Thursday, September 2, 2010

Withdraw street children or face more delinquencies--CESTAS Malawi

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
  Children need protection 
Centre of Health Education and Health Appropriate Technologies (CESTAS Malawi), an Italian-Malawian non-governmental organization, has warned of increased cases of delinquencies if parents and guardians of street kids do not withdraw their siblings off the streets.

CESTAS Malawi Country Coordinator, Dr. Mario Bacchiocchi was commenting on recent reports that police in Lilongwe had arrested four street children on suspicion that they set fire on Tsoka Market after picking a quarrel with businesspeople trading their wares in market.

The law enforcers had earlier nicked a teen prostitute on allegations that she stole from her client. She denied wrongdoing.

In an interview Friday, Bacchiocchi warned the situation could exacerbate if parents and guardians do not prevent their children from going onto the streets to beg.

While appreciating that many people are poverty-stricken in the country, Bacchiocchi deplored the tendency by some less privileged parents who lade their children with responsibility to fend for the family through begging.

“Begging is not a profession and cannot offer a solution to our social and economic challenges. Less privileged parents should find better means of survival than forcing children onto the streets with open arms,” he said adding that street life is dangers to children as it exposes the minors to abuse, neglect and exploitation.

“It's wrong to use innocent children as a bait to meet family needs. Children need to be given optimum protection from abuse and exploitation by providing necessary support and sending them to school,” Bacchiocchi added.

The CESTAS Malawi boss further askedto “Good Samaritans” to find better means of exercising their charity rather than giving alms on the street saying such a practice will only help in begetting "more problems than we intend to solve”.

“It’s better we channel our efforts towards orphanages or NGOs that support orphans and vulnerable children than practice street charity because it will not help in curbing problems that force children into that situation,” he advised.

Family breakdown, poverty, physical and sexual abuse, disinheritance or being disowned are some of the problems that force many children opt for street life, according to World Health Organization 1993.

END

Govt asked to open markets in villages

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
                   Namakhwa (in hat) handing over an iron sheet
People in Thyolo say rural markets could play a crucial role in the socioeconomic development of rural masses.

They have since asked government to open mini markets in rural areas to reduce distances people in search of market for their agricultural produce.

Speaking at Mikate Primary School on Monday, Group Village Headman Mikate, said small scale farmers are finding many challenges to find markets for their agricultural produce because there are no markets near in the rural areas.

Apparently, Member of Parliament for Thyolo Central, Kingsley Namakhwa, was handing over 48 iron sheets for the construction of Mikate Rural Market with fund from Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

“With rural markets, local farmers will kill two birds with a stone. They’ll no longer travel long distances to sell their produce thereby completely cutting costs on transportation to the markets,” said Mikate, who is under T/A Kapichi.

He added that that well-structured markets in the rural areas could also help local farmers to take farming as business.

“We are, therefore, asking government and its development partners to open more markets in the rural areas,” he said.

In his remarks, Namakhwa explained that government had deliberately introduced CDF in order to respond to the needs of the people at the grassroots.

“CDF was introduced to deal with simple development projects such as construction of mini markets in the rural areas. All you need to do is to come up with your development plans for the area and present them for consideration,” he advised.

END


Drug abuse, youth and crime

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
“On your own plea of guilty, this court finds you guilty and duly convicts you. Before I pass sentence, do you have anything in mitigation?” says First Grade Magistrate Esther Elia Phiri of Lilongwe registry as she straightens her head up to see the reaction of the convict, Anusa.

“Yes worship! I pray to this court to exercise lenience on me because this is my first time to commit a crime. I would also like to confess here that it was not my intention to commit this crime, but I was cheated by my friend who told me chamba gives academic ingenuity,” pleads an 18-year old Anusa while looking down in depression and regret.

“It was my friend, Zonizo, who handed me a cigarette of cannabis sativa to smoke while we were partying…and I did not know it was such a dangerous drug that could put me in such a difficult problem,” he adds

Anusa raises his head up to look at his parents who are sitting in the public gallery. He sees them shedding a tear or two as they try to shy away from his gaze. Though he is pleading for lenience, Anusa knows quite well that the crime he committed just last night, rape with violence, will still earn him separation from his parents and relatives through death penalty.

He is fully aware that if he is lucky enough he will be spared death, but still earn a considerable custodial sentences of not less than ten years for rape attracts a maximum of 14 years imprisonment with hard labour.

“Considering that you are young and that you have had no criminal record before as you and the state have submitted, this court will take these as your mitigating factors.

“This court is also mindful of your tender age and that you still have a future to make, and considering that maximum sentences are reserved for serious criminals, this court is compelled to exercise its lenience on you. I will also consider the factor that you showed remorse by pleading guilty to the charge and that you did not waste court’s time as your mitigating factors,” says magistrate Phiri.

She poses a bit, takes a bottle of water, drinks and puts the container down again.

“But this court feels obliged to pass a meaningful custodial sentence on the convict because cases of rape and women abuse are becoming rampant. This court does not find it necessary to exercise on the convict because he committed the crime under the influence of alcohol and drugs,” she states. She looks the public gallery to see the people’s reaction.

Phiri sees some faces expressing approval of what she is putting forward to Anusa, especially ladies who are most of the times victims of alcohol and drug abuse in families, schools and any other places of entertainment. The convicts’ parents are still tucked in shame while silently shedding tears of deep sorrow. They have to because they also know this is the beginning of a new life in their family.

They will no longer see him. They will not be able to send him to buy something at the grocery. He will be temporarily unavailable for some years. In short, this is the end of their son’s future, or do they just fear?

The magistrate takes a few minutes scribbling some notes on her file, which no one can access with naked eyes from afar. And the court remains quiet with Anusa still standing in the dock with his hands akimbo.

He is visualizing life in prison; life far from parental care at his age when he desperately needs them to pay his school fees. Anusa has heard stories before of people dying in prison due to lack of food resulting from congestion, a problem our country’s reformatories are best known for.

“I am doomed. My future is doomed. God forget the day I was born,” he curses within himself as he awaits his final destination from the magistrate.

After Phiri finishes writing whatever she was writing, she adjusts her sitting posture, drawing the chair closer to the desk. She clears her throat while facing the convict, parents sitting about five metres away the court clerk’s desk.

“This is your verdict,” she announces. “But before I do that, let me stress here that peer pressure is not an excuse for committing crimes and can never be a mitigating factor. Whether you committed a crime with or without help or influence, the court will pass the same sentence on you. It is up to you to choose who your good friend is.”

“I am, therefore, sentencing you to 12 years imprisonment with hard labour with effect from day of your arrest. This sentence shall serve as a warning to young people who think life is about abusing women after drinking or smoking unnecessarily,” concludes magistrate Phiri attracting the convicts’ loud cry.

“Nditengeni ine chonde mwana wanga msiyeni. Ndikagwire ukaidiwo ndineyo (Set him free. Take me instead, I will serve the sentence on his behalf),” says the mother in her grief-stricken tone. But on what crime can the court pass that sentence on her? Well, she can play Jesus, but courts do not believe in human saviours who can die for other people’s crimes.

Anusa was celebrating his selection to secondary school the previous day when his peers cheated him that beer offers maximum entertainment and celebration. So they went to a certain Mtonjane brewer where they guzzled more than enough that they even forgot their names and where they had come from.

“Takagwireni man kuti mtseguke m’maso. Izi zimachotsa manyazi mwene,” said his friend, Jungayunga, as he handed Anusa a locally-made cigarette of chamba.

The celebrant had no time to ask what the stuff was until the following day when he found himself standing before the magistrate answering questions from law-enforcers for forcing himself on a woman.

It was said that after taking one too much, Anusa decided to bed one or two girls as a way of bidding farewell to village girls as he was now going to secondary school that was far from his home.

One has to spend not less than K1000 to reach the destination. Unfortunately, his new destination was now Maula Prison where he would be for the coming 12 years.

This is but one example of how alcohol and drug abuse can destroy somebody’s future in a short period of time. Abuse of alcohol and drugs have put many young men the world over in serious problems they would never imagine happening to them. Some have found themselves in mental hospitals after taking in too much of pills or smoking chamba wholesale.

Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Earnest Malenga recently told journalist in Lilongwe that Malawi was one of the countries faced with serious drug production, abuse and trafficking in the SADC region.

Malenga explained that about 75 to 80 percent of mental cases in Malawi were a result of alcohol and drug abuse, especially among young people.

“The Rapid Situation Assessment report on Drug Abuse and HIV/AIDS in Malawi conducted by the Centre for Social Research of the University of Malawi undertaken in 2004 revealed that there is massive abuse of drugs in the country,” said the minister when he was signing memorandum of understanding on behalf of government of Malawi with FORUT, an international development organization that is trying to fight alcohol and drug abuse in different countries across the globe.

“There are three main drugs of abuse in Malawi , namely alcohol, cannabis sativa (locally known as chamba) and tobacco,” said Malenga. He added that excessive use of drugs and alcohol has led to many families breaking up, pupils getting expelled from schools and drivers causing unnecessary accidents and high infection rate for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV and AIDS.

“The other problem with alcohol is that besides being dangerous to the individual drinker, it is also harmful to those around us such as women, children who bear the brunt of the aggression and violence caused by alcohol and drugs,” explained Malenga.

He blamed the problem on lack of active legislation on the use of alcohol and drugs citing drinking joints which remain open 24 hours because there was no law that guides bar owners on times of opening and closing. Malenga, however, reported that Malawi has now put in place a framework for combating the problem through the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Drug Control chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security.

He warned that Malawi may risk degenerating into a society of drug addicts if use of alcohol and drugs is not properly managed.

On the MOU he signed on behalf of the government of Malawi, the minister said FORUT was committed to provide the country with technical assistance in the field of alcohol, specifically in areas of research and documentation, competence building, policy development, mobilization and awareness-raising, strengthening of law enforcement institutions and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Drug Control and Eradication of Cannabis Sativa (chamba).

In his remarks, FORUT Secretary General Morten Lonstad said the programme to combat the abuse of alcohol and drugs in Malawi came after Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation had advised the organization to involve countries in Southern Africa .

“Our aim is to build networks of national and international NGOs where ideas, experiences and knowledge on prevention strategies and policy advocacy can be exposed and further developed,” said Lonstad.

He added: “The programme in Malawi aims at linking the ADD issue to other development issues, as the spreading of HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence and children at risk.”

Lonstad promised that his organization will continuously help Malawi with the required assistance in her fight against alcohol and drug abuse.

“There are vested interests such as the alcohol industry, but if we work together, civil society, faith-based organizations, government ministries, politicians, traditional leaders and all stakeholders, I am sure we should be able to map the way forward to prevent and control alcohol and drug abuse in Malawi so that at the end of the day we should reduce cases of violence and other delinquencies resulting from too much consumption of beer or drugs,” said Home Affairs and Internal Security Principal Secretary Martin Mononga echoing the FORUT Secretary General.

“And we expect to have reduced cases of misbehaviours resulting from alcohol and drug abuse thereby reducing criminal acts also,” said Mononga.

END

When drugs, alcohol take charge

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
Watipaso: The writer of the article
Muderanji was so ill, but Khumbo (both not real names) could not listen. He wanted to enjoy his conjugal rights.

In the Ngoni culture, where Khumbo was born and bred, a woman is suppposed to totally submit to her husband.

So where did Muderanji learn this strange behaviour?

“It's not that I'm denying you deliberately. Please, consider my ill-health,” she tried to reason with him.

“Shut up! Tell me. It's either I do it or you pack your belongings and leave this house,” he countered angrily.

But Khumbo used to be a very loving and caring husband until two years ago when he started drinking beer and using drugs.

Since then every night he comes home drunk, he urinates and vomits in the bed, and when she tells him to go outside he beats her.

Muderanji does not like to sleep with her husband when he is drunk, because he stinks, behaves badly, and she is afraid that he has been cheating on her with other women who may be HIV positive. If she refuses to have sex with him, he forces her.

The Zomba-based Centre for Social Research survey (2008) suggests that women are loyal to their husbands and do their best to be good wives and in that way discourage their husbands from drinking or smoking and being unfaithful, irrational and violent.

However, many drunken husbands have behaved otherwise.

The study on substance use in relation to gender based violence in Malawi by SINTEF Health Research, Norway and Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi in 2008 discovered that men who use substances (most commonly alcohol) are often unable to provide their families with the basic necessities, because they spend much of their income on alcohol.

As a result women and children go hungry, with tattered clothes, and children are sometimes unable to finish their education because of a lack of money.

Some women have started businesses of their own (selling charcoal, nuts, etc.), so that they could make their own money and not be dependent on their husbands.

While this seems to be a good and effective way of empowering women and encouraging men to look after their families, some men, in their drunken state, feel they are outdone. Eventually, they stop their wives to take part in any economic activities.

Others confiscate the very financial capital that a woman had and spend it on drinking thereby depriving a woman her right to participate in economic activities.

Women feel better about themselves and more secure knowing that they can look after themselves, and men may appreciate and respect women more if the women are not completely dependent on them for their own and their children’s survival.

Physical abuse

Drug Fight Malawi Executive Director Nelson Baziwelo Zakeyu says men often get aggressive and irrational when they drink alcohol or smoke chamba, and this leads to misbehaviour.

Zakeyu says many people have complained of drunken men fighting and arguing with other people in the community, but most often they go home to their wives and end up venting their anger on them. The results show that it is not uncommon for women who are married to men who drink and/or smoke to be beaten up or yelled at. Men’s use of alcohol puts their wives at risk of physical abuse.

“We also see from our study that there is a connection between the economic abuse and the physical abuse experienced by women,” said Zakeyu.

According to Zakeyu, some drunkards do not provide their wives with money for food (because they have spent it all on alcohol or drugs), and when they come home drunk or stoned and hungry, there is no food on the table, they get angry and beat their wives for not preparing food for them.

Sexual abuse

The most common abuse is what happens between a husband and a wife is when a drunken man gets home and feels he has the right to have sex with his wife, even if she is sick.

The wife, on the other hand, does not want to have sex with her drunken or stoned husband who behaves strangely or badly and smells.

She may also be afraid that he has been having sex with other women who may be HIV positive.

When she refuses sex he forces her. In some instances, women exacerbate the situation, especially they hold to a belief or culture that it is ‘his right’ although they do not like it themselves.

Many a man admit they often cheat on their wives when they are out drinking. There is a good chance that the bargirls are HIV positive, and that they catch the virus from them, and be in a position to infect their wives with the virus as well.

This kind of sexual abuse is the most common form of abuse women experience, according to Centre for Social Research study.

What should be done?

The above studies indicate that there is a strong connection between men’s use of substances and gender-based violence.

However, in an attempt to minimize the effect on women it is important not just to look at how to reduce men’s use of substances, but also to look at how to empower women.

Several studies from Malawi indicate that Malawian women have a lack of respect for themselves and other women, and that men also share this disrespect for women. Women need to be self-sufficient and be appreciated for the important contribution that they make to the family, to the community and to Malawian society as a whole.

But this could be a reality only if we empower women through education and jobs, enable them to be self sufficient and not dependent on their husbands for survival (to increase men’s respect for women and women’s respect for themselves).

There is also a need to increase efforts on sensitizing masses on sexual abuse, cheating, prostitution in relation to substance use, and how this relates to the spread of HIV and Aids in Malawi.

The government of Malawi has in the past few years focused increased attention on alcohol and drug abuse, through the establishment of an Inter-ministerial Committee on Drug Control (IMCDC), led by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security.

Thus Muderanji can only hope that Khumbo will change one day and reduce the amount of alcohol and drug consumption.

END

Agribusiness : Domesticating afforestation to fight climate change

  Roes Bell talking to journalists

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
“Kunali nkhalango zachilengedwe koma zonse zinatha kale….Amaalawi titani pokweza dziko lathu mwanzeru? Tidzale mitengo yambiri. Uko kumpoto ku Karonga, apo pakati Lilongwe, kuno kumwera ku Thyolo, tidzale mitengo yambiri….,” the song went.

These were members of Nkaombe Village Forestry Club in the area of Traditional Authority Bvumbwe in Thyolo during the Income Generating Public Works Programme (IGPWP) field day recently.

Apparently, people in the rural areas have realized the need to take a leading role in fighting the effects of climate change by planting more trees.

Every country, including Malawi, is grappling with the effects of climate change. Locally, parents do tell how weather has changed (not for better, but for worse). Change in climate has and continues to negatively affect the agricultural activities worldwide.

“We used to have rains by this time. This is not the case now. Every year, we’ve to grapple with erratic rains that result in low crop yield,” said Traditional Authority (T/A) Bvumbwe.

Human activities such as burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, as well as deforestation and various agricultural and industrial practices, are altering the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. These human activities have led to increased atmospheric concentrations of a number of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and ozone in the lower part of the atmosphere.

The result is that people in the agricultural areas have failed to yield enough both for commercial and home use because of erratic rains.

However, instead of taking responsibility for their actions such as replanting of trees where they cut, people treated afforestation programmes as government’s responsibility. This was the more reason why people could not domesticate afforestation initiatives. But there is no denying that trees play a major component in rain formation process.

With this realization in mind, Income Generating Public Works Programme (IGPWP) sought financial assistance from the European Union (EU) to facilitate the formation of 1,600 forestry clubs countrywide.

IGPWP Forestry Manager Rose Bell said the aim of the programme is to replenish the natural forests while, at the same time, empowering rural masses with necessary skills that would eventually help them champion development initiatives in their localities.

According to Bell, in the programme’s initial package, each club receives materials for raising seedlings, provision of fruit tree and neem seedlings as well as polythene tubes and tree seed.

Bonuses are paid for the first two crops during nursery establishment between November and December. The clubs get other bonuses in March, April and September of the year of planting and finally in September of the year after planting.

It is this input package provided to the club valued at MK54, 320 that propelled Nkaombe Forestry Club to plant 14,121 trees. And with the performance-based bonuses totalling MK74,000, the members bought six sows to start a piggery project.

“Our plan is to distribute the piglets amongst ourselves so that every member personally benefits from the project,” said Rhoda Nkaombe, Secretary of the club. Thus people in Nkaombe can boast that they have successfully domesticated the tree-planting initiative into their village development committees (VDCs) without much hassle.

What is unique about this club, though, is that while it is men who usually dominate in development projects, women are the ones taking a leading role in Nkaombe afforestation programme.

Of the 60 members, only seven are men.

“We, as men, never thought this would benefit us. Actually, we considered it as women’s affair while we took our time drinking beer,” confessed Henry Kasamba, one of Traditional Authority (T/A) Bvumbwe’s counselors.

But Kasamba sounded apologetic when he said: “It’s sad that while we bear much responsibility for cutting down of trees in the society, we take a backstage in tree-planting projects.”

Nkaombe Village is a home to 4,729. On average, every person has planted about three treesMaybe it is befitting for women to take a leading role in the initiative for they are the ones who pay the worst price of deforestation. They are the ones who walk long distances to fetch firewood while men are exchanging calabash-full of chikokeyani at home.

Even Bell explained that village afforestation programmes could play a critical role in empowering women in different ways.

“For those in tobacco farming, village forests provide stakes used for drying their leaf. Once this project is fully domesticated, women won’t need to travel long distances to fetch firewood.

“Thus women will have enough to do other things that can help in developing their families. Our idea is to reach every village with this initiative so that every village has a forest of its own,” she said.

Besides, performance-based bonuses, which are paid into club accounts, have offered women a window of opportunity for them to invest in other income generation activities.

Bell stated that final decision on usage of funds lies with the clubs.

“Other clubs have gone into bee keeping, fruit tree propagation, production of fuelwood saving stoves, among others,” she disclosed.

Since inception, IGPWP Forestry Project has realized the planting of 37,500,000 countrywide. Total expenditure for the programm estimates is MK329.5 million while budget for current programme Mk141.8 million.

Out of the total budget, MK128,556,777 was paid out as performance-based bonuses to the 1600 clubs.

T/A Bvumbwe said afforestation programmes had come at the right time when his people are grappling with the effects of climate change such as persistent droughts.

Thyolo was one of the districts that were hit by droughts that resulted in poor crop yields in the last growing season.

“My role as a traditional leader now is to allocate more land for these people to plant more trees. I’ll allocate any uncultivated land to afforestation programme,” he said.

Bvumbwe thanked IGPWP for introducing village afforestation programme in his area saying it has helped in economically empowering women.

END