Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Nagging wives drive hubbies into beer

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
Maupo Chisambi, 24, perched up on a tall stool in a local bar at New College Inn in Blantyre, grabbed a Chibuku Packet, pulled a long sip before recounting how he found himself enslaved to beer-drinking.

“Mine was a nagging wife that I could hardly sleep without taking a little beer,” Chisambi started although nobody asked him.

And he continued: “She’s too demanding! When our neighbours had meat, she, too, demanded that I buy meat. When I told her I didn’t have, she insulted and called me a pauper. I had no choice, but to dump her.”

Chisambi, then living at Bangwe, relocated to Chiwembe leaving behind his wife and two kids without a sure source of money. He could have been accused of violating his wife’s and children’s rights if he sent them away.

This is the more reason why Chisambi chose to relocate to another place than send the spouse to her parents.

“You know this Chewa proverb? Wakhungu akati ndikuswa ndiye waponda mwala (It’s only when the blind steps on a stone that he can threaten to throw at you),” he justified.

Chisambi’s interpretation of the situation was that the wife had found someone who offered more than what he could provide. Otherwise she couldn’t call him a pauper six years into their marriage.

Today, beer has become part of the disappointed husband’s life. He confessed that he cannot sleep without it because then he would be thinking about the family problems he had with his wife.

Chisambi could be just one in a pool of husbands whose marriages tumbled upside down because of the nagging behaviour of their wives.

Fr. Henry Saindi of the Catholic Church says his understanding of a nagging woman is “a woman who continually complains and always finds faults with her husband”.

“It is a woman who is shrewish or ill-natured,” Fr. Saindi adds.

But the priest clarifies saying this attitude cannot be attributed to wives only because there are men also who have same attitude. Like a nagging wives, some husbands, too, always seek to find a fault in whatever their wives do.

He cautions that nagging is an attitude which should not be condoned. It must be rejected by married couples.

“Nagging really can refuel marriage breakups. It’s a bad attitude towards the other be it husband or wife. Married people should always understand that they cannot find a perfect partner without any fault. Each person has his/her strengths and weaknesses. The capacity to understand and forgive the other person is the beginning of marriage happiness,” advises Fr. Saindi who is currently studying in Rome.

“Both have a role to play in order to shape the attitude of the other person. They must help each other to grow in good attitude,” he adds.

Fr. Saindi dismisses Chisambi’s thinking that excessive beer-drinking is a solution to family problems. Excessive beer drinking adds more problems and Maupo accepts this fact.

Why men bear responsibility for marriage breakups

Every person goes into marriage with the hopes of having a joyful and lasting relationship. Sadly though, many marriages have ended in divorce or incurable separations.

When such situations happen, men have, for years immemorial, earned themselves the reputation of being responsible for their marriage breakups. Women, on the other hand, are always regarded as victims and continue to enjoy sympathy from gender and human rights’ activists.

Cultural and traditional beliefs have also contributed to this line of thinking where husbands are looked at as a “beast” ready to do his spouse harm.

There are many factors that would usually lead to divorce or separation.

Money

In his contribution on askmen.com, a relationship correspondent Curt Smith says couples seem to always have endless discussions and conflicts over who should take charge of finances in the family. This coupled with miscommunication results in misunderstandings that usually end up breaking the family.

Incompatibilities

Failing to deal with and accept incompatibilities will naturally erode the marriage relationship. Couples must strive to change what they can and accept what they can’t.

Love and forgiveness, to this effect, is the key. There’s no denying that there are some people who enter into marriage unions without fully understanding what they entail. Many prospective brides and grooms are ignorant of the reality of marriage relationships.

Thus they don’t appreciate that no marriage will be free from problems and disagreements.

An American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder of Focus on the Family, Dr. James Dobson Jnr, once wrote: “There are two kinds of people in the world, the givers and the takers. A marriage between two givers can be a beautiful thing. Friction is the order of the day, however, for a giver and a take”.

Dobson Jnr observed that selfishness is, in most cases, the cause for the devastation of a marriage every time.

What to do with insubordinate, ruthlessn wives

In of his letters to the Corinthians, St. Paul said “God has established an order of authority, the principle of male headship, both in the church and the home” (1 Corinthians 11:3). This means that man is the head of the woman.

Some marriages have broken up because women refused to observe this status quo thus failing to submit themselves to husbands. Where a husband cannot compromise, the result is end of marriage.

But Fr. Saindi thinks marriage dissolution is not the best option. He advises married couples should cultivate a spirit of contact and dialogue amongst themselves as the first step before taking their problems to others.

“Not all problems can be solved by others. The couple holds the key to solving its problems. If this fails, then there are marriage counsellors who should act as pillars to building marriage relationships.

“The ladder continues up to the Church set up. At least the Catholic Church, I am not very sure about the other churches, arranges on special days to listen to pastoral problems including marriage problems,” says Fr. Saindi.

But will Maupo Chisambi go back to dialogue with his estranged wife?

“I’ll find another woman. Why should I worry much about her as if women for marriage have finished? You’ll be the same to call me stupid if I go back to her,” pondered Chisambi before picking up his Chibuku packet to take another sip.

END

Power all day everyday in Chitala, blackouts in Blantyre

Rural Development Feature




As investors, manufacturers and town and city residents continue to grapple with the reality of endless power failures, people in Chitala Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Khombedza in Salima and their counterparts in Makunganya Village in the area of T/A Mulumbe in Zomba have power all day every day. They are using solar energy thus the word “blackouts” does not exist in people from the two villages. Our reporter Watipaso Mzungu Jnr visited the two villages and he writes:

There can hardly be any meaningful economic development in a country where its electricity system is not reliable. Economic development has been intrinsically coupled to electricity use.

In Malawi, though, severe power shortages and rolling blackouts have become a daily occurrence around the country as the antiquated power grid is continuously stretched beyond its means.

In 2009, Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) decided to drag Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to court over its catchphrase—power all day everyday—because, according to consumers’ watchdog, the label was a mockery to consumers as a day hardly passes without experiencing a blackout.

But while people in urban areas, industries and manufacturers struggle to come to terms with the sickening blackouts, people in Chitala Village in T/A Khombedza in Salima and Makunganya Village in T/A Mulumbe in Zomba have power all day every day generated from the sun—solar power.

People from the two villages do not even know what the words blackout and power outage stand for because that does not exist in their vocabulary.

Jane Kwazizira Banda, 45, of Chitala Village used to spend K800 per month on kerosene only to light his house and K900 to charge his mobile phone.

The village is about 20 km away from Salima, but Banda used to cycle or even board a bus to the town to charge his phone battery. A mobile phone is fast becoming a necessity and so she couldn't do without it.

But the situation is completely different today. Banda's house has light 24 hours every day generated from solar.

“It was not easy to provide for my family while at the same time maintain my cell phone. It seemed to me that the gadget was consuming more money than what I would spend on toiletries and other basic needs for my family,” Banda said in an interview.

Malawi’s electricity uptake

Despite energy being lifeblood of economic development of every nation, access to electricity in Malawi remains low.

Statistics show that only 8 percent of the total population has an access to electrical energy. Of this, only one percent is in the rural areas.

The situation presented above means that the majority of the country’s population has no access to any form of electricity.

Usually, the unserved population tends to rely on other alternative energy sources for their convenience and common among such sources include paraffin for lighting; firewood and charcoal for cooking.

Unfortunately though, these energy sources have contributed negatively to environmental degradation across the country.

Solar energy seen from this perspective of alternative sources offers a potentially attractive solution to the energy problems that Malawi is currently facing.

Currently, it is estimated that only about 0.02 percent of the population has access to solar electricity.

Speaking in Chitala Village last year when he officially launched the project that Centre for Community Organization and Development (CCODE) initiated to improve energy services delivery in the rural communities, Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment Grain Malunga said this is far below the SADC overall average of 20 percent.

Malunga observed that if Malawi is to achieve meaningful economic development, rural transformation, production enhancement and poverty reduction, there is urgent need to increase access to electricity by the rural populace.

“All the developed countries have reached where they are today because they, first of all, developed their energy sector,” he said adding, “For Malawi and other countries in the region, the full potential of the energy sector has remained far from being realized”.

Very unfortunate indeed to note that electricity generation and consumption in Malawi have steadily risen, placing an increased burden on a transmission system that was not designed to carry such a large load.

Growth in electricity demand and investment in new power plants has not been matched by investment in new transmission facilities.

It is a fact that very few major transmission projects have been constructed and, as a result, transmission capacity has failed to keep pace with the expansion of power demand.

People will continue enduring these blackouts because since 2000 nothing happened in terms of adding capacity.

“Malawians will have to wait for five or more years because it's not like equipment for hydropower is taken from the shelves--(not readily available),” Malunga told the media in April this year.

It is doubtful, therefore, to assume that at least a target of 10 percent access rate of electricity will be achieved through rural electrification by the year 2010 as stated in the Energy Policy Document.

But as every Malawian is looking with keen interest how government will achieve this, CCODE executive director, Siku Nkhoma, believes promoting the use of renewable energy sources such as solar electricity is one of the most convenient forms of alternative energy sources.

Solar power is quickly gaining popularity all over the globe. It is said to be growing at a rate of 2 percent per year, and if the figures continue to grow, solar energy will be the preferred source of energy worldwide, the May 7, 2008 issue of Energy Bulletin says.

Government of Malawi had last year removed taxes on importation of all solar equipment as a way of enhancing affordability and adoption of solar energy.

Most modern nations are encouraging people to rely on this renewable resource so that they can save more and help conserve the environment.

Energy and women

Energy is a major component of the quality of life and it is becoming increasingly evident that renewable coupled with energy efficiency are important elements of a sustainable future.

As more and more women take part in matters of national development, it is imperative to equip them with skills relevant for transforming their lives.

It is with this spirit in mind that Ccode sent a ten-member team of semi-illiterate women to Barefoot College in India where they read for solar installation and maintenance for six months.

The technical expertise these women acquired from their training has started bearing fruits last year when they installed solar power in their respective areas of Dedza, Salima and Zomba districts.

Ccode director said with financial assistance from Trocaire, UNDP Global Environment Fund (GEF), Cara Malawi, and Barefoot College of India, her organization targets 135 families in Chitala and Chimonjo villages in Salima, 100 families in Kaphuka in Dedza while 81 families in Makunganya village in Zomba.

“The success of this pilot project will help us determine our next step to try to make this source of energy reach as many as households as possible. The advantage is that we use semi-illiterate women in their localities to learn how to maintain in case of faults and other problems.

“This, in a way, is to try to empower women with skills necessary for transforming their livelihoods,” said Nkhoma.

In March this year, these semi-illiterate women made Malawi proud when Ccode emerged the winner of the Best Rural Electrification Project after beating 75 other contenders from different African countries with its outstanding work in what has been dubbed as "Ccode-Barefoot College Project".

At the award presentation, which took place on Wednesday, March 17 in Johannesburg, South Africa at Sandton Hotel, Africa Energy Awards said the award recognises excellence in energy service delivery Malawi has demonstrated that it is committed to provide affordable electricity to the rural masses.

Solar power appears to be the most affordable form of energy for the rural people as hydroelectric power is not just expensive but also unreliable. And women involvement in energy issues is also a form of empowerment as they can now work as solar engineers in their respective areas.

As Industrious women in Makunganya attested, solar power has brought a difference in their socioeconomic lives.

“I’ve opened a barbershop from where I’m earning more than what some employees in town don’t receive,” said Maduka.

“People can come to have their hair cut anytime. We don’t have blackouts here and this helps our business to remain stable,” she boasts.

Thus, while barbershops are closing in Ndirande, Namiwawa residents are grumbling over the continued and sickening blackouts, there is power all day everyday in the rural areas of Salima, Dedza and Zomba. The word “blackouts” does not exist in Chitala, Chimonjo and Makunganya villages, thanks to Barefoot Women Solar Engineers Village Electrification Project.

End

Dilemma of children in parentectomy

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
A parentectomy is the cruellest infringement upon children's rights to be carried out against human children by human adults. Actually, parentectomies are psychologically lethal to both children and parents.

Dr. Frank S. Williams, M.D. Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst, defines parentectomy as the removal, erasure, or severe diminution of a caring parent in a child's life, following separation or divorce.

Williams says children whose parents have separated or divorced feel abandoned by a loved and needed parent, and unusually resent and become depressed over the abandonment.

When a parentectomy occurs, children lose the rewarding ongoing opportunity to give and receive love to and from a parent.

Usually, before parents divorce, they would fight over custody of children. In the worst scenario of parentectomy, the victim parent gives up and walks away from the surgically-minded adults and the victim children.

When this happens, the victim parent walks away from the chronic warring battlefield with intense ambivalence and confusion, faced with an insoluble dilemma.

He or she knows that the chronic war in which one parent tries to erase the other, and the other parent struggles to stave off parentectomy, is itself destructive to the children, as it causes ongoing tension and stress in them, as well as in the ongoing interaction between the children and each of their parents.

On the other hand, if a mother or father gives up and walks away from the war, the children feel abandoned by a loved and needed parent, and usually resent and become depressed over the abandonment.

Although Andrew Ntaja (not real surname) hates to see his parents fighting and prays for them to stop, he always misinterprets a parent's giving up the fight as that parent's not caring enough about them.

Andrew is frequently depressed - especially in later adolescence. At times, his depression reaches suicidal proportions.

In his clinical work, Dr. Williams discovered a very high correlation between suicidality in adolescents and a divorce in their earlier years, which virtually results in one parent being erased from their lives.

Such children would often lack self esteem, particularly if they believe the erased parent willfully abandoned them, or when the remaining parent behaves as if the erased parent never existed or never loved and cared for the children.

Children with parentectomies often go on to mistrust and fail in adult intimate relationships, this is for several reasons. First, they tend to see people as good or bad, right or wrong, loving or hateful, worthy of gratitude or worthy of punishment.

Secondly, they have usually witnessed models of adult relationships based on mutual accusations and defensiveness, as opposed to the healthier model of tolerating ambivalence about the good and bad in others and in oneself.

Some parents may continue fighting for their children, but sometimes they would give up because they are emotionally depleted, physically exhausted, worn out, depressed or financially drained; they don't want to continue to subject their children to the relentless warring; they discover that they have little chance of success against a prejudiced legal or judicial system.

In cases of parental alienation, children may leave home prematurely or turn against the "favoured' parent later in life. Their turning against the one favoured parent may come about in later adolescence, when they realize they were "brainwashed" victims caused by a malicious, angry, or disturbed parent, to unjustifiably hate the other parent.

Dr. Williams recommends that children be raised in one home as it provides stability and continuity. He contends that when parents divorce, the children cannot enjoy the benefit of both parents living with them in the same home.

“Therefore, shuttling between homes may be inevitable. In divorce, we usually do not have the option of choosing what is in the best interest of the children. Instead, we most often must choose the least detrimental of several detrimental options.

“This is especially so when a child has been psychologically bonded to two parents. Of two potential evils for children - the evil of shuttling between the homes of two loving, caring parents versus the evil of losing one such parent - certainly the lesser evil is shuttling between two homes,” observes the psychiatrist.

Williams says it is the continued parental bonding, not the number of homes or vehicular travel, which will be the crucial determinant of children's forward psychological development following divorce.

In these days, when both parents frequently work, and rely on sharing the child-rearing with each other, with other family members and with housekeepers and day care personnel, the concept of one "primary psychological caretaker" is outdated.

Frequently there are two psychological caretakers or a network of caretakers, supervised by two parents.

Stepparents

The appearance of a potential stepmother or stepfather on the scene is highly threatening to parental identity. This is especially so when that newcomer has a great need to parent. Hearing one's children refer to a step parent as "mommy" or "daddy", often triggers the search for the parental scalpel.

Recently, an influential man had to fight with his ex-lover over a child because all along the child had been in the custody of a stepfather. After coming to his senses, the influential father couldn’t let his child continue suffering under a poor stepfather.

Although this man contended that he didn’t want his child to live with a stepfather, what he might have forgotten is that his child will still suffer the pain of growing without the mother.

It will be extremely agonizing if the child finds that the stepmother is cruel that life was better in the care of the stepfather.

This is the fact many parents do not consider before they choose to separate or divorce. Unless a parent in custody of the children chooses to remain single forever, their kids will still suffer the agony of being raised by a stepparent; and lose one parent’s love and care.

END

Is agriculture a profession for illiterates?

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
Maupo Chisambi, 24, has just graduated from one of the country’s prestigious colleges, Chancellor, with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences.

He is now looking forward to a day when employers will offer him his long-time dream job—company manager. That’s not being naïve for a Malawian graduate. To be a boss of a company or organization is the ultimate goal young people want to achieve in life.

Ask any school-going child about what he or she wants to be when they grow up and you will be told all sorts of professions minus farming.

The importance of agriculture cannot be overemphasized although less value for the same is created. Every parent wants their kids to become a doctor, engineer, scientist, business person and any other white colour job, but no one wants their kids to become a farmer.

“When I grow up, I want to be a doctor/pilot/teacher,” school-going children would say.

Farmers are the only creators in the world; others are just processing and changing what farmers create. This shows how important agriculture and farming are across the world.

Whereas we have consultants for fields such as Information Technology (IT), Human Resource and so on; there is none of such nature to solve agri-issues.

Despite agriculture being the backbone of Malawi’s economy, very few people think of investing in the industry. We have business people, industrialists, investors who are ready to invest millions of Kwacha to set up restaurants, private schools, car dealers, movie production houses and many more which can just bring luxury to a person but not the life.

By not investing in agriculture, Malawians are, in a way, refusing to nurture the very backbone of our economy. It is unfortunate indeed that Malawians continue to regard farming as an occupation for the illiterate.

Mbasha dumps office work for a hoe

Just like any other person, Stonald Mbasha, 37, of Lupembe Village, T/A Kyungu in Karonga, had his own dream.

Mbasha’s most cherished dream was to become Company Manager or Director once he finished education.

When he got a job as a Pest Controller for Agricultural Division and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) early 90s, he considered it to be a transit to the topmost position at the institution—Chief Executive Officer, possibly.

This never came to pass as he resigned from his position in 2001 to invest in farming. But why change of mind, you would ask.

“The salary I got from there was too little to sustain my family. I thought it’s better to be a farmer with everything you need in life than a respected boss who cannot provide for his family because of poor pay,” said Mbasha.

No man can live without food and the only source of food is agriculture and farming. A farmer, therefore, plays a crucial role in producing food for the citizens while at the same time growing the economic lifeblood of the nation.

Mbasha, therefore, thought agriculture was the best way he could contribute to the economic development of his country. Thus in 2005, he rented a plot in Ntalika Village in T/A Nsamala’s area in Balaka where he ventured into irrigation farming on a small scale.

Malawi’s irrigation uptake

Irrigation farming is presently practiced on just a third of the one million hectares of land earmarked for the greenbelt programme.

Local agriculture experts explain that the two Southern districts of Chikhwawa and Nsanje could feed the entire country all year round if the Shire River, which cuts through the length of this southern plain, was utilized for intensive irrigation farming.

Yet, the two districts, often troubled by floods, are among the most desperately poor in Malawi, and their inhabitants survive on food handouts from government and donors such as Catholic Development Commission of Malawi (Cadecom).

Last season, Malawi produced 3.5 million tonnes of maize, the country’s staple crop. This is 1.1 million tonnes more than the country's total annual consumption. Of the total harvest, only 300,000 tonnes came from irrigation farming.

The Greenbelt initiative aims at attempting to diversify crops, targeting increased production of wheat, rice, millet, cotton, lentils and beans for export.

In February 2009, government invited bids from construction companies to establish, rehabilitate and manage 12 irrigation schemes as part of the programme.

Is government supporting irrigation farmers?

The national irrigation policy says that management of the schemes will be the full responsibility of the beneficiaries through their legally constituted local farmer organizations.

Through their organisations, the farmers will be encouraged to apply for a lease of the customary land. Alternatively, the farmers may apply to register the land as private land owned by a group of farmers, says the irrigation bill.

The national irrigation document states that government will bear the cost of establishing or rehabilitating the schemes prior to turnover. Thereafter, all operations, maintenance and replacement costs in the schemes are to be managed by the farmers themselves.

The schemes will be located on public land and government will then hand them over to legally recognised small holder irrigation farmers’ groups, preferably cooperatives or associations.

But government will not totally separate itself from the activities in the schemes. Apart from providing agricultural advisors, government will also explore ways of securing credit for farmers through the establishment and growth of savings and credit cooperatives and village banks.

"The overall policy for financing irrigation development is that it occurs with minimum government subsidy," reads the document in part.

During his visits to Brazil and the U.S. in September 2009, president Bingu wa Mutharika invited foreign investors to come to Malawi to participate in the implementation of the project.

Organizing markets for agricultural produce

Although the greenbelt project offers a lasting support to Malawi’s fragile economy, some civil society organizations on agriculture like Civil Society Agricultural Network (Cisanet) are worried that finding market for our agricultural produce could be a challenge.

Cisanet contends that the current situation where farmers have to find market for their produce does not really work to the best of our farmers.

“Although government has set the prices at which traders should buy farm produce, crops such as tobacco, maize and cotton have failed on the market, leading to some farmers to decide not to grow the crops this season,” the network told the media recently.

Mbasha seems to agree with Cisanet when he says he is struggling to find market for his produce.

“Market is the most difficult thing to find for my produce. It’s sad that 60 percent of my farm produce, especially vegetables, ends up rotting just because I can’t find market for them,” he complained.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Margaret Mauwa said she could not say much on irrigation farming since it is not under her jurisdiction. Mauwa, however, encouraged people to invest in irrigation if Malawi is to achieve food security.

“I will be very happy to see more people going into irrigation farming. The president has been saying Malawi has enough resources to fight hunger and irrigation farming is one of the means through which we can achieve food security,” she said.

The department of irrigation recently told the media that it will be providing farmers with training on how to effectively negotiate for better prices for agricultural commodities. This, however, seems to take time to start.

But this does not stop Mbasha from believing that there are more financial gains in agribusiness than working in an office “where I will be receiving less than K10, 000 per month, which is too little for a five-member family like mine”.

“My humble suggestion, advice and request to all educated and young friends is to give at least 50 percent concentration towards the development of agriculture and farming in Malawi by getting involved in the process of educating the farmers to make use of the technology and the modern machineries and equipments to improve the end result,” he asks.

END

Unearthing the plight of abandoned wives

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
It seems there is a great desire in men to prey on any woman who avails herself to them. This desire is the driving force behind men’s behaviour of cheating on their spouses.

There are many husbands who flirt around while their loved ones back home are dying to enjoy conjugal rights from them (hubbies).

Although no scientific research has been conducted to establish the percentage of men who cheat on their wives, the numerous stories of the plight of abandoned women and their kids are suffice to prove the case.

What is more saddening is that most of these cheats rarely take responsibility for the offspring they sire outside wedlock thus burdening the innocent and economically-handicapped victims (abandoned women).

The media have and continue to unearth stories of influential men who have sired children at every corner of town, but are quick to deny their responsibility.

Such men usually disappear to unknown destinations where they prowl on more unsuspecting girls ready to plant more seeds.

Chifundo Mayere, 32, of Nasingo in Blantyre first got married in 1995 to a man she regarded responsible, loving and honest.

The man (name deliberately withheld) came with sweeties promising her total love and care in times of sorrow and joy.

But it was never to be. His love for Mayere faltered as time went and later he abandoned her altogether.

But the man, then working as a police officer, left after fathering three children with her.

“I hear he’s staying in Balaka with his new wife,” Mayere said.

Their first-born is now 16 years old and is doing his Form Two at Namame CDSS.

Like in a Nigerian movie, Mayere entered part two of her married life in 2003. This time it was a man from Dedza (again name withheld deliberately).

He left in 2006 having fathered her one child: a girl.

“The first man has never rendered support of any sort since he left. The Dedza man used to assist in bits, but eventually stopped last year,” she said in an interview at her grass-thatched house where she is struggling to provide for two men’s offspring.

Now Mayere does not want to believe any suitor because “I’ve had enough of these cheats who usually come with sweet-talk; sounding angelic when they’re wolves in sheep’s skin”.

“Even my relatives have advised me not to bow down to the desire of other would-be suitors. We’re afraid that like the two men, the would-be husbands would do the same to me.

“Already I’m struggling to provide for the four kids; and I don’t want another man to add more responsibility on me,” said Mayere with finality.

She is but one in a pool of women who have fallen victim to sweet-talkers and irresponsible men.

Just a few metres away from Mayere’s house, five other women are equally failing to feed children they bore from different husbands.

Femail investigations revealed that most of the abandoned wives face challenges in providing for their children. Most of the interviewees said they are illiterate and unemployed.

They live in dilapidated houses where they struggle to pay rent. Most of them subsist on selling fried nuts or plywood they buy from Limbe Raiply.

They don’t gain enough from their businesses, but have no choice. Education for their children has become a luxury to them.

They do not have the financial muscle to send their children beyond the free primary school. Even in primary school, very few children of abandoned wives finish their education because of lack of uniform and other needs.

Abandoned wives say they are all powerless to bring the deserters to book and thus they wonder how they can make these “cheats and heartless” men accountable for their actions?

Centre for Human Rights, Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) executive director Victor Mhango advises that the first step to holding men responsible is by formalizing relationships before engaging in sex.

Mhango thinks most men find loopholes in the way their marriages came into being before deserting their wives.

“Women become more vulnerable if their marriages are not formal because even if they’re dumped, it becomes difficult for them to seek court redress,” he explains.

Malawi laws recognize marriages by cohabitation, but Mhango thinks women would do themselves a service if they formalize their relationships.

“They should always demand to have their relationships formalized so that they should be able to take their deserting husbands to court for maintenance and affiliation redress,” the Chreaa boss stresses.

National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Southern Regional Civic Education Officer Christopher Naphiyo notes that perhaps it is lack of economic independence that drives women into jumping for every man that offers to marry them.

Naphiyo says this problem is quite rampant mainly because of lower literacy levels among women in Malawi.

“Perhaps, women lose sense of independence because of their economic situation. Women need to find ways of gaining economic independence and avoid aggravating the damage by jumping onto a new suitor before properly studying him,” he advises.

The civic educator further explains that women who have fallen victim to cheating men should find a forum where they can share their problems with others such as churches.

Naphiyo, however, notes the stigma and discrimination women with failed marriages bear in some churches, a development which deters most of such victims to open up.

It’s unfortunate that women with failed marriages become talk of town including churches. That’s why most the abandoned women don’t open up.

“And when another man offers to marry them they easily give in just to do away with the public shame,” he says.

Sometimes women may have contributed to the breakage of families, but both Mhango and Naphiyo advise men to be human enough and remember to provide assistance to their kids who they fathered elsewhere.

“Men should learn to be responsible without being pushed,” they say.

Mayere, on the other hand, has an idea she thinks would help curb men’s irresponsibility in families. She proposes that government, through Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Development, should intervene by introducing laws that would punish irresponsible men.

This, Mayere thinks, would help to ensure that children enjoy maximum support from their fathers even if parents divorce.

END

CCODE electrifies Chitala Village

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
The family of Kwazizira Banda, 45, of Chitala Village in the area of Traditional Authority Khombedza in Salima used to spend K800 per month on kerosene only to light his house.

Both Banda and his wife are illiterate. But they realize the need to move with time, especially now when “people preach that we are in a global village”.

The advancement in technology has helped in connecting people across borders. While in the past you needed a long process to communicate to a relation in town or abroad you can now reach him or her just by dialling digits on your cell phone.

So despite living in one of the remotest parts of Salima, Banda is not backward technologically.

He bought his own gadget few years ago. But the cell phone is not an easy thing to maintain, especially to people living in the rural areas where electricity is just an illusion.

But for the love of technology and easy access to his relatives living in towns and cities Banda was spending another K900 on charging his phone battery for a month.

This is not easy-to-find money for a man who solely relies on small scale farming as his occupation.

“It was not easy to provide for my family while at the same time maintain my cell phone. It seemed to me that the gadget was consuming

more money than my wife,” Banda told Grain Wyson Malunga, Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment at the launch of “Barefoot Women Solar Engineers Village Electrification Project” at Chitala Village on Tuesday.

The village is about 20 km away from Salima, but Banda used to cycle or even board a bust to the town to charge his phone battery.

Despite energy being lifeblood of economic development of every nation, the access to electricity is still very low.

Statistics show that only 8 percent of the total population has an access to electrical energy. Of this, only one percent is in the rural areas. The situation presented above means that the majority of the country’s population has no access to any form of electricity.

Usually, the unserved population tends to rely on other alternative energy sources for their convenience and common among such sources include paraffin for lighting; firewood and charcoal for cooking.

Unfortunately though, these energy sources have contributed negatively to environmental degradation across the country.

Solar energy seen from this perspective of alternative sources offers a potentially attractive solution to the energy problems that Malawi is currently facing.

Currently, it is estimated that only about 0.02 percent of the population has access to solar electricity.

According to Malunga, this is far below the SADC overall average of 20 percent.

The minister emphasized that if Malawi is to achieve meaningful economic development, rural transformation, production enhancement and poverty reduction, there is urgent need to increase access to electricity by the rural populace.

“All the developed countries have reached where they are today because they, first of all, developed their energy sector,” said Malunga when he officially launched the project that Centre for Community Organization and Development (CCODE) initiated to improve energy services delivery in the rural communities.

He added, “For Malawi and other countries in the region, the full potential of the energy sector has remained far from being realized.

As stated in the Energy Policy Document, it is the intention of my ministry that a target of 10 percent access rate of electricity be partly achieved through rural electrification by the year 2010.”

Malunga disclosed that despite experiencing a tremendous increase in demand for energy, especially electricity, the level of production and supply at national level.

Therefore, promoting use of renewable energy sources such as solar electricity is one of the most convenient forms of alternative energy sources. To enhance affordability and adoption of solar energy, government has this year removed taxes on importation of all solar equipment.

According to CCODE executive director, Siku Nkhoma, the organization sent a ten-member team of semi-illiterate to Barefoot College in India where they read for solar installation and maintenance for six months.

CCODE Skills and Livelihoods Programme Manger, Boniface Kumwenda, said, with financial assistance from Trocaire, UNDP Global Environment Fund (GEF), Cara Malawi, and Barefoot College of India, his organization is targeting 135 families in Chitala and Chimonjo villages in Salima, 100 families in Kaphuka in Dedza while 81 families in Makunganya village in Zomba will benefit.

“So far, 60 families have benefited in Chitala village alone. The success of this pilot project will help us determine our next step to try to make this source of energy reach as many as households as possible,” said Kumwenda.

“The advantage is that we use semi-illiterate women in their localities to learn how to maintain in case of faults and other problems,” he said.

End

Decent homes, a dream for many

By Frazer Potani, Lilongwe, Malawi
One of the habitable houses in the city of Blantyre

Do you live in a house full of comfort and that you can proudly point a finger at, to show anyone without shame? Then count yourself lucky.

The United Nations Strategy to Combat Homelessness (UNSCH) says one great challenge worldwide is for every soul on the planet to live in a decent home.

“There are over 100 million people that are homeless across the globe,” says the agency. The homeless figures translates into one in every 60 people in the over 6.5 billion plus global population without a home.

Malawi’s Lands and Housing Minister, professor turned politician Peter Mwanza also said recently in Lilongwe at a site where government is building flats for policemen that is aware that people in the country’s towns and cities are struggling to identify a decent house to live.

He, therefore, said government will do all it can to through its housing agency, Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) construct more houses in the country for occupation.

Programme Director for UN-Habitat Malawi mission office John Chome said his office would like to in partnership with government and other partners help poor homeless Malawians living in shacks to own homes.

“Life is meaningless not only in Malawi but globally if one does not have a decent place where to live. Therefore, as UN-Habitat- Malawi office we want to work with government and all other partners to enable poor people in Malawi to have a good settlement that is established on best practices,” he said.

Chome further disclosed that only about 10 per every 100 people in Malawi owned decent homes.

“In Malawi nine out of 10 urban dwellers live in slums,” he said.

Chome’s claims are backed by just mentioning a few, the presence of some poorly planned and sub standard structures mixed with decent houses in townships such as Ndirande, Cholomoni, Bangwe, Chilobwe, Naotcha, Mtopwa in Blantyre City, Mchesi, Chilinde, Kaliyeka, Kawale, Areas 22,23,24,36 in Lilongwe City and Mchengautuwa, Zorozoro,Chibabvi, Chiputura in Mzuzu.

                   A typical pit latrine in Lilongwe's Mchesi Area
To help government transform its reality of helping poor Malawians to own decent houses in the country the Centre for Community Organization and Development (CCODE) and its partners initiated a housing project.

With assistance from CCODE people including women in Area 49 in Lilongwe City are now living in their own houses.

Before owning the houses the beneficiaries lived in shacks that could fall on them and even injure or even kill them.

To own their houses however, the women had to sweat for them by molding 30 cm by 35 cm large bricks for building their 7 m by 7 m houses.

The Area 49 housing story was one of the projects that had put Malawi on the global map as was presented at UN-Habitat symposium in Vancouver, Canada in 2006.

CCODE director Sikhulire Nkhoma said the Area 49 housing project came into reality after Lilongwe City Assembly allocated some plots to the people with the help of her organization.

“Within six weeks after the breaking ceremony was conducted in September 2005 in Area 49 in Lilongwe the women got organized in the process of building their houses. 17 houses were built to roofing level then,” said Nkhoma adding that it was easy for women to realize their dream of owning own houses.

“Some of the women currently owning houses in Area 49 in Lilongwe were discriminated by their husbands. In one case one woman had her husband vowing that he would never step his feet in her house. But later after the woman had moved in the house the husband changed his mind and moved in,” she said.

Nkhoma further disclosed that another case was a sad one as after completing her house one woman died as she was about to move in.

“It was because most of the women showed their interest in the Area 49 pilot project than men that most of the houses are owned by the women,” said Nkhoma adding, “But some houses in this project are also owned by men beneficiaries.”

She also disclosed that some families in the Area 49 project also had ponds and gardens that were beehive of activities for income generation for their own benefit.

Nkhoma requested government to incorporate the housing sector in its programmes of fighting against poverty as Malawi’s poverty face as seen from housing sector is gloomy.

“It’s not easy for government alone to construct a decent house for everyone. But if government can find ways to empower the poor they can easily construct average decent houses for their own occupation,” she said.

Nkhoma further said for example, if government pumped some resources to at least 200,000 houses for the poor Malawi’s economy could get a boost.

She disclosed that at least 200 families in the Area 49 housing project during the pilot phase constructed their houses with K70,000 each house.

Nkhoma disclosed that apart from the Area 49 housing project Blantyre’s suburb, Angelogoveya also benefited 450 pilot plots where people were to construct their own houses for occupation.

In a report, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Mission office in Lilongwe says at a rate of 5.22 per cent, Malawi has the fourth highest urbanization rates in Africa; the top three countries are those emerging from conflict.

“The 2008/2009 State of the world’s cities Report shows that 1,468,000 Malawians lived under slum conditions in 2005, representing 66.4 percent of the total urban population. The cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba and towns near these cities have increasing slum dwellers and increasing urban poverty,” says the report.

The report adds that these settlements are characterized by poor access to physical infrastructure such as roads, electricity and poor access to social services such as health, education, water and sanitation, insecure tenure and poor housing conditions.


UNDP Resident Coordinator Richard Dictus says Malawi’s urbanization trend will not be reversed.

“We therefore, must reform our planning processes so that cities can cater for the increasing population in the cities and arriving from the rural areas. It’s imperative that we pay serious attention to slum upgrading, improving basic urban services, good urban governance structures,” Dictus also UNDP Resident Representative in Malawi said adding that this would ensure that Malawi’s population lives in quality of life.

The UN-Habitat concurs with Dictus says Malawi should indeed prepare for an urban population boom in four decades time.

The agency projects that the country’s new urban population will be 22 times the current size of Lilongwe whose population is 674,448.

In a statement released for the World Habitat Day commemorated on October 5, the organization says while the current urban centres will continue growing, the highest rate of urban growth will be experienced in the current market centres, small urban centres and the bomas.

The agency, however, expresses concern that most of these centres are neglected in terms of urban planning and development.

“These are the centres that do not receive much attention and resources. They continue to grow haphazardly with little or no planning and little investment in public services,” says the agency.

The organization also says the future of Malawi is basically urban with projections showing that by 2050 about half of the country’s people will be concentrated in towns.

The agency discloses that in 1950 there were 101,000 people living in urban areas in Malawi translating to 3 percent of the population.

In the year 2000 on the other hand, 15 per every 100 or 1,764,000 people were living in urban areas in Malawi.

The agency further projects that by next year there will be 3 million Malawians living in urban areas representing 20 percent while by 2050 there will be 15.5 million Malawians living in urban areas, almost 49 percent of the population.

A bathroom in Masasa Township in Mzuzu
“In the next 40 years Malawi will have to plan and provide for new urban population 22 times the current size of Lilongwe in terms of land, housing, water, sanitation, energy, health, education, roads, transport, jobs, food,” says the agency.
END

Dilemmas in achieving 50-50 women representation

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
Mayele: Intimidation is the major challenge
Immediately Beatrice Mayele, 32, of Ntokoma Village in the area of Traditional Authority Kawinga in Machinga expressed her interest to contest in the local government elections, she started receiving messages from anonymous numbers warning her to rescind her decision.

Of all the messages Mayele got, one made her shiver with fear. The message was so explicit no one would dare defy: “Don’t risk your life by contesting against our favourite. Don’t you have respect? As a woman, you can’t contest against men. If you continue with your intention to contest, you’ll be doing so at your own risk!”

She believes the messages were coming from people purposely hired by her male contenders to discourage her from realizing her political dreams.

Although Mayele has not given up the fight yet, she is, however, aware of the uphill task she has ahead of her to persuade people in her ward into giving her their precious votes.

“I’m still determined although I know I’ll face challenges because people here don’t believe in gender equality. I’m disadvantaged because all my male contenders have financial muscles, which they can use to inducing voters into electing them,” says Mayele who intends to represent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Machinga.

Despite the call for gender equality in all sectors of life, many people across the country still believe a woman can only be a leader in the presence of fellow women. This belief is largely influenced by religious or cultural traditions, which limit women authority to fellow women.

For example, in Islam, a woman cannot stand at the pulpit to preach the word of God because that is against the teachings of the Holy Quran.

Similarly, in Ngoni traditions, women have to submit to male children however young. Chimbizgani Jere of Embangweni in Mzimba explains that although their culture appreciates the role women play in the society, their authority is mostly limited to fellow women and male children less than five years of age.

“In our culture, every male child is regarded as king. Such being the case, every woman has to submit to him even if he’s young,” explains Jere.

This type of teachings, if incorporated in our cultural values and customs, can influence people’s attitude towards women as being inferior to men.

In its 24th April 2010 research paper, Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Educational Trust (Wilsa-Malawi) states that customary laws and practices dictate unequal gender relations, compounding discrimination that women face in public and private institutions.

Consequently, obstacles to gender equality persist in Malawi because of existing discriminatory statutory and customary laws and practices, the organization observes.

The large disjuncture existing between women’s constitutional rights and formal laws [customary laws and practices] also worsens the situation as they act as a barrier to women’s empowerment.

However, in Mchinji West Constituency people defied the status quo in the last general elections by electing a female Member of Parliament—Theresa Gloria. They have not been disappointed, so far, according to Traditional Authority Simphasi and his subjects.

Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development provides for equal representation of women in all levels of government.

The protocol calls upon governments and states to commit themselves to the empowerment of women, elimination of all forms of discrimination and to achieve gender equality and equity through the development and implementation of gender responsive legislation policies, programmes and projects.

And to show Malawi’s commitment to gender equality, President Bingu wa Mutharika signed the protocol on October 19, 2009 where he also reaffirmed his determination to empower women in all spheres of the country’s development.

Mutharika told the multitude that gathered to witness the signing ceremony that he was, personally, committed to issues of women empowerment and that he would make sure Malawi was among the first countries to ratify and implement it.

The president observed that women, just like men, were capable of performing as long as they are told and empowered of their role and asked Malawians to accord women a safe environment where they [women] could be resourceful without being inhibited and intimidated.

“We can’t achieve gender balance if we don’t provide a favourable environment for women participation because many women will simply shy away,” said the president.

Pan African Civic Educators Network (Pacenet) executive director Steve Duwa says although Malawi has registered quite a considerable number of women being elected to parliamentary positions in the 2009 general elections, the political climate remains hostile to women and this may have a negative impact on the fight for 50-50 women representation.

Duwa attributes the stagnation to male politicians whom he accuses of using issues of women empowerment as a ploy for rising to top positions because little support or recognition is made to females who have managed to assume leadership positions.

“On paper, the political situation is friendly, but in practice very few women are given the opportunity to realize their potential,” he argues.

“It goes back to the issue of attitude towards women as being inferior to men. Women in elected or appointed positions are usually suppressed by men who want to dominate in all decision-making processes. Most women in appointed into positions are usually controlled by the appointing authorities,” he explains.

Duwa observes that, in most cases, women are given certain positions only when their presence would bring about significant benefits to the men around. He says unless more women are given reasonable share of political power and influence and that they act independently so that they can influence enactment of policies and laws friendly to women in general, the campaign for gender equality and respect for the rights of women will remain a mere rhetoric.

Of the 192 seats Malawi Parliament has, women occupy 42 seats representing 25 percent.

Mayele concurs with the Pacenet boss saying it is not enough to sign the protocols without showing commitment to their implementation. She says while signing of the protocols is a step towards achieving women empowerment, there is need for government to help in creating a fertile ground for women participation in public life.

“Government and the civil society need to work together in civic educating the masses on issues of women empowerment. It’s not easy to change people’s mindset, especially men. Hence there is need for more civic education over this matter,” she states.

Mayele mainly singles out male politicians as violators the legislations that call for women empowerment because they [men] consider women as threats to their political career.

“For example, since I expressed my desire to contest, male contenders have been threatening to deal with me. This shows how backward some people are thinking about us; they think we should be confined to kitchen work,” adds the aspirant.

In the spirit of gender equality and women empowerment, Mayele needs to be encouraged to nurture her interest in public life.

President Mutharika supports gender equality and would, therefore, be the first to support her aspirations. He, however, argues that gender balance does not necessarily every woman should be appointed into positions of authority just for the sake of it.

According to him, quality has to matter when the society is deciding on who should assume roles of leadership lest we compromise the delivery of services in both public and private institution.

“We really need to look at quality,” he said when signing the SADC protocol adding, “Be clear of what you want. It [the 50-50 campaign] should not just be a slogan.”

END


Mother-to-child transmission reduces to 2%

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Government has commended the Drug Resource against Aids and Malnutrition (DREAM) Programme for its efforts that have resulted in the reduction of cases of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the country to 2 percent.

Principal Secretary for Nutrition, HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr. Mary Shawa made the remarks in Lilongwe when she opened a workshop on the new prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) perspectives in resource-limited settings.

Shawa explained that Malawi had registered a significant success in the fight against mother-child-transmission, especially in areas where DREAM Programme is implementing its PMTCT interventions.

“Our research has shown that transmission of HIV from the mother to the child has greatly declined from 35 percent to 1.8 percent and maternal mortality has declined to 0.003 from 1.1 percent in DREAM Centres. And this is not a mean achievement in the fight against HIV and Aids,” she said.

She further applauded the programme for its holistic approach to the fight against the pandemic.

“In the DREAM Centres, there is a social poverty analysis, which qualifies the pregnant woman and her family to be placed on nutrition support. The programme has assisted in delaying the progression of HIV into Aids condition and available studies have indicated that one can remain positive for nine to fifteen years before developing fully-blown Aids,” she said.

In his remarks, DREAM Programme Scientific Director Professor Leonardo Palombi said that among 1,000 women who were assisted by DREAM Programme the results showed that about 98 percent of the babies born to HIV-positive mothers survived and were free from HIV at the end of the first five years of their lives.

Professor Palombi said these results were not achieved in a special clinical trial, but a public health system run by the programme.

“The use of Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy (HAART) during pregnancy has demonstrated to reduce HIV transmission rates to less than 2%, and often to less than 1% in areas where treatment is available,” said Palombi.

He also assured government of his programme's continued support to its agenda to reduce maternal mortality and transmission of HIV from a mother to the child.

The DREAM is a public health prevention and treatment programme founded and run by the Community of Saint Egidio, but gets its funding from Intessa San Paolo, a leading Italian bank.

The programmne provides HIV care to over 55,000 infected individuals in 10 African countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
END