workers on tobacco estates” that was held from 16—17 March in Lilongwe last year.

 

“However, the good news is that with the help and grace of God, my wife managed to deliver right at the estate. The child is still living to-date,” he sighed with deep relief.

 

Marko then went on to explain the ordeals that tenants and other workers on tobacco estates go through in the hands of their bosses. Marko described the scorn with which they are treated at the hands of the people they are slaving.

 

As if blaspheming, he said the respect estate owners receive from their tenants does not match that worshippers give to their Creator.

 

“We are treated like garbage. When we run out of basic needs, say flour, we go through our supervisor. We are not human beings at all in the eyes of our employers,” explained Marko who added that he deserted his first employer, Chikoko Estate owner in Mchinji after the boss denied him assistance to take his wife to the hospital to receive professional medical care.

 

“Our problems are recurrent. No tobacco tenant can tell you his life has improved or he has ever bought a valuable item in his life let alone a bicycle. Actually, sometimes I turn to wonder whether God cursed us.

 

“But one thing that I am very sure of is that all tobacco tenants in Malawi are serving life imprisonment and our crime is that we were born in poor families,” voiced out Marko emotionally directing looking into to the eyes of officials from Ministry of Labour and Justice.

 

Rosaria Chiteyeye, another tobacco tenant at Chiphaso in Kasungu, concurred with Marko, but unlike the latter, Chiteyeye has a slightly different version of the episode.

 

Chiteyeye, feminine that she is, told the officials how difficult life is for women and children in tobacco estates.

 

“We are not entitled to annual or maternity leave, transport facilities, medical scheme, death gratuity, and other entitlements. If estate workers fall ill, they are neither entitled to sick leave nor provided with transport to go to the hospital,” she said.

 

Chiteyeye added: “We just hear from our fellow women working in organizations or government of maternity leave. That vocabulary does not exist in tobacco estates.”

 

She also said though the degree of women’s involvement in tobacco production is equal, sometimes more, to that of men, their contributions are not directly rewarded by the estate owners or their husbands.

 

That is not all. Chiteyeye said most women in estates are subjected to mental, sexual and physical abuses from landlords and their own husbands. They are sexually harassed or even raped by their masters.

 

The situation becomes worse for tenants with large families as employers do not consider the number of the family members as their focus is on the husband.

 

“When our food allocations run out due to the large number of children that we have, our employers tell us they have no responsibility over the children,” she reported.

 

Chiteyeye further stated that children born of tenants rarely can go to school as bosses do not approve of it. She said children as young as six are offered to estate owners for domestic assignments such as looking after animals [kulisya ng’ombe, as she called it] or plucking suckers.

 

“This brings our families extra pay, which we normally use to buy some basic needs like toiletries and other basic needs,” said Chiteyeye adding that sometimes supervisors seek sexual favours from vulnerable women and their girl-children in exchange of food items.

 

Tobacco Tenants and Allied Workers Union of Malawi (TOTAWUM) general secretary, Raphael Sandram, said he was banking hopes on the November slated Parliamentary meetings to debate and pass Tenancy Labour Bill into law.

 

Sandram disclosed that the bill was very important towards uplifting the living standards of tobacco tenants and their families.

 

“In the interest of basic justice, we believe the legislation should be considered without further delay. The tenant farmers need: written, legally enforceable labour contracts, a living wage and adequate food, safe drinking water, medicine, and proper housing, interest-free loans for agricultural inputs and food, transportation to home villages, at no cost, after the growing season,” stated Sandram.

 

The trade union representing tenant farmers reported that their living conditions are worse today than when reform legislation was drafted in 1995.

 

Thirteen years later, the Tenancy Labour Bill, still held by the Ministry of Justice, has yet to be discussed in Parliament.

 

“Therefore, we urge Ministry of Justice to: (1) immediately create a Parliamentary sub-committee to review the Tenancy Labour Bill and send it to Parliament for debate; and (2) ensure that the Tobacco Tenants and Allied Workers Union of Malawi (TOTAWUM), tobacco landlord associations, and tobacco companies begin collective bargaining,” he added.

 

Officials from the ministry of Labour present at the function said the ministry was aware of the sufferings of the tenants in tobacco estates.

 

The officials, however, said they are failing to rescue the tobacco workers from abuse and violations due to lack of law empowering them to discipline the estate owners.

 

“If landlords challenge us, we have nowhere to go. We cannot take them to court for abusing the rights of their workers as there is no law on tenancy,” said one of the officials, Audrey Khungwa, when asked why his ministry was silent on the cry of the tenants.

 

Centre for Social Concern (CFSC) executive director, Fr. Jos Kuppens, said at the review meeting that over 500, 000 Malawians are living under dehumanizing conditions in tobacco estates.

 

Fr. Kuppens cited tobacco workers and families on estates of Lilongwe, Mchinji and Mzimba as some of the tenant going through such conditions despite efforts by the Ministries of Labour and Justice, and other civil society organizations to create human environment tobacco workers.

 

As a signatory to various human rights treaties and Conventions, like the Convention of the Rights of Children (CRC), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Fr. Kuppens observed that Malawi is obliged to enforce conditions that ensure that all its citizens, including tobacco workers and their families, can enjoy their rights and entitlements.

 

“Tobacco workers live in extreme poverty and are often subjected to high levels of exploitation including sexual harassment for women by their supervisors. There are high human rights abuses and violations” he said.

 

“The situation has become more serious since the advent of market liberalization. The majority of the tobacco workers [tenants and contracted workers] work without written or oral contracts.

 

“Furthermore, many landlords on tobacco estates deny workers basic necessities such as medication; food when they run out of their monthly allocation, safe drinking water and housing,” he added

 

The CFSC director lamented that despite the fact that most of the country’s imported goods are paid for in foreign exchange that is generated by the sale of tobacco, those who are mostly responsible for the foreign exchange have no access to proper housing, clean drinking water, and schools for their children, medical services.

 

Tobacco production is associated with economic development in Malawi. It provides employment to a cross-section of Malawians and contributes over 70 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

 

The powerful forces behind Malawi’s tobacco-dependent economy are United States subsidiaries; Limbe Leaf, Stancom and Demon, which together purchase over 95 percent of the leaf and sell it to global cigarette firms like Philip Morris and British American Tobacco (BAT), according to CFSC.

 

In its latest survey, CFSC in partnership with other civil society organizations, with the help of the Ministry of Labour and other experts discovered that most estates do not provide services for school-going children, leading to high incidences of child labour on tobacco estates. It was established that although primary is free in the country, children become part of the workforce by working alongside their parents on tobacco fields.

 

“There was also a lot of evidence that children as young as 10 years become full time workers on these estates and earning far much less than adults,” says the survey report.

 

The study has recommended that there should be [compulsory] signed contract agreements between landlords and estate workers; seasonal labour and tenants, that stipulate what the landlords will provide as support services to the workers, how much lump sum will be paid to the worker at the end of the season.

 

It also recommends that the draft Tenancy Labour Bill that was prepared by the Ministry of Labour be tabled in the next sitting of Parliament and passed into law to empower the suffering Malawians in tobacco estates.

 

The Bill emphasizes written contracts between tenant and landlords covering things like transports of tenants, food provisions and accommodation, and their loan repayments schemes.

 

“We, therefore, demand that this bill be made known, that political parties commit themselves to tabling and passing it [500,000 voters can make a difference to any party in closely contested elections] once the new parliament is sitting and has resumed business after the May elections,” emphasized Fr. Kuppens.

 

Only until then will Marko Mwale and Rosaria Chiteyeye smile after getting a reward for their toiling on lands owned by profit-minded farmers.

 

“I am just praying for Fr. Kuppens and his team for his tireless efforts to bail us out. I hope when the war is won, I should be able to buy only a mere push bicycle, which I have always desired to own,” Marko, who is now working for Chilim’nthaka Tobacco Estate in Mchinji, told the participants when asked to say his closing remarks.

END