Rose Nyirenda was a businessperson many enjoyed buying from. It is not that she knew how to market her goods. Neither was it because her goods were the best. All businesspersons sold the same goods.
The attraction to Nyirenda’s goods was her ignorance. She could not count. Thus, when she gave change, it was more than what a buyer was supposed to get. Who would have avoided such kind of a generous businessperson?
“I never got the best possible benefits from my business. People were just stealing from me,” she said.
“I spent a lot on transporting fish mostly from Mlowe to Nkhata Bay.”
That is not the only misery Nyirenda went through. She could also not read or write. As a result, her life was something she never enjoyed. Someone had to be by her side to give a helping hand.
That was not all. Because of her illiteracy, Nyirenda never knew what to do to prevent some preventable diseases that easily smashed her household.
But the situation is different now. And one feeling they would steal from Nyirenda again would have a rude awakening as she will expose them clean.
“I now know how to read and write. My business is booming now. Besides, I know what to do to live a better life,” says the 31-year-old mother of four.
“I know a lot about issues to do with HIV and Aids. I know how to keep my home clean and hygienic. I don’t see diseases like cholera within my home anymore.”
Nyirenda is among a group of older men and women that joined literacy classes at Chinguluwe primary school in T/A Timbiri’s area in Nkhata Bay.
The classes are under the Functional Literacy for Integrated Rural Development (Flird) programme. It is run by the United Nations Volunteers (UNVs) and seeks to integrate different development works around reading and writing.
“The programme started in May 2005 and has adopted a concept called Regenerated Freirian Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques (Reflect),” said Flird Coordinator Prince Kaunda.
“The villagers now understand a number of development works. They have embarked on road construction. They also construct toilets to improve their livelihoods and started community based organisations (CBOs) to deal with issues of HIV and Aids.”
According to Kaunda, the programme has also cultivated a better understanding of gender issues in people of the area. They have also become successors in almost everything they have embarked on.
Currently, the programme covers 65 villages. It runs to 2011 and by that time, it is expected that capacity building will have been achieved.
With the period it has been alive, the programme has attracted many people. There were only seven participants when the literacy classes started in 2006.
But at some point, the figure shot to 60. Unfortunately, because of religious beliefs, a number of participants have pulled out.
“Some of our colleagues mainly those belonging to the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church pulled out because they said they could not rear pigs,” said Nyirenda.
“We tried to reason with them that pigs were not the only option. We encouraged them to rear goats but they still insisted. However, one of the SDA members understood us and is now doing very well after agreeing to take up goat farming.”
Such has been the only drawback to the programme. However, the programme has proven a success in other aspects. As a result, when the UNV Deputy Executive Coordinator Naheed Haque visited the project recently, those who have seen the benefits recommended that it should be replicated across the country.
Said Haque: “From the impression I have gotten from the projects we visited, functional literacy has manifested itself as the entry point to all aspects of development.”
“After learning how to read and write, people can get into income generating activities like pig farming as we saw down there. This improves their economic status.”
Haque said there are up to 94 United Nations volunteers in the country. They are involved mainly in the health sector, social welfare and community development.
The programme that has opened the eyes of people like Nyirenda falls under social welfare.
“We want to raise the spirit of community participation in development projects. At the end of the day, we want to put development projects in the hands of the community,” added Haque.
The success of projects like Nkhata Bay’s Flird is what raised the impact of UN volunteers in the country thereby attracting Haque to visit them.
She said as a new person at the UN Volunteers headquarters, she had to familiarise herself with countries that were transmitting success stories. She said Malawi and Zambia are some of the successful stories in Africa.
The Nkhata Bay project, small as it may look, has impetus to push Malawi for a long way in its quest to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.
In Nkhata Bay, the project is already achieving goal one, namely to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
However, the knowledge Nyirenda revealed indicates that she could also directly help in achieving goals six and seven, namely to combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases and to ensure environmental sustainability, respectively.
The other goals include to achieve universal primary education (goal 2), to promote gender equality and empower women (goal 3), to reduce child mortality (goal 4), to improve maternal health (goal 5) and to develop a global partnership for development (goal 8).
If it were not for this programme, Nyirenda could still have been a victim of exploiters today. But, her success will not go without mention of one John Mtambo, her teacher.
“My focus on topics is very simple,” said Mtambo about his classes which run for two hours.
“We start by reciting the alphabet and then graphics and we start learning how to take on problems.”
He added that his classes include a practical work on how to take care of livestock. There is also a provision for participants to study in the library.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Growing cancer that is forced adolescent marriages
Published in The Sunday Times, Malawi, on December 13 2009
About three years ago, Thokozani (not a real name) was a source of happiness in her village. Drums sounded loudly and the noise of celebration ricocheted between the hills that surround her village.
Thokozani was being married off. Her parents craved happiness which only marriage would guarantee; she succumbed to their whims. She was only 13, and had just menstruated for the first time.
“I was told that I should leave their house if I didn’t get married to this man,” recalled Thokozani, now 16 and a mother of a two-year-old, in an interview. She left her husband because she needed some more time before going through another pain of giving birth.
Issues of early marriage are rampant in the country. Even though the law restricts marriage to people aged 15 (for anyone below, one needs parental consent) and above, more and more girls aged below 15 find their way into marriage. Thokozani is a perfect example.
Once in marriage, these girls are expected to fulfil conjugal obligations; thus, they get pregnant regardless of the age. According to a 2007 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) titled ‘Giving girls today and tomorrow, breaking the cycle of adolescent pregnancy’, most girls get to this stage before they are physically, emotionally and socially mature enough.
“Globally, the overwhelming majority of adolescent girls who become pregnant are married,” reads the report in part.
In Malawi, statistics on how many get married and fall pregnant before the legal marriage age are lacking due to the absence of comprehensive research. As such, stories of those falling into the trap might sound mythical.
However, bits and pieces of information emerging from across the country show the problem could be colossal.
For instance, a baseline survey conducted by Action Aid International Malawi in Phalombe indicated that up to 112 girls were forced out of school and into marriages between January and September this year.
Action Aid International has taken a campaign to keep girls in school and prevent early marriage to areas it operates in. One such area is Chitipa, and there the campaign group was also forced to digest stories of parents forcing their young girls to get married.
“It was in 2007 when I asked my father to provide me money for school fees as I was about to start secondary education which is paid for. He promised me that he would borrow money from somebody because he didn’t have the money himself,” said 16-year-old Flora Mweso, and a form two student at Nthalire Community Day Secondary School (CDSS).
She revealed this to members of the press who visited the area courtesy of the group Action Aid. Then only 13, Flora was being forced into a marriage with a 79-year-old in a practice called Kupimbira.
Under the practice, a man, old as he may be, enters into a contract with a girl’s parents. He provides what the parents need or pays a bride price in return for the girl. And, he demands that his ‘wife’ joins him in matrimony any time. The practice is prevalent in Chitipa and Karonga.
“After some time he told me to go and collect the money from a certain man with whom he had negotiated. Fortunately, my friend tipped me that my father had arranged with the man that he should lock me up in his house the moment I arrived.”
At the same gathering, a 14-year-old girl had a tale to tell similar to Flora’s. Like Flora, this girl (name withheld) lives to tell the tale because of efforts to prevent such marriages by some chiefs and organisations like Action Aid.
But not many adolescent girls are as lucky.
“There are so many others who are in a situation like the one I went through. I am luckier because it happened when I was 13. It happens to girls as young as 12 in most areas,” added Thokozani, now a housemaid in a Blantyre suburb.
Although this growing problem seems to provide financial bailouts to parents who praise it, the consequences on the girls have capacity to overshadow the happiness that overwhelms the parents when these girls succumb to their pressure and accept to be married off.
Since they are expected to perform conjugal obligations when they get married, these girls are exposed to unprotected penetrative sex. This exposure leaves them vulnerable to cancer of the cervix, the leading cause of death amongst all cancers affecting women.
According to Dr Frank Taulo, Director of Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) at College of Medicine, girls who have unprotected sex before turning 20 have highest chances of contracting cancer of the cervix compared to those in the older age band. Further, when they fall pregnant and go for labour, these girls face a death trap.
“Pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths are the number one killers of adolescent girls worldwide,” reads the UNFPA report which quotes earlier research conducted by partner organisations World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
“Each year, nearly 70,000 die. At least two million more are left with chronic illness or disabilities that may bring them life-long suffering, shame and abandonment. Physically immature and often with few resources, the youngest first time mothers are the most at risk.”
The report ranks Malawi seventh out of 10 countries where early motherhood is most threatening. Malawi got 75 points based on three indicators, namely early marriage, early motherhood and infant death risk.
Testimonies quoted in the report stamp the importance of abandoning the practice and leaving girls in school.
“I married at age 12, before I even had my first period. I am from a lower caste family … we cannot afford nutritious food or a decent house to live in. I have three children: two daughters and one son,” reads testimony from a 19-year-old Nepalese girl only identified as Ganga.
“My last childbirth was especially difficult. I still feel weak, and I look like an old woman. I wish I had not married so young and had babies so young … my message to all teenage girls is do not marry before age 20 and wait to have children until you are 22. That is the right age for child bearing, when a woman is mature and can look after herself and her baby.”
In Malawi, the law is the supreme authority. But as debate on what should be the marriage age continues, Dr Chisale Mhango, Director of the Reproductive Health Unit (RHU) in the Ministry of Health, warns that putting it at 16 will increase the number of parents violating the law on marriage.
“Raising the age to 16 will not protect these girls,” says Mhango in response to an e-mailed questionnaire. He says many parents will continue to break the law by allowing their daughters to marry before the legal age.
The situation on early marriages is an established problem. However, with all hands together, the situation could be reversed and girls could live to live a better future.
About three years ago, Thokozani (not a real name) was a source of happiness in her village. Drums sounded loudly and the noise of celebration ricocheted between the hills that surround her village.
Thokozani was being married off. Her parents craved happiness which only marriage would guarantee; she succumbed to their whims. She was only 13, and had just menstruated for the first time.
“I was told that I should leave their house if I didn’t get married to this man,” recalled Thokozani, now 16 and a mother of a two-year-old, in an interview. She left her husband because she needed some more time before going through another pain of giving birth.
Issues of early marriage are rampant in the country. Even though the law restricts marriage to people aged 15 (for anyone below, one needs parental consent) and above, more and more girls aged below 15 find their way into marriage. Thokozani is a perfect example.
Once in marriage, these girls are expected to fulfil conjugal obligations; thus, they get pregnant regardless of the age. According to a 2007 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) titled ‘Giving girls today and tomorrow, breaking the cycle of adolescent pregnancy’, most girls get to this stage before they are physically, emotionally and socially mature enough.
“Globally, the overwhelming majority of adolescent girls who become pregnant are married,” reads the report in part.
In Malawi, statistics on how many get married and fall pregnant before the legal marriage age are lacking due to the absence of comprehensive research. As such, stories of those falling into the trap might sound mythical.
However, bits and pieces of information emerging from across the country show the problem could be colossal.
For instance, a baseline survey conducted by Action Aid International Malawi in Phalombe indicated that up to 112 girls were forced out of school and into marriages between January and September this year.
Action Aid International has taken a campaign to keep girls in school and prevent early marriage to areas it operates in. One such area is Chitipa, and there the campaign group was also forced to digest stories of parents forcing their young girls to get married.
“It was in 2007 when I asked my father to provide me money for school fees as I was about to start secondary education which is paid for. He promised me that he would borrow money from somebody because he didn’t have the money himself,” said 16-year-old Flora Mweso, and a form two student at Nthalire Community Day Secondary School (CDSS).
She revealed this to members of the press who visited the area courtesy of the group Action Aid. Then only 13, Flora was being forced into a marriage with a 79-year-old in a practice called Kupimbira.
Under the practice, a man, old as he may be, enters into a contract with a girl’s parents. He provides what the parents need or pays a bride price in return for the girl. And, he demands that his ‘wife’ joins him in matrimony any time. The practice is prevalent in Chitipa and Karonga.
“After some time he told me to go and collect the money from a certain man with whom he had negotiated. Fortunately, my friend tipped me that my father had arranged with the man that he should lock me up in his house the moment I arrived.”
At the same gathering, a 14-year-old girl had a tale to tell similar to Flora’s. Like Flora, this girl (name withheld) lives to tell the tale because of efforts to prevent such marriages by some chiefs and organisations like Action Aid.
But not many adolescent girls are as lucky.
“There are so many others who are in a situation like the one I went through. I am luckier because it happened when I was 13. It happens to girls as young as 12 in most areas,” added Thokozani, now a housemaid in a Blantyre suburb.
Although this growing problem seems to provide financial bailouts to parents who praise it, the consequences on the girls have capacity to overshadow the happiness that overwhelms the parents when these girls succumb to their pressure and accept to be married off.
Since they are expected to perform conjugal obligations when they get married, these girls are exposed to unprotected penetrative sex. This exposure leaves them vulnerable to cancer of the cervix, the leading cause of death amongst all cancers affecting women.
According to Dr Frank Taulo, Director of Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) at College of Medicine, girls who have unprotected sex before turning 20 have highest chances of contracting cancer of the cervix compared to those in the older age band. Further, when they fall pregnant and go for labour, these girls face a death trap.
“Pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths are the number one killers of adolescent girls worldwide,” reads the UNFPA report which quotes earlier research conducted by partner organisations World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
“Each year, nearly 70,000 die. At least two million more are left with chronic illness or disabilities that may bring them life-long suffering, shame and abandonment. Physically immature and often with few resources, the youngest first time mothers are the most at risk.”
The report ranks Malawi seventh out of 10 countries where early motherhood is most threatening. Malawi got 75 points based on three indicators, namely early marriage, early motherhood and infant death risk.
Testimonies quoted in the report stamp the importance of abandoning the practice and leaving girls in school.
“I married at age 12, before I even had my first period. I am from a lower caste family … we cannot afford nutritious food or a decent house to live in. I have three children: two daughters and one son,” reads testimony from a 19-year-old Nepalese girl only identified as Ganga.
“My last childbirth was especially difficult. I still feel weak, and I look like an old woman. I wish I had not married so young and had babies so young … my message to all teenage girls is do not marry before age 20 and wait to have children until you are 22. That is the right age for child bearing, when a woman is mature and can look after herself and her baby.”
In Malawi, the law is the supreme authority. But as debate on what should be the marriage age continues, Dr Chisale Mhango, Director of the Reproductive Health Unit (RHU) in the Ministry of Health, warns that putting it at 16 will increase the number of parents violating the law on marriage.
“Raising the age to 16 will not protect these girls,” says Mhango in response to an e-mailed questionnaire. He says many parents will continue to break the law by allowing their daughters to marry before the legal age.
The situation on early marriages is an established problem. However, with all hands together, the situation could be reversed and girls could live to live a better future.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Paradoxes, malice in equitable access to tertiary education
When he presided over the first congregation, president Bingu wa Mutharika told the 2008 University of Malawi graduating students that the day marked a point in their lives when they exited a world where people sympathised with them and entered one in which, as he put it, dog eats dog.
The president might not have been as explicit in his speech. However, whatever he said was understood to emphasise the importance of hard work.
That they were alighting from the University corridors wielding diplomas and degrees did not mean that the graduating students were there, so said the president. But it was their ability to stand the harsh and competitive world they were entering that would make everyone appreciate them.
From the president’s speech, one could easily see that hard work – nothing else – was the ladder to success.
Unfortunately, almost a year – or slightly more than a year – after his insightful speech, especially to those that revere hard work, the president is a manifestation of that which is but the opposite of hard work.
After rumours that he was the architect of a bid to bring back the quota system of selecting students to institutions of higher learning – in the name of equitable access to tertiary education – the president has come out clearly supporting the system that was outlawed in 1993.
The president told a press conference that he was absolutely in support of the system, stressing that he wanted to change the system which benefited one region, namely the northern region.
He added that through quota system, people from across the country would enjoy equal opportunities when it comes to accessing tertiary education. To defend this, the president singled out Mzuzu University which he said benefits the minority, namely people of the northern region.
The president statistically backed his reasoning. He said the northern region, with just 12 percent of the country’s population, enjoys 38 percent of those selected to the University while the central and southern regions – with significantly higher percentages of the country’s population – shared the remaining 62 percent of those selected to the institution.
Off the allocation of bed space in public institutions of higher learning, the president singled out the civil service as an entity that manifested bias towards, again, the northern region. Statistics were also at play here.
The president – confirming reports that he decided to vouch quota system after he established that the civil service was dominated by people from the northern and central regions – said Chitipa and Karonga combined has up to 225 in the government super scale grade while Chikwawa has only 55 yet the population of the two districts combined was not “even half of Chikwawa.”
By quickly changing colour like he has done, the president is presenting a paradox of himself.
Firstly, by bringing in quota system the president is discouraging hard work. Yet he is the one who has all along preached the gospel of hard work. The system, as authorities put it, will give each district 10 automatic places. Consequently, those who have cherished hard work all along will develop feeling that they should not work hard anyway because even if they do only 10 people and slightly more will fill the places.
As quota system would be awarding those who don’t even work hard, the spirit of laxity would go on and on and affect the civil service and government’s operations.
Hard work is what we have all believed in; and I humbly opine that the president should have considered where those who sat Mzuni entrance examinations came from before he could start blaming the distribution of the institution’s students based on their place of origin.
Does the president want to convince the nation that that 38 percent was favoured to get there? How much do we know that it is not through hard work that the 38 percent went to Mzuzu University? If he had the numbers of those who sat the entrance examinations, wouldn’t the president have had better ground to analyse the situation and establish why people from the other regions failed to get higher percentages? Did the president establish how much the mentality that Mzuzu is not a ‘city’ held by many contribute to the inconsistent figures?
Again, did the president find out why only 55 people from Chikwawa made it into the government super scale? Are they the only educated people in Chikwawa? It would have been fair to find out where other educated people from Chikwawa are because, honestly, the 55 are not the only ones.
It would also have been fundamental if we looked at the available alternatives for educated people from Chikwawa and those from Karonga and Chitipa. It might happen that people from the former have alternatives hence shun the civil service which is generally blamed for low salaries, while those from the latter don’t have such alternatives.
The president could have enough ammunition to start agitating for a change if he had established that the status quo was a result of dubious acts and not hard work. He would not have been blamed if he agitated for this change after establishing that the status quo led to inefficiencies in the civil service.
Secondly, the president is sowing seeds of disunity by propagating quota. Yet it is the president himself who has been in the forefront singing Tiyende pamodzi ndi mtima umodzi.
By consistently singling out the northern region in his bid to advance quota system, the president is seen to be against people – either apparently or really – from the region. Who knows, with intermarriages one would sound northerner when they are southerner or vice versa. So, who would the president be fighting?
Through such references the president is seen to be attempting to marginalise people from the north. Quota system is like telling one’s ten children that he or she knows that not all of them want to eat but they should share the little food. The question ‘how will those that hunger most feel about such a parent?’ begs.
As father of the nation, the president should be the last person to divide his children. This conclusion begs specifically when one looks at the uniform pattern with which the president and his party won the May 19 polls. Why should such a unified nation be divided because of a poor policy on education?
To say the least, quota system is not a solution to what authorities see as disproportionate distribution of tertiary education in the country. It is but paradoxical and malicious. It is going to discriminate against those who work hard and favour those who don’t.
Even Minister of Education George Chaponda has – most definitely – alluded to the fact that quota system is not the solution. In many public attempts to defend reintroduction of quota on radio, Chaponda has used the gap between those who qualify for tertiary education and those who go there as reason for the change.
For instance, Chaponda said on state-run MBC that last year, 5,000 qualified for entry into the University of Malawi but only 1,000 went there. By presenting the figure, Chaponda attempted to defend quota system as a solution to the problem. However, he exposed government’s lack of strategy when it comes to catering for those who qualify for University. Further, he exposed government’s lack of ground for reintroducing quota.
Government should stop advancing quota as a solution to the problem that sees few of those that qualify for it going for university education. Instead, authorities should find means of accommodating those that do not go to university despite qualifying. I stand to be corrected if need be, but creating more bed space is the only solution.
Otherwise, we are putting at stake the quality of our education in that through quota system, we will give the cap to those whom it does not fit – namely, those who do not deserve university education because they don’t work hard. Again, the peace with which we have been cherished is being staked. And, the president will be the first to be blamed for he is seen to be advancing issues that could lead to all this.
The president might not have been as explicit in his speech. However, whatever he said was understood to emphasise the importance of hard work.
That they were alighting from the University corridors wielding diplomas and degrees did not mean that the graduating students were there, so said the president. But it was their ability to stand the harsh and competitive world they were entering that would make everyone appreciate them.
From the president’s speech, one could easily see that hard work – nothing else – was the ladder to success.
Unfortunately, almost a year – or slightly more than a year – after his insightful speech, especially to those that revere hard work, the president is a manifestation of that which is but the opposite of hard work.
After rumours that he was the architect of a bid to bring back the quota system of selecting students to institutions of higher learning – in the name of equitable access to tertiary education – the president has come out clearly supporting the system that was outlawed in 1993.
The president told a press conference that he was absolutely in support of the system, stressing that he wanted to change the system which benefited one region, namely the northern region.
He added that through quota system, people from across the country would enjoy equal opportunities when it comes to accessing tertiary education. To defend this, the president singled out Mzuzu University which he said benefits the minority, namely people of the northern region.
The president statistically backed his reasoning. He said the northern region, with just 12 percent of the country’s population, enjoys 38 percent of those selected to the University while the central and southern regions – with significantly higher percentages of the country’s population – shared the remaining 62 percent of those selected to the institution.
Off the allocation of bed space in public institutions of higher learning, the president singled out the civil service as an entity that manifested bias towards, again, the northern region. Statistics were also at play here.
The president – confirming reports that he decided to vouch quota system after he established that the civil service was dominated by people from the northern and central regions – said Chitipa and Karonga combined has up to 225 in the government super scale grade while Chikwawa has only 55 yet the population of the two districts combined was not “even half of Chikwawa.”
By quickly changing colour like he has done, the president is presenting a paradox of himself.
Firstly, by bringing in quota system the president is discouraging hard work. Yet he is the one who has all along preached the gospel of hard work. The system, as authorities put it, will give each district 10 automatic places. Consequently, those who have cherished hard work all along will develop feeling that they should not work hard anyway because even if they do only 10 people and slightly more will fill the places.
As quota system would be awarding those who don’t even work hard, the spirit of laxity would go on and on and affect the civil service and government’s operations.
Hard work is what we have all believed in; and I humbly opine that the president should have considered where those who sat Mzuni entrance examinations came from before he could start blaming the distribution of the institution’s students based on their place of origin.
Does the president want to convince the nation that that 38 percent was favoured to get there? How much do we know that it is not through hard work that the 38 percent went to Mzuzu University? If he had the numbers of those who sat the entrance examinations, wouldn’t the president have had better ground to analyse the situation and establish why people from the other regions failed to get higher percentages? Did the president establish how much the mentality that Mzuzu is not a ‘city’ held by many contribute to the inconsistent figures?
Again, did the president find out why only 55 people from Chikwawa made it into the government super scale? Are they the only educated people in Chikwawa? It would have been fair to find out where other educated people from Chikwawa are because, honestly, the 55 are not the only ones.
It would also have been fundamental if we looked at the available alternatives for educated people from Chikwawa and those from Karonga and Chitipa. It might happen that people from the former have alternatives hence shun the civil service which is generally blamed for low salaries, while those from the latter don’t have such alternatives.
The president could have enough ammunition to start agitating for a change if he had established that the status quo was a result of dubious acts and not hard work. He would not have been blamed if he agitated for this change after establishing that the status quo led to inefficiencies in the civil service.
Secondly, the president is sowing seeds of disunity by propagating quota. Yet it is the president himself who has been in the forefront singing Tiyende pamodzi ndi mtima umodzi.
By consistently singling out the northern region in his bid to advance quota system, the president is seen to be against people – either apparently or really – from the region. Who knows, with intermarriages one would sound northerner when they are southerner or vice versa. So, who would the president be fighting?
Through such references the president is seen to be attempting to marginalise people from the north. Quota system is like telling one’s ten children that he or she knows that not all of them want to eat but they should share the little food. The question ‘how will those that hunger most feel about such a parent?’ begs.
As father of the nation, the president should be the last person to divide his children. This conclusion begs specifically when one looks at the uniform pattern with which the president and his party won the May 19 polls. Why should such a unified nation be divided because of a poor policy on education?
To say the least, quota system is not a solution to what authorities see as disproportionate distribution of tertiary education in the country. It is but paradoxical and malicious. It is going to discriminate against those who work hard and favour those who don’t.
Even Minister of Education George Chaponda has – most definitely – alluded to the fact that quota system is not the solution. In many public attempts to defend reintroduction of quota on radio, Chaponda has used the gap between those who qualify for tertiary education and those who go there as reason for the change.
For instance, Chaponda said on state-run MBC that last year, 5,000 qualified for entry into the University of Malawi but only 1,000 went there. By presenting the figure, Chaponda attempted to defend quota system as a solution to the problem. However, he exposed government’s lack of strategy when it comes to catering for those who qualify for University. Further, he exposed government’s lack of ground for reintroducing quota.
Government should stop advancing quota as a solution to the problem that sees few of those that qualify for it going for university education. Instead, authorities should find means of accommodating those that do not go to university despite qualifying. I stand to be corrected if need be, but creating more bed space is the only solution.
Otherwise, we are putting at stake the quality of our education in that through quota system, we will give the cap to those whom it does not fit – namely, those who do not deserve university education because they don’t work hard. Again, the peace with which we have been cherished is being staked. And, the president will be the first to be blamed for he is seen to be advancing issues that could lead to all this.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
To a better future with family planning
Picture a situation where a secondary school girl is impregnated. The result is dismissal as Malawian schools do not condone pregnancies. And this marks the beginning of problems for her. Interjections from fellow pupils; sarcastic jabbering and disturbance from education are just some of them.
According to research conducted by, among others, Youth Net and Counselling (Yoneco) and published in 2007 by the Guttmacher Institute, “early marriage and child bearing may isolate young women by leading to school attrition and reduced independence.”
The paper, titled ‘Protecting the Next Generation in Malawi: New Evidence on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs’, says 11 percent of the girls and young women aged 15-19, and interviewed during the research, said they “discontinued schooling because of pregnancy.”
Getting pregnant while in school highlights how unexpectedly pregnancy comes — pregnancy is often unintended or unplanned. It also points to how unaware partners are as regards sexuality and pregnancy issues. Pregnancy is testimony of unprotected sex. And pregnancy leads to birth.
Women the world over die while giving birth. Many others die from complications related to the pregnancy, thus adding to woes which a secondary school girl who falls pregnant while there would face.
In Malawi, recent statistics indicate that up to 807 women in every 100,000 die while giving birth. Many others suffer complications as others die. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says the world over, “for every woman that dies due to pregnancy complications, 20 or more are injured or disabled.”
And for Malawi, the situation is more than scaring. With a fertility rate of up to 6.3, chances are that girls and women are destined for death and injury. Survival is rare. One may be trapped at any one of the average six pregnancies.
According to the Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM), 30 percent of all maternal deaths are due to abortion. Such abortions are undoubtedly aided and abetted by the Malawian law which does not condone any form of abortion — safe or unsafe, medically necessary or not. And because hospitals will not go against the law, those who fall pregnant but do not want it choose this perilous route.
It is hard to get a confession from those that have ever aborted. Who doesn’t fear the law? As such stories of how abortion is conducted may only come from the grapevine. Some say those who do it overdose themselves with drugs or drink soapy solutions. Others say they force sharp objects through their vagina resulting to injury. Yet others say such people take equally deadly concoctions which they get from mostly herbalists.
“It’s two things if one aborts. Either she dies or she gets permanent damage to the reproductive system. When permanent damage occurs, the affected person never gives birth again,” says Lawrent Kumchenga, FPAM Information Education and Communications, Advocacy and Public Relations Officer.
“As such, the solution to an unwanted pregnancy, thus an end to such deaths and injuries, is family planning. Pregnancy is avoided when a family planning method is used. And when pregnancy is avoided, one cannot think about abortion. Therefore, there is no death and injury because of abortion and society would remain progressive.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons family planning as an initiative through which couples can “anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births.” It further reckons that family planning has a direct bearing on a woman’s health.
UNFPA says reduced child bearing prevents injuries in the birth canal. One such injury is obstetric fistula, a hole in the vagina or rectum often caused by prolonged labour without treatment.
“It leaves women in social isolation, depression and deepening poverty as it leaves them leaking urine or faeces or both,” it says.
Family planning methods like condom use also save women from cancer of the cervix, the deadliest of cancers affecting women. The Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) at the Malawi College of Medicine says the human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes the disease is transmitted during unprotected penetrative sex.
CRH Director Dr Frank Taulo says protecting women from the disease would create a better future as death of a woman mirrors a troubled and compromised future.
“The entire family is affected and the impact is far reaching,” he says.
Besides, family planning accords the mother’s body adequate time to regain strength after the pregnancy, according to Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) Country Coordinator Martha Kwataine.
“Additionally, for those who deliver through caesarean sections, the uterus requires at least two full years of break before it can accommodate another foetus,” she says.
Benefits of family planning go beyond those on women’s health. Kumchenga says employing methods of birth control for periods of financial struggle, while setting money aside for unseen hardships (infertility, illness and loss of income) during times of prosperity, will help avoid financial anxiety an unplanned pregnancy may bring.
He adds that besides enhanced family time management as result of fewer children to look after, family planning leads to attainment of higher education because “there is less stress, worry and guilt”. Higher education contributes greatly to a country’s productivity. Earth’s resources also last longer with fewer people, a direct result of family planning.
Kwataine says family planning also takes away the depression older children suffer because mothers abandon them and focus on looking after the newborns. She says such depression leads to loss of appetite which results into malnutrition in these children.
“Family planning can help to break the vicious cycle of poverty. Having a relatively small number of children economically empowers the family to ably provide for the needs of the children such as high quality education, food and clothing, among others,” adds Kwataine.
“Well cared for children tend to excel in life and contribute to economic development. Thus, family planning is a key to reducing poverty both nationally and at household level. Family planning is also a tool to controlling population growth hence protection of the environment.”
Seven family planning methods are available for use in Malawi. They include pills, condoms, Depo Provera, Norplant, loop, Tubal ligation and vasectomy. Tubal ligation is a permanent method for women while vasectomy is a permanent initiative for men.
“The mostly used in Malawi is Depor Provera,” says Kumchenga. “Women do not need to go to the hospital often. It is done once in three months. It is cheaper, not many women complain about side effects, it is readily available and can be administered by nurses unlike others which require more skilled personnel.”
Unfortunately, only 41 percent of women in Malawi use a family planning method. This could be a result of “poverty and profound inequalities between men and women limiting women’s ability to plan their pregnancies.” UNFPA notes these as women’s major barriers to access contraceptives in many countries. Culture and religion could be other reasons.
This calls for action. The action is to propagate benefits of family planning. Let there be male involvement. What culture and religion hold on family planning should be revisited just as was the case with HIV and Aids. There is need for civic education. And when advocacy starts, there should be no relenting.
According to research conducted by, among others, Youth Net and Counselling (Yoneco) and published in 2007 by the Guttmacher Institute, “early marriage and child bearing may isolate young women by leading to school attrition and reduced independence.”
The paper, titled ‘Protecting the Next Generation in Malawi: New Evidence on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs’, says 11 percent of the girls and young women aged 15-19, and interviewed during the research, said they “discontinued schooling because of pregnancy.”
Getting pregnant while in school highlights how unexpectedly pregnancy comes — pregnancy is often unintended or unplanned. It also points to how unaware partners are as regards sexuality and pregnancy issues. Pregnancy is testimony of unprotected sex. And pregnancy leads to birth.
Women the world over die while giving birth. Many others die from complications related to the pregnancy, thus adding to woes which a secondary school girl who falls pregnant while there would face.
In Malawi, recent statistics indicate that up to 807 women in every 100,000 die while giving birth. Many others suffer complications as others die. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says the world over, “for every woman that dies due to pregnancy complications, 20 or more are injured or disabled.”
And for Malawi, the situation is more than scaring. With a fertility rate of up to 6.3, chances are that girls and women are destined for death and injury. Survival is rare. One may be trapped at any one of the average six pregnancies.
According to the Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM), 30 percent of all maternal deaths are due to abortion. Such abortions are undoubtedly aided and abetted by the Malawian law which does not condone any form of abortion — safe or unsafe, medically necessary or not. And because hospitals will not go against the law, those who fall pregnant but do not want it choose this perilous route.
It is hard to get a confession from those that have ever aborted. Who doesn’t fear the law? As such stories of how abortion is conducted may only come from the grapevine. Some say those who do it overdose themselves with drugs or drink soapy solutions. Others say they force sharp objects through their vagina resulting to injury. Yet others say such people take equally deadly concoctions which they get from mostly herbalists.
“It’s two things if one aborts. Either she dies or she gets permanent damage to the reproductive system. When permanent damage occurs, the affected person never gives birth again,” says Lawrent Kumchenga, FPAM Information Education and Communications, Advocacy and Public Relations Officer.
“As such, the solution to an unwanted pregnancy, thus an end to such deaths and injuries, is family planning. Pregnancy is avoided when a family planning method is used. And when pregnancy is avoided, one cannot think about abortion. Therefore, there is no death and injury because of abortion and society would remain progressive.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons family planning as an initiative through which couples can “anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births.” It further reckons that family planning has a direct bearing on a woman’s health.
UNFPA says reduced child bearing prevents injuries in the birth canal. One such injury is obstetric fistula, a hole in the vagina or rectum often caused by prolonged labour without treatment.
“It leaves women in social isolation, depression and deepening poverty as it leaves them leaking urine or faeces or both,” it says.
Family planning methods like condom use also save women from cancer of the cervix, the deadliest of cancers affecting women. The Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) at the Malawi College of Medicine says the human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes the disease is transmitted during unprotected penetrative sex.
CRH Director Dr Frank Taulo says protecting women from the disease would create a better future as death of a woman mirrors a troubled and compromised future.
“The entire family is affected and the impact is far reaching,” he says.
Besides, family planning accords the mother’s body adequate time to regain strength after the pregnancy, according to Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) Country Coordinator Martha Kwataine.
“Additionally, for those who deliver through caesarean sections, the uterus requires at least two full years of break before it can accommodate another foetus,” she says.
Benefits of family planning go beyond those on women’s health. Kumchenga says employing methods of birth control for periods of financial struggle, while setting money aside for unseen hardships (infertility, illness and loss of income) during times of prosperity, will help avoid financial anxiety an unplanned pregnancy may bring.
He adds that besides enhanced family time management as result of fewer children to look after, family planning leads to attainment of higher education because “there is less stress, worry and guilt”. Higher education contributes greatly to a country’s productivity. Earth’s resources also last longer with fewer people, a direct result of family planning.
Kwataine says family planning also takes away the depression older children suffer because mothers abandon them and focus on looking after the newborns. She says such depression leads to loss of appetite which results into malnutrition in these children.
“Family planning can help to break the vicious cycle of poverty. Having a relatively small number of children economically empowers the family to ably provide for the needs of the children such as high quality education, food and clothing, among others,” adds Kwataine.
“Well cared for children tend to excel in life and contribute to economic development. Thus, family planning is a key to reducing poverty both nationally and at household level. Family planning is also a tool to controlling population growth hence protection of the environment.”
Seven family planning methods are available for use in Malawi. They include pills, condoms, Depo Provera, Norplant, loop, Tubal ligation and vasectomy. Tubal ligation is a permanent method for women while vasectomy is a permanent initiative for men.
“The mostly used in Malawi is Depor Provera,” says Kumchenga. “Women do not need to go to the hospital often. It is done once in three months. It is cheaper, not many women complain about side effects, it is readily available and can be administered by nurses unlike others which require more skilled personnel.”
Unfortunately, only 41 percent of women in Malawi use a family planning method. This could be a result of “poverty and profound inequalities between men and women limiting women’s ability to plan their pregnancies.” UNFPA notes these as women’s major barriers to access contraceptives in many countries. Culture and religion could be other reasons.
This calls for action. The action is to propagate benefits of family planning. Let there be male involvement. What culture and religion hold on family planning should be revisited just as was the case with HIV and Aids. There is need for civic education. And when advocacy starts, there should be no relenting.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
'Screening can stop cervical cancer'
If you are a woman aged 25 and above, you have or you have had multiple sex partners, or, in fact, your partner sees other women, you could be in a big health trouble.
You need to go to hospital and get screened. You might be carrying the human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes cancer of the cervix.
Cancer of the cervix, otherwise known as cervical cancer, is the leading cause of death among all cancers affecting women. It could also be described as one of the most intricate diseases. One suffering from the disease cannot easily detect it in its early stages.
“There is a lengthy period between the time one contracts the virus and the time the disease develops. It may take between 10 and 30 years for the disease to develop,” says Dr Frank Taulo, Director of the Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) at the Malawi College of Medicine.
“The majority of women are able to clear the virus after contracting it and never develop the disease. But up to about 30 percent of those who contract it are unable to do so and harbour the virus and if there is no screening, they would develop the disease.”
The irony of the disease, however, is that the HPV is carried by men but they do not suffer from the disease. But like mosquitoes spreading the malaria virus each time they bite people, men spread the virus to as many women as possible with whom they have unprotected sex.
Once in the woman, the virus plays a harmless waiting game. You cannot suspect you have it. That is why only screening is paramount. The virus only starts leading to abnormal growth of cells at the mouth of the womb (the cervix) after more than 10 years. This abnormal growth of the cells is the cancer.
At this point, the infected woman experiences abnormal bleeding from the reproductive system. This happens mostly between regular menstrual periods and after sexual intercourse. Those infected also experience menstrual periods that last longer and are often heavier than before.
According to Medicine Net, an online healthcare media publishing, those infected also bleed after menopause. This is usually between the ages of 45 and 50.
“There are also stinking vaginal discharges released by those that are infected. Those infected also experience difficulties in emptying the vagina and there is no sleeping because of abdominal pains,” adds Taulo.
“This is no point of return, and it is advisable that medical personnel should recommend thorough examination rather than just giving antibiotics. Antibiotics are not a treatment.”
According to Taulo, every woman “with a womb and who has had unprotected penetrative sex” is at risk. This group, he says, mostly comprises women aged 25 and above. That is why screening is particularly recommended for such an age group.
He, however, says this does not automatically mean that those under 25 are free from the virus. He says all those who have had sex before attaining the age of 20 should also go for screening because they are also at risk.
Research conducted by the Malawi Cancer Registry between 2004 and early 2006 indicates that cancer of the cervix tops the list of all cancers affecting women with 33 percent. The other cancers affecting women are Kaposi’s sarcoma (25.5 percent), cancer of the breast (6.9 percent), cancer of the oesophagus (6.7 percent) and cancer of the urinary bladder (3.1 percent).
The research registered the largest number of cases of the disease among those aged above 40.
Dr Charles Dzamalala, Medical Director of the Malawi Cancer Registry and Consultant Pathologist at the Malawi College of Medicine, says there are more cases of the disease in the advanced ages because of the time the disease takes to develop.
He says: “One can get the virus at say 25 but they will only start showing signs of the disease when they are around 40 or 45. The disease takes time to develop from the time one contracts the virus.”
According to the cancer registry, by mid 2006, there were 6,772 cervical cancer cases out of a total of 38,292 cancer cases registered in the country. Dzamalala says the figure could be higher now and that would only be confirmed by recent research.
Taulo says this high figure is a result of failure by the women at risk to go for screening.
“When one goes for screening, there are chances for early detection of the virus hence the chances for treatment. When there is no screening, there cannot be any treatment which means more and more women keep dying of the disease,” he says.
This is undoubtedly a worrying situation. Most of the women within the affected age group are breadwinners in their families. They are also those who look after the family.
Consequently, death of such women mirrors a troubled and compromised future. The entire family is affected and the impact is far reaching. School going children might stop going to school because they miss the care of a mother at home.
Screening services for cancer of the cervix are offered in most hospitals across the country. There is also treatment for pre-malignant stages of the cancer although only a few hospitals offer the service.
But according to Taulo, this is not enough as other services have to be offered as well. He says for a comprehensive cancer treatment programme, up to four services have to be offered. Malawi currently offers three, the other being palliative care for cancer patients. It does not offer radiation therapy which comes at stage three.
“It is everybody’s duty. Let us support and encourage women to go for screening. There is also need to invest in the problem. Currently, it is only lip service,” adds Taulo.
“There is need to educate the masses and train people to deal with the problem. Current indications are that training is declining. Not many are trained in the area.”
You need to go to hospital and get screened. You might be carrying the human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes cancer of the cervix.
Cancer of the cervix, otherwise known as cervical cancer, is the leading cause of death among all cancers affecting women. It could also be described as one of the most intricate diseases. One suffering from the disease cannot easily detect it in its early stages.
“There is a lengthy period between the time one contracts the virus and the time the disease develops. It may take between 10 and 30 years for the disease to develop,” says Dr Frank Taulo, Director of the Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) at the Malawi College of Medicine.
“The majority of women are able to clear the virus after contracting it and never develop the disease. But up to about 30 percent of those who contract it are unable to do so and harbour the virus and if there is no screening, they would develop the disease.”
The irony of the disease, however, is that the HPV is carried by men but they do not suffer from the disease. But like mosquitoes spreading the malaria virus each time they bite people, men spread the virus to as many women as possible with whom they have unprotected sex.
Once in the woman, the virus plays a harmless waiting game. You cannot suspect you have it. That is why only screening is paramount. The virus only starts leading to abnormal growth of cells at the mouth of the womb (the cervix) after more than 10 years. This abnormal growth of the cells is the cancer.
At this point, the infected woman experiences abnormal bleeding from the reproductive system. This happens mostly between regular menstrual periods and after sexual intercourse. Those infected also experience menstrual periods that last longer and are often heavier than before.
According to Medicine Net, an online healthcare media publishing, those infected also bleed after menopause. This is usually between the ages of 45 and 50.
“There are also stinking vaginal discharges released by those that are infected. Those infected also experience difficulties in emptying the vagina and there is no sleeping because of abdominal pains,” adds Taulo.
“This is no point of return, and it is advisable that medical personnel should recommend thorough examination rather than just giving antibiotics. Antibiotics are not a treatment.”
According to Taulo, every woman “with a womb and who has had unprotected penetrative sex” is at risk. This group, he says, mostly comprises women aged 25 and above. That is why screening is particularly recommended for such an age group.
He, however, says this does not automatically mean that those under 25 are free from the virus. He says all those who have had sex before attaining the age of 20 should also go for screening because they are also at risk.
Research conducted by the Malawi Cancer Registry between 2004 and early 2006 indicates that cancer of the cervix tops the list of all cancers affecting women with 33 percent. The other cancers affecting women are Kaposi’s sarcoma (25.5 percent), cancer of the breast (6.9 percent), cancer of the oesophagus (6.7 percent) and cancer of the urinary bladder (3.1 percent).
The research registered the largest number of cases of the disease among those aged above 40.
Dr Charles Dzamalala, Medical Director of the Malawi Cancer Registry and Consultant Pathologist at the Malawi College of Medicine, says there are more cases of the disease in the advanced ages because of the time the disease takes to develop.
He says: “One can get the virus at say 25 but they will only start showing signs of the disease when they are around 40 or 45. The disease takes time to develop from the time one contracts the virus.”
According to the cancer registry, by mid 2006, there were 6,772 cervical cancer cases out of a total of 38,292 cancer cases registered in the country. Dzamalala says the figure could be higher now and that would only be confirmed by recent research.
Taulo says this high figure is a result of failure by the women at risk to go for screening.
“When one goes for screening, there are chances for early detection of the virus hence the chances for treatment. When there is no screening, there cannot be any treatment which means more and more women keep dying of the disease,” he says.
This is undoubtedly a worrying situation. Most of the women within the affected age group are breadwinners in their families. They are also those who look after the family.
Consequently, death of such women mirrors a troubled and compromised future. The entire family is affected and the impact is far reaching. School going children might stop going to school because they miss the care of a mother at home.
Screening services for cancer of the cervix are offered in most hospitals across the country. There is also treatment for pre-malignant stages of the cancer although only a few hospitals offer the service.
But according to Taulo, this is not enough as other services have to be offered as well. He says for a comprehensive cancer treatment programme, up to four services have to be offered. Malawi currently offers three, the other being palliative care for cancer patients. It does not offer radiation therapy which comes at stage three.
“It is everybody’s duty. Let us support and encourage women to go for screening. There is also need to invest in the problem. Currently, it is only lip service,” adds Taulo.
“There is need to educate the masses and train people to deal with the problem. Current indications are that training is declining. Not many are trained in the area.”
Monday, March 16, 2009
HIV positive? Courage routs discrimination
From mere looks, Eliza Kazonga is just like any other woman. Unless you start getting her story through your ears, thought that this Mangochi lady is HIV-positive should only get you while in dreamland. She is healthy and strong.
The 33-year-old Kazonga will tell you that it was in 2000 when her husband’s serious sickness prompted both of them to go for HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT), otherwise known as Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT).
“We both tested positive to the virus, and I have lived with the virus since then,” she says. “I was recommended for anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy in 2004.”
While one would expect Kazonga to conceal such a status, she went public after testing positive and spread the news. But the development attracted what she did not expect. Her husband’s relatives came out guns blazing, labeling her names.
For a while, Kazonga was overwhelmed by fear, fear to repeat her story. She thought the more she openly talked about her status, the more she would attract the interjections. But how far would she have gone? She was HIV-positive first and last, and hiding this status would never have reversed the situation. So she started fighting the fear.
As Kazonga raced from testing positive, to getting the interjections and landing at the decision to fight fear, more and more people tested positive to the virus which causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (Aids). One of them is Isaac Stephano.
“I went for a test and tested positive in 2003,” says Stephano. “I had been feeling very weak, steadily losing weight and suffering from rashes before deciding to go for testing.”
“Breaking the news to my community attracted me misery. They said a lot of bad things about me, labeling me the most evil person in that community. But I was not afraid of repeating what I had said.”
Unlike them, Stephano – who started taking ARVs in 2005 – was steadfast in his mission because he pooled courage from the fact that the likes of Kazonga were already known to be HIV-positive. If they are ridiculed but keep going, who am I not to, Stephano asked himself.
As more people who tested positive but initially concealed their statuses came out to join the likes of Kazonga and Stephano, a block started forming. The more they bonded, the more the philosophy of fear escaped them. Now it was time to confront discrimination.
“We were 13 when we started moving together as a group,” says Kazonga. “We used to go around with volunteers who used us as examples of people who lived positively with the virus.
“But we went our ways because we discovered that the same volunteers who appeared to be using us to encourage people to come out and declare their status went behind our backs and used us as bad examples to their children. We felt that was discrimination.”
That was in 2006. The group named itself Lonjezo People Living With HIV and Aids (PLWHA) Association. And, presumably drawing inspiration from its name, the organisation promised to accomplish one thing: fight fear.
With the philosophy of fear fully concurred, the group believed, those that tested positive but did not openly declare their status would come out. As people see what these people are like, in spite of their status, they would gradually start accepting them as they are. Hence, discrimination would be conquered.
The trick is working. From 13, membership of the group increased to 36 and now there are 73 of them. And the group has moved from one that was discriminated against to one that is the most sought after.
“All those people who do not feel well are advised to come to us. We advise them to go for testing, and when they test positive they become part of our group,” says 45-year-old Anne Chikhadzula, the group’s Treasurer. She tested positive in 2007 and enlisted for ART the same year.
“Because people see how we look, they think we are lying when we say we are HIV-positive. They say HIV-positive people would not look like us.”
Chikhadzula says that the group is today a guiding light. Everyone wants to meet and see them. There is no doubt about this.
At a World Aids Day commemoration ceremony at Palm Beach in T/A Mponda’s area in the district in December last year, people who braved the heat of a clear sunny day and attended the occasion wobbled around looking for even the smallest of shelters from the sun.
But when the Master of Ceremonies announced that it was time for members of the group to manifest their positive living, everybody came out of the shelters, crammed the space around a small circle in which, one by one, the group members stood and narrated their situation.
But in a society where many who declare their status have cried under the force of discrimination, what has openly declaring their being HIV-positive benefited the members of Lonjezo PLWHA Association?
“We have changed the way people here perceive those living with HIV and Aids,” says Kazonga. “We have shown the communities that one who is HIV-positive is just like any other individual as such they should not be discriminated against. We are getting accepted into the community rather than being shunned.”
“Even the church is using us as a good example and is taking part in spreading the HIV/Aids messages.”
Chipped in Chikhadzula: “Communities call us to help them establish Aids-related organisations in their areas. We go to Mangochi Prison to deliver messages about HIV and Aids and the Officer-In-Charge (OC) wants us to be going there regularly.”
She adds that the group has instilled in most people in the area a mentality of doubting those that they see and feel like falling for.
“When they look at us, they don’t see any difference with those that have not come out openly to declare their sero-status or those that do not have the virus.
“So when they hear that we are HIV-positive but look like anybody else, they itch to go for testing with those that they fall for lest they fall for one who is positive. In which process, they know not only their status but also those of the ones they love,” she says.
“Besides, our messages have created knowledge so that in case one wishes to start a relationship with one who tested positive, they should know what they are getting into and how to handle themselves. If I kept quiet, who would know I am HIV-positive?”
The organisation spreads messages about HIV and the benefits of openly disclosing one’s status by playing football and netball games. It also has a counselling committee and has a home-based care programme to assist the chronically ill in different localities.
Apart from spreading the messages that would help those that tested positive but are currently concealing their status to come out, members of the group are also spreading the benefits of enlisting for the anti-retroviral therapy.
The 33-year-old Kazonga will tell you that it was in 2000 when her husband’s serious sickness prompted both of them to go for HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT), otherwise known as Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT).
“We both tested positive to the virus, and I have lived with the virus since then,” she says. “I was recommended for anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy in 2004.”
While one would expect Kazonga to conceal such a status, she went public after testing positive and spread the news. But the development attracted what she did not expect. Her husband’s relatives came out guns blazing, labeling her names.
For a while, Kazonga was overwhelmed by fear, fear to repeat her story. She thought the more she openly talked about her status, the more she would attract the interjections. But how far would she have gone? She was HIV-positive first and last, and hiding this status would never have reversed the situation. So she started fighting the fear.
As Kazonga raced from testing positive, to getting the interjections and landing at the decision to fight fear, more and more people tested positive to the virus which causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (Aids). One of them is Isaac Stephano.
“I went for a test and tested positive in 2003,” says Stephano. “I had been feeling very weak, steadily losing weight and suffering from rashes before deciding to go for testing.”
“Breaking the news to my community attracted me misery. They said a lot of bad things about me, labeling me the most evil person in that community. But I was not afraid of repeating what I had said.”
Unlike them, Stephano – who started taking ARVs in 2005 – was steadfast in his mission because he pooled courage from the fact that the likes of Kazonga were already known to be HIV-positive. If they are ridiculed but keep going, who am I not to, Stephano asked himself.
As more people who tested positive but initially concealed their statuses came out to join the likes of Kazonga and Stephano, a block started forming. The more they bonded, the more the philosophy of fear escaped them. Now it was time to confront discrimination.
“We were 13 when we started moving together as a group,” says Kazonga. “We used to go around with volunteers who used us as examples of people who lived positively with the virus.
“But we went our ways because we discovered that the same volunteers who appeared to be using us to encourage people to come out and declare their status went behind our backs and used us as bad examples to their children. We felt that was discrimination.”
That was in 2006. The group named itself Lonjezo People Living With HIV and Aids (PLWHA) Association. And, presumably drawing inspiration from its name, the organisation promised to accomplish one thing: fight fear.
With the philosophy of fear fully concurred, the group believed, those that tested positive but did not openly declare their status would come out. As people see what these people are like, in spite of their status, they would gradually start accepting them as they are. Hence, discrimination would be conquered.
The trick is working. From 13, membership of the group increased to 36 and now there are 73 of them. And the group has moved from one that was discriminated against to one that is the most sought after.
“All those people who do not feel well are advised to come to us. We advise them to go for testing, and when they test positive they become part of our group,” says 45-year-old Anne Chikhadzula, the group’s Treasurer. She tested positive in 2007 and enlisted for ART the same year.
“Because people see how we look, they think we are lying when we say we are HIV-positive. They say HIV-positive people would not look like us.”
Chikhadzula says that the group is today a guiding light. Everyone wants to meet and see them. There is no doubt about this.
At a World Aids Day commemoration ceremony at Palm Beach in T/A Mponda’s area in the district in December last year, people who braved the heat of a clear sunny day and attended the occasion wobbled around looking for even the smallest of shelters from the sun.
But when the Master of Ceremonies announced that it was time for members of the group to manifest their positive living, everybody came out of the shelters, crammed the space around a small circle in which, one by one, the group members stood and narrated their situation.
But in a society where many who declare their status have cried under the force of discrimination, what has openly declaring their being HIV-positive benefited the members of Lonjezo PLWHA Association?
“We have changed the way people here perceive those living with HIV and Aids,” says Kazonga. “We have shown the communities that one who is HIV-positive is just like any other individual as such they should not be discriminated against. We are getting accepted into the community rather than being shunned.”
“Even the church is using us as a good example and is taking part in spreading the HIV/Aids messages.”
Chipped in Chikhadzula: “Communities call us to help them establish Aids-related organisations in their areas. We go to Mangochi Prison to deliver messages about HIV and Aids and the Officer-In-Charge (OC) wants us to be going there regularly.”
She adds that the group has instilled in most people in the area a mentality of doubting those that they see and feel like falling for.
“When they look at us, they don’t see any difference with those that have not come out openly to declare their sero-status or those that do not have the virus.
“So when they hear that we are HIV-positive but look like anybody else, they itch to go for testing with those that they fall for lest they fall for one who is positive. In which process, they know not only their status but also those of the ones they love,” she says.
“Besides, our messages have created knowledge so that in case one wishes to start a relationship with one who tested positive, they should know what they are getting into and how to handle themselves. If I kept quiet, who would know I am HIV-positive?”
The organisation spreads messages about HIV and the benefits of openly disclosing one’s status by playing football and netball games. It also has a counselling committee and has a home-based care programme to assist the chronically ill in different localities.
Apart from spreading the messages that would help those that tested positive but are currently concealing their status to come out, members of the group are also spreading the benefits of enlisting for the anti-retroviral therapy.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Seeing hope through goats
Goats are undoubtedly the most troublesome of livestock. And any herdsperson should voluntarily testify to this. Once loose, goats will not let you sit down and rest. They could lie down one minute and convince you it’s time to rest. But the next minute, the same would be wreaking havoc in people’s gardens or kitchens. That is why they are often on the leash.
But for the people of Kalanga Village in Traditional Authority (TA) Lundu’s area, goats mirror hope. Hope that would take them out of their problems. Hope that would bail them out of poverty. And slightly over a year ago, they vowed that they would not rest until they landed their hands on goats.
“There is a woman in this village whose life has completely changed because of goats. She started with two goats, but they multiplied significantly,” says Thomas Chiphwanya, Malawi Council for the Handicapped (Macoha) community rehabilitation worker for the area.
“She sold some and was able to buy fertiliser for both her tobacco and maize gardens. She has built a very big house from proceeds realised from tobacco sales.”
The said woman is among a group of people who received goats under a pass-on programme a few years ago. The programme falls under Macoha’s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) in which those in the villages are assisted with the things found in their areas. Goats are some of these things.
Under the programme, each individual receives two nanny or female goats. A billy or male goat rotates among these recipients. After they multiply, some of the kids or young goats are passed on to other beneficiaries.
Benefits of such a programme are what sent a number of people with physical disabilities and guardians of children with physical disabilities in the area itching to be part of it. They did not want to be begging for help each and every day. They wanted to be self reliant.
But for some time, their calls landed on deaf ears. And these deaf ears were very deliberate. Many, including Macoha community rehabilitation worker Chiphwanya, thought that they were a joke. They wanted to test the people’s seriousness.
“We initially wanted to gauge their seriousness on the issue. After observing that they were serious enough, we set up groups in January last year (2008),” says Chiphwanya.
“However, they did not receive the goats there and then because they lacked expertise on goat husbandry. Unfortunately, there was none who was prepared enough to fund their training.”
As such, the groups waited until early this month when Chiphwanya got into contact with the Disabled Women in Development (Diwode). The organisation sourced funding to aid training in goat husbandry for members of the groups.
The funding came from the Royal Norwegian Embassy through the Non-Governmental Organisation Gender Coordination Network (NGO-GCN’s) agricultural and economic empowerment programme. As such, the groups finally attended a five-day training at Linjidzi Court in the area from Monday to Friday last week.
“We feel farming is wealth. So work very hard and take full use of the expertise you have acquired in the five days to enjoy full benefits of farming,” Diwode Executive Director Sigere Kasasi told the participants when she officially closed the training.
Among others, the training focused on how to properly care for the goats with the view of reaping maximum benefits from the animals. Participants also went through a demonstration on how to build a good kraal (khola) for their share of the animals.
As the participants walked out of the court after another session of the training on Thursday, hope shone all over their faces for all to see. They were seeing a new world through the goats.
“With this training we can now see an end to poverty and hunger and our lives completely changed,” said Mustapha Mtendere, chairperson of the Namisu Goat Club which was among the participants to the training. He has a physical disability.
“After some time, we will sell the goats. We will use the money to buy whatever we want at our homes including fertiliser for our gardens. But while we wait to start selling the goats, we will use manure from these goats to maximise harvests in our gardens.”
This gentle song of hope did not come from the mouth of Mtendere only. He just started it. Afterwards, it was repeated by every one of the twenty participants to the training.
Falida Msosa, a guardian to a child with a disability was one of those that attended the training and reflected this song. She said in the goats she saw hope for a rich generation from her household.
“When the goats multiply, we will sell some of them and pay school fees for our children. When these children get educated, they will secure good jobs for themselves. As such, they will be independent and self reliant. They will not be ridiculed for going here and there begging,” she said.
“That aside, we will also use the money to eliminate poverty in our households. With the money realised from the goat sales we will buy whatever we like including subsidised fertiliser.”
Fortunately, the programme is well coordinated such that talk of its failure could only get one who is in dreamland.
Chiphwanya said veterinary experts and officials from the Blantyre Agricultural Development Division (ADD) are well aware of the programme and ready to assist with expertise wherever it is needed.
“Those who receive the goats under the programme are advised to quickly rush to these officials whenever they see something wrong with the goats. It could be a disease, therefore, the earlier they report it to veterinary officials the more the chances of that disease being cured,” said Chiphwanya.
Kasasi said although her organisation was formed basically to fight for the rights of women with varying degrees of disability, who – according to her – were not accepted even by fellow women, it feels obliged to assist all those that need help. The bottom line is that they should be organised like the groups in TA Lundu’s area. That is why the likes of Mtendere had a chance to benefit from the training.
At the moment, a number of herdspersons may keep looking at their goats as the most troublesome of livestock. But the story of people in TA Lundu’s area is presents enough a dimension to tell us that there is more than trouble from the goats.
But for the people of Kalanga Village in Traditional Authority (TA) Lundu’s area, goats mirror hope. Hope that would take them out of their problems. Hope that would bail them out of poverty. And slightly over a year ago, they vowed that they would not rest until they landed their hands on goats.
“There is a woman in this village whose life has completely changed because of goats. She started with two goats, but they multiplied significantly,” says Thomas Chiphwanya, Malawi Council for the Handicapped (Macoha) community rehabilitation worker for the area.
“She sold some and was able to buy fertiliser for both her tobacco and maize gardens. She has built a very big house from proceeds realised from tobacco sales.”
The said woman is among a group of people who received goats under a pass-on programme a few years ago. The programme falls under Macoha’s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) in which those in the villages are assisted with the things found in their areas. Goats are some of these things.
Under the programme, each individual receives two nanny or female goats. A billy or male goat rotates among these recipients. After they multiply, some of the kids or young goats are passed on to other beneficiaries.
Benefits of such a programme are what sent a number of people with physical disabilities and guardians of children with physical disabilities in the area itching to be part of it. They did not want to be begging for help each and every day. They wanted to be self reliant.
But for some time, their calls landed on deaf ears. And these deaf ears were very deliberate. Many, including Macoha community rehabilitation worker Chiphwanya, thought that they were a joke. They wanted to test the people’s seriousness.
“We initially wanted to gauge their seriousness on the issue. After observing that they were serious enough, we set up groups in January last year (2008),” says Chiphwanya.
“However, they did not receive the goats there and then because they lacked expertise on goat husbandry. Unfortunately, there was none who was prepared enough to fund their training.”
As such, the groups waited until early this month when Chiphwanya got into contact with the Disabled Women in Development (Diwode). The organisation sourced funding to aid training in goat husbandry for members of the groups.
The funding came from the Royal Norwegian Embassy through the Non-Governmental Organisation Gender Coordination Network (NGO-GCN’s) agricultural and economic empowerment programme. As such, the groups finally attended a five-day training at Linjidzi Court in the area from Monday to Friday last week.
“We feel farming is wealth. So work very hard and take full use of the expertise you have acquired in the five days to enjoy full benefits of farming,” Diwode Executive Director Sigere Kasasi told the participants when she officially closed the training.
Among others, the training focused on how to properly care for the goats with the view of reaping maximum benefits from the animals. Participants also went through a demonstration on how to build a good kraal (khola) for their share of the animals.
As the participants walked out of the court after another session of the training on Thursday, hope shone all over their faces for all to see. They were seeing a new world through the goats.
“With this training we can now see an end to poverty and hunger and our lives completely changed,” said Mustapha Mtendere, chairperson of the Namisu Goat Club which was among the participants to the training. He has a physical disability.
“After some time, we will sell the goats. We will use the money to buy whatever we want at our homes including fertiliser for our gardens. But while we wait to start selling the goats, we will use manure from these goats to maximise harvests in our gardens.”
This gentle song of hope did not come from the mouth of Mtendere only. He just started it. Afterwards, it was repeated by every one of the twenty participants to the training.
Falida Msosa, a guardian to a child with a disability was one of those that attended the training and reflected this song. She said in the goats she saw hope for a rich generation from her household.
“When the goats multiply, we will sell some of them and pay school fees for our children. When these children get educated, they will secure good jobs for themselves. As such, they will be independent and self reliant. They will not be ridiculed for going here and there begging,” she said.
“That aside, we will also use the money to eliminate poverty in our households. With the money realised from the goat sales we will buy whatever we like including subsidised fertiliser.”
Fortunately, the programme is well coordinated such that talk of its failure could only get one who is in dreamland.
Chiphwanya said veterinary experts and officials from the Blantyre Agricultural Development Division (ADD) are well aware of the programme and ready to assist with expertise wherever it is needed.
“Those who receive the goats under the programme are advised to quickly rush to these officials whenever they see something wrong with the goats. It could be a disease, therefore, the earlier they report it to veterinary officials the more the chances of that disease being cured,” said Chiphwanya.
Kasasi said although her organisation was formed basically to fight for the rights of women with varying degrees of disability, who – according to her – were not accepted even by fellow women, it feels obliged to assist all those that need help. The bottom line is that they should be organised like the groups in TA Lundu’s area. That is why the likes of Mtendere had a chance to benefit from the training.
At the moment, a number of herdspersons may keep looking at their goats as the most troublesome of livestock. But the story of people in TA Lundu’s area is presents enough a dimension to tell us that there is more than trouble from the goats.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Creating hope for food processors
For all the time he has been in food processing, ensuring that their product attracts the consumer is what has bothered the mind of Prince Mang’ombe and all those with whom he runs the Wovwe Rice Producers and Processors Association.
Their product, Kilombero, is a rice brand so popular and tried and tested for one to ignore. But Mang’ombe and his friends have remained worried.
“Enhancing hygiene during food processing is of paramount importance. Any food discovered to be contaminated will be shunned regardless of how good it looks,” says Mang’ombe.
“Packaging and its design is another challenge that we need to overcome if our product is to continue attracting customers on the market.”
These challenges are not only for the Karonga-based group which is registered under the One Village One Product (Ovop). Many other organisations established to respond to the call of enhancing production and ensuring good representation of Malawian products on the global market face similar challenges.
The Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS), an institution established to standardize and accredit manufactured products with the view of removing safety doubts from those wanting to buy it, agrees that most of these organisations are below the desired standards on sanitation and quality control.
“The greatest shortfalls in goods by these organisations have been registered in sanitation and quality control particularly in volume and performance of the products,” says Davlin Chokazinga, MBS Acting Director General.
“But quality management is the most important tool for any business growth. Customers should be assured of safety before they buy the product. There is no entertainment for less quality products on the market.”
With such revelations, the likes of Mang’ombe and company should really be thrown into action, action to improve their situation. There is a lot of potential for Malawian products to penetrate the global market.
But all products targeting global markets have to pass the test of safety or risk rejection. Precedents set elsewhere by food goods lacking safety and quality have given consumers another sense – attention to detail when buying food items.
Less than a month ago, up to 84 children died in Nigeria after being fed on a product aimed at enhancing the growth of milk teeth in the children. The product, My Pikin, Pidgin English for My Child, was found to be containing a thickening agent normally used in brake fluid as an anti-freeze. It was discovered by the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (Nafdac).
Again, in 2008, another incident bordering on food safety caused jitters across the world. The incident dubbed “2008 Chinese milk scandal” and registered in the People’s Republic of China involved milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components.
The products were reported to have been contaminated with melamine, a white crystalline solid used in the manufacturing of resins and in leather tanning. With China’s wide range of export food products, the incident affected countries on all continents. China reported an estimated 300,000 victims and up to 860 babies hospitalized.
“The developed world stresses a lot on safety and quality,” added Chokazinga.
Unfortunately, the challenge to ensure safety and quality in goods produced under the Ovop concept is overwhelming the organisations concerned at a time when stakeholders are converging efforts to enhance production initiatives.
With funding from the European Union (EU), The Story Workshop, an organisation promoting grassroot development, is running a Mwana alirenji programme aimed at promoting food processing at household level.
The programme seeks to avert a situation where Malawi keeps harvesting plentiful food, yet failure in storing such food due to lack of expertise in food processing leads the country’s populace to feeling the pinch instituted by hunger.
Recently, the Malawi Government also signed a partnership creating a highway for a lot of locally produced goods to Chinese markets. The agreement is an addition to other initiatives aimed at sending Malawian products to regional and overseas markets including EU countries.
The development means that a lot of items would be processed. Unfortunately, they would not take advantage of the several agreements and offer competition on the global market unless safety and quality controls are swiftly adopted.
“There is no room for substandard products,” says Director of Industry in the Ministry of Industry and Trade Chris Kachiza. “There could be opportunities, but without quality products risk rejection.
“Customers will shun them and prefer foreign products. That has been proven even on the domestic market. Customers go for quality products and those that are well packaged. You can rest assured that a customer will go for a bottle of honey that does not leak even when a bottle that leaks contains the same quality of honey.”
Fortunately, hope is being created to see products like those of the Wovwe Rice Producers and Processors Association and other Ovop-registered manufacturers adopt safety thereby trade competitively on the global market. The MBS has targeted such groups, teaching them how to add quality to and enhance safety of their products.
The MBS, blamed for not standardizing most of these products leading to their tough life on the market, is coordinating workshops on how these groups could add quality to their products.
Chokazinga said on the sidelines of an opening ceremony for a two-day Food Safety and Quality Assurance workshop in Blantyre Tuesday that equipping a participant with such skills would cost K20,000 a day. But what is at stake convinced the organisation to facilitate the workshop for free.
“Liberalisation has opened up opportunities for products to trade freely and without barriers. As we send our products on the global markets customers should be assured of safety,” said Chokazinga. The Blantyre workshop attracted 25 representatives from across the country. They included Mang’ombe.
The organisation is also visiting individual groups to ensure that they adhere to proper sanitary measures.
Such workshops collectively and generally target those organisations operating under the Ovop concept. However, with the impact of My Pikin and the Chinese Milk scandal fresh in people’s minds, organisations in food processing would be the ones seeing greatest hope and benefiting the most from such initiatives.
With The Story Workshop promoting food processing under the Mwana alirenji programme and the global market steadily opening up for products processed under initiatives like one by Ovop, Malawian food products could soon find themselves on such markets. But who will risk their lives and go for them when they lack quality and hardly exhibit safety?
Their product, Kilombero, is a rice brand so popular and tried and tested for one to ignore. But Mang’ombe and his friends have remained worried.
“Enhancing hygiene during food processing is of paramount importance. Any food discovered to be contaminated will be shunned regardless of how good it looks,” says Mang’ombe.
“Packaging and its design is another challenge that we need to overcome if our product is to continue attracting customers on the market.”
These challenges are not only for the Karonga-based group which is registered under the One Village One Product (Ovop). Many other organisations established to respond to the call of enhancing production and ensuring good representation of Malawian products on the global market face similar challenges.
The Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS), an institution established to standardize and accredit manufactured products with the view of removing safety doubts from those wanting to buy it, agrees that most of these organisations are below the desired standards on sanitation and quality control.
“The greatest shortfalls in goods by these organisations have been registered in sanitation and quality control particularly in volume and performance of the products,” says Davlin Chokazinga, MBS Acting Director General.
“But quality management is the most important tool for any business growth. Customers should be assured of safety before they buy the product. There is no entertainment for less quality products on the market.”
With such revelations, the likes of Mang’ombe and company should really be thrown into action, action to improve their situation. There is a lot of potential for Malawian products to penetrate the global market.
But all products targeting global markets have to pass the test of safety or risk rejection. Precedents set elsewhere by food goods lacking safety and quality have given consumers another sense – attention to detail when buying food items.
Less than a month ago, up to 84 children died in Nigeria after being fed on a product aimed at enhancing the growth of milk teeth in the children. The product, My Pikin, Pidgin English for My Child, was found to be containing a thickening agent normally used in brake fluid as an anti-freeze. It was discovered by the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (Nafdac).
Again, in 2008, another incident bordering on food safety caused jitters across the world. The incident dubbed “2008 Chinese milk scandal” and registered in the People’s Republic of China involved milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components.
The products were reported to have been contaminated with melamine, a white crystalline solid used in the manufacturing of resins and in leather tanning. With China’s wide range of export food products, the incident affected countries on all continents. China reported an estimated 300,000 victims and up to 860 babies hospitalized.
“The developed world stresses a lot on safety and quality,” added Chokazinga.
Unfortunately, the challenge to ensure safety and quality in goods produced under the Ovop concept is overwhelming the organisations concerned at a time when stakeholders are converging efforts to enhance production initiatives.
With funding from the European Union (EU), The Story Workshop, an organisation promoting grassroot development, is running a Mwana alirenji programme aimed at promoting food processing at household level.
The programme seeks to avert a situation where Malawi keeps harvesting plentiful food, yet failure in storing such food due to lack of expertise in food processing leads the country’s populace to feeling the pinch instituted by hunger.
Recently, the Malawi Government also signed a partnership creating a highway for a lot of locally produced goods to Chinese markets. The agreement is an addition to other initiatives aimed at sending Malawian products to regional and overseas markets including EU countries.
The development means that a lot of items would be processed. Unfortunately, they would not take advantage of the several agreements and offer competition on the global market unless safety and quality controls are swiftly adopted.
“There is no room for substandard products,” says Director of Industry in the Ministry of Industry and Trade Chris Kachiza. “There could be opportunities, but without quality products risk rejection.
“Customers will shun them and prefer foreign products. That has been proven even on the domestic market. Customers go for quality products and those that are well packaged. You can rest assured that a customer will go for a bottle of honey that does not leak even when a bottle that leaks contains the same quality of honey.”
Fortunately, hope is being created to see products like those of the Wovwe Rice Producers and Processors Association and other Ovop-registered manufacturers adopt safety thereby trade competitively on the global market. The MBS has targeted such groups, teaching them how to add quality to and enhance safety of their products.
The MBS, blamed for not standardizing most of these products leading to their tough life on the market, is coordinating workshops on how these groups could add quality to their products.
Chokazinga said on the sidelines of an opening ceremony for a two-day Food Safety and Quality Assurance workshop in Blantyre Tuesday that equipping a participant with such skills would cost K20,000 a day. But what is at stake convinced the organisation to facilitate the workshop for free.
“Liberalisation has opened up opportunities for products to trade freely and without barriers. As we send our products on the global markets customers should be assured of safety,” said Chokazinga. The Blantyre workshop attracted 25 representatives from across the country. They included Mang’ombe.
The organisation is also visiting individual groups to ensure that they adhere to proper sanitary measures.
Such workshops collectively and generally target those organisations operating under the Ovop concept. However, with the impact of My Pikin and the Chinese Milk scandal fresh in people’s minds, organisations in food processing would be the ones seeing greatest hope and benefiting the most from such initiatives.
With The Story Workshop promoting food processing under the Mwana alirenji programme and the global market steadily opening up for products processed under initiatives like one by Ovop, Malawian food products could soon find themselves on such markets. But who will risk their lives and go for them when they lack quality and hardly exhibit safety?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Making money out of food processing
When he thinks of money from his Irish potato garden, one Anganile Kalonda (not real name) visualizes himself standing between huge sacks of the produce along the Blantyre-Lilongwe road at Lizulu in Ntcheu.
Here – he convinces himself – he can sell a small basin full of the potatoes at a set price and fatten his pockets before going back home to enjoy with his wife and children.
Unfortunately, Kalonda would not get a lot of money from this.
Sweet potatoes are seasonal; as such those who plant the crop harvest it at the same time. And, if they all decide to sell it, they do so at the same time. Therefore, Kalonda has to set attractive prices for him to escape the burden of transporting the gigantic bags back home and failing to store them.
To Kalonda, an attractive price is that which buyers – mostly passengers on buses commuting along the road – opt for: the cheapest.
A situation like Kalonda’s is one that confronts a lot of individuals across the country. After sweating to yield a crop, most of them hardly enjoy the fruit of this sweat because most of the prices are ones that would help clear the stock.
Consequently, lip smacking bananas from Thekerani in Thyolo and Nkondezi in Nkhata Bay; rice from Bwanje Valley and Karonga; Irish potatoes from Khosolo in Mzimba and Tsangano and Lizulu in Ntcheu and groundnuts, maize, cassava and various leaf and fruit vegetables grown across the country will sell cheaply.
However, the situation could have been different if there were food processing.
“When you process your food crops, you increase the shelf life for such crops,” says Kamia Kaluma Sulumba, One Village One Product (OVOP) National Coordinator.
“As such, you sell your products not because you are afraid that the produce would get damaged and that you would find problems storing it, but because you are impressed with the prices offered at the market. Hence, you gain more.”
She says lessons should be drawn from basic things such as maize flour and the harvested maize itself. While harvested maize will need a lot of attention to for it not to go bad or rot, she says, one can store flour for a long time without much attention.
Many might only agree with Sulumba on the issue of flour and not on fresh foods like Irish potatoes. But after listening to the story carved by the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association and that of the Ngolowindo Horticultural Cooperative Society, very few would disagree with the fact that food processing helps one spoon lots of money.
“When we used to sell fresh vegetables, we hardly got enough profits,” says Clement Banda, Secretary for the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association.
“For instance, we sold a one-metre bag of fresh vegetables at between K200 and K300. But when we process by drying that same one-metre bag, we realize from it 175 packets.
“We sell each packet at K150 which means that we realize up to K26,250 on a bag that used to give us only about K300 when sold unprocessed.”
He says the association also spoons more money when it sells processed tomatoes than fresh ones.
He says when sold fresh, a kilogramme of tomatoes fetches them around K120 while the same kilogramme of tomatoes processed into sauce fetches not less than K350.
“These differences are also experienced when we sell pawpaws and granadillas in fresh and processed forms,” says Banda.
He says unlike the fresh produce, processed products are easy to transport. He says once transported unprocessed, a lot of tomatoes, for instance, are damaged.
The gainful story of food processing narrated by Banda is repeated by Mercy Butao, Coordinator of Ngolowindo Horticultural Cooperative Society of Salima.
She says the cooperative society, which mostly processes baobab fruits into baobab fruit juice, buys a 25 kilogramme bag of the fruits from local suppliers at K700.
However, after processing the fruits, the 25 kilogramme bag brings them 75 litres of the fruit juice.
“Each litre of the fruit juice is sold at K180. This means that we spoon in K13,500 from the 25 kilogramme bag which we buy at just K700,” says Butao.
“Since we have a steady market in Lilongwe and we buy a lot of these fruits to last until they are in season again, we are not out of business. The processing is not that hard job.”
Unfortunately, although food processing has capacity to spoon a lot of money for individuals that engage it, not many Malawians have embraced it.
A snap check on the Ovop website, www.ovop.org.mw, reveals that only a handful of organisations that enrolled to engage in small-scale manufacturing under the Ovop engaged in food processing.
The list shows that only seven of the organisations, namely Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association, Rumphi Cassava Flour making, Lilongwe Cassava Flour and Starch making, Bwanje Rice Milling and Packing, Michiru Khumbo Seed Oil processing, Bvumbwe Milk Processors Group and Mitundu Model Village Factory are in food processing.
Kaluma Sulumba says there are six others that are not on the web site but are in full scale food processing. There is the Mapanga Honey Processors, the Wovwe/Hara Rice scheme, the Limphasa Rice scheme, Nkondezi banana wine manufacturers, Kunthembwe Nsinjiro and Zipatso Association.
But looking at the amount of food produced in the country, this list of food processors is too short.
Agrees Kaluma Sulumba: “A lot needs to be done. It is only a small percentage of the population that is in food processing.
“When you drive along the Blantyre-Lilongwe road, you see a lot of tomatoes. But very little of such produce is processed. People don’t know even how to properly process maize for storage that is why we find that a lot is lost.”
She says because of the absence of processing, demand for most processed foods is not met.
Because of the situation, Ovop is currently training some people who are to work as extension officers closer to the farmers so that whatever is available in an area is properly processed.
“Ours is a bottom-up approach. We want a decentralized set-up. By being exposed to the Ovop concept, they should be able to look at what is in their areas for processing.
“We don’t want to reinvent the processes and the expertise required. As such, we are engaging organisations like the Malawi Bureau of Standards, the Malawi Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bunda College of Agriculture and the Malawi Industrial Research,” she says.
Such interventions are what would lead Malawians into appreciating the monetary values of food processing.
With a Mwana alirenji food processing programme currently run by the Story Workshop with support from the European Union (EU) in full swing, efforts to change the mindset of those not yet in food processing should not be a big problem.
Here – he convinces himself – he can sell a small basin full of the potatoes at a set price and fatten his pockets before going back home to enjoy with his wife and children.
Unfortunately, Kalonda would not get a lot of money from this.
Sweet potatoes are seasonal; as such those who plant the crop harvest it at the same time. And, if they all decide to sell it, they do so at the same time. Therefore, Kalonda has to set attractive prices for him to escape the burden of transporting the gigantic bags back home and failing to store them.
To Kalonda, an attractive price is that which buyers – mostly passengers on buses commuting along the road – opt for: the cheapest.
A situation like Kalonda’s is one that confronts a lot of individuals across the country. After sweating to yield a crop, most of them hardly enjoy the fruit of this sweat because most of the prices are ones that would help clear the stock.
Consequently, lip smacking bananas from Thekerani in Thyolo and Nkondezi in Nkhata Bay; rice from Bwanje Valley and Karonga; Irish potatoes from Khosolo in Mzimba and Tsangano and Lizulu in Ntcheu and groundnuts, maize, cassava and various leaf and fruit vegetables grown across the country will sell cheaply.
However, the situation could have been different if there were food processing.
“When you process your food crops, you increase the shelf life for such crops,” says Kamia Kaluma Sulumba, One Village One Product (OVOP) National Coordinator.
“As such, you sell your products not because you are afraid that the produce would get damaged and that you would find problems storing it, but because you are impressed with the prices offered at the market. Hence, you gain more.”
She says lessons should be drawn from basic things such as maize flour and the harvested maize itself. While harvested maize will need a lot of attention to for it not to go bad or rot, she says, one can store flour for a long time without much attention.
Many might only agree with Sulumba on the issue of flour and not on fresh foods like Irish potatoes. But after listening to the story carved by the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association and that of the Ngolowindo Horticultural Cooperative Society, very few would disagree with the fact that food processing helps one spoon lots of money.
“When we used to sell fresh vegetables, we hardly got enough profits,” says Clement Banda, Secretary for the Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association.
“For instance, we sold a one-metre bag of fresh vegetables at between K200 and K300. But when we process by drying that same one-metre bag, we realize from it 175 packets.
“We sell each packet at K150 which means that we realize up to K26,250 on a bag that used to give us only about K300 when sold unprocessed.”
He says the association also spoons more money when it sells processed tomatoes than fresh ones.
He says when sold fresh, a kilogramme of tomatoes fetches them around K120 while the same kilogramme of tomatoes processed into sauce fetches not less than K350.
“These differences are also experienced when we sell pawpaws and granadillas in fresh and processed forms,” says Banda.
He says unlike the fresh produce, processed products are easy to transport. He says once transported unprocessed, a lot of tomatoes, for instance, are damaged.
The gainful story of food processing narrated by Banda is repeated by Mercy Butao, Coordinator of Ngolowindo Horticultural Cooperative Society of Salima.
She says the cooperative society, which mostly processes baobab fruits into baobab fruit juice, buys a 25 kilogramme bag of the fruits from local suppliers at K700.
However, after processing the fruits, the 25 kilogramme bag brings them 75 litres of the fruit juice.
“Each litre of the fruit juice is sold at K180. This means that we spoon in K13,500 from the 25 kilogramme bag which we buy at just K700,” says Butao.
“Since we have a steady market in Lilongwe and we buy a lot of these fruits to last until they are in season again, we are not out of business. The processing is not that hard job.”
Unfortunately, although food processing has capacity to spoon a lot of money for individuals that engage it, not many Malawians have embraced it.
A snap check on the Ovop website, www.ovop.org.mw, reveals that only a handful of organisations that enrolled to engage in small-scale manufacturing under the Ovop engaged in food processing.
The list shows that only seven of the organisations, namely Bvumbwe Vegetable Growers Association, Rumphi Cassava Flour making, Lilongwe Cassava Flour and Starch making, Bwanje Rice Milling and Packing, Michiru Khumbo Seed Oil processing, Bvumbwe Milk Processors Group and Mitundu Model Village Factory are in food processing.
Kaluma Sulumba says there are six others that are not on the web site but are in full scale food processing. There is the Mapanga Honey Processors, the Wovwe/Hara Rice scheme, the Limphasa Rice scheme, Nkondezi banana wine manufacturers, Kunthembwe Nsinjiro and Zipatso Association.
But looking at the amount of food produced in the country, this list of food processors is too short.
Agrees Kaluma Sulumba: “A lot needs to be done. It is only a small percentage of the population that is in food processing.
“When you drive along the Blantyre-Lilongwe road, you see a lot of tomatoes. But very little of such produce is processed. People don’t know even how to properly process maize for storage that is why we find that a lot is lost.”
She says because of the absence of processing, demand for most processed foods is not met.
Because of the situation, Ovop is currently training some people who are to work as extension officers closer to the farmers so that whatever is available in an area is properly processed.
“Ours is a bottom-up approach. We want a decentralized set-up. By being exposed to the Ovop concept, they should be able to look at what is in their areas for processing.
“We don’t want to reinvent the processes and the expertise required. As such, we are engaging organisations like the Malawi Bureau of Standards, the Malawi Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Bunda College of Agriculture and the Malawi Industrial Research,” she says.
Such interventions are what would lead Malawians into appreciating the monetary values of food processing.
With a Mwana alirenji food processing programme currently run by the Story Workshop with support from the European Union (EU) in full swing, efforts to change the mindset of those not yet in food processing should not be a big problem.
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