Tuesday, July 22, 2014
NGO to Fight Child Abuse in Schools throught SMSs
For most people the mobile phone is used for communication, calling friends and relations to socialize or talk business. But a local education lobby group is taking the use of mobile phone short messages (SMS) to unprecedented level – reporting abuse against school children, particularly the girl child.
The Forum for African Women Educationists in Malawi (FAWEMA) has launched an interactive mobile phone text message platform to be used for collecting data on violence against school children, and is currently being piloted in two primary schools, Nkhoma and Mwatibu in Lilongwe.
For starters, FAWEMA is using the platform to collect data on a child abuse study in areas around Nkhoma and Nathenje in Lilongwe where the two schools are located before it is formally dedicated to reporting and dealing with the problem.
Judith Schoot Uiterkamp, country programme officer for the International Institute of Communication and Development (IICD) which is overseeing the technical aspect of the project said as technology continues to grow, there is need adapt to the ever-changing world to ensure efficient data collection on various issues relating to children’s education.
“We find that almost everyone has a mobile phone these days. This is a toll free line which teachers, parents and guardians can use to send an SMS to FAWEMA on issues relating to forced marriages, school dropouts and other challenges facing girls’ education in their areas”, she said.
She told me the project has been launched after serious consultations with communities to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
“We had many conversations with mother groups, teacher and parents associations and other members of the community to find out the problems of child abuse and the challenges they are facing in addressing them. So we thought of different means to dealing with these problems and found that mobile phones are very effective as they can reach very remote areas and are interactive”, she said.
Communities using the platform will be sending SMSs about cases of child abuse in their areas to 55111 and they will be getting responses to enable FAWEMA conduct a proper follow up in consultation with the relevant authorities such as the ministry of gender and social welfare offices.
Speaking at the launch of the project an official from the Lilongwe District Education Office Lucien Chikhadza appealed to other well wishers to assist in extending it to other areas of Malawi, adding that his office will render all the necessary support to ensure it is effective.
The SMS project is a joint initiative of FAWEMA, Connect for Change, IICD, Edukans and Text for Change, and according to Uiterkamp, it could be made national if the pilot phase in Lilongwe proves worthwhile.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
More than 2 million Malawians on Verge of Hunger Due to Floods
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Using Culture to Fight High Population Growth
There is one thing that would definitely stun you if you go to Chalera village in the area of Traditional Authority Chiseka in Lilongwe. You see numerous children aged below ten wondering about the village.
Usually they are dirty and wear torn clothes. If they are not playing football, then are fighting one another or making noise for something you cannot figure out.
This is regardless of whether it is during school time or during the holidays – children are everyone, and they cram around your car if you drove to the village.
It would take you several minutes with the help of a few adults to convince them that they need to stay away so that you can drive off, lest you will trample on one.
This is the picture that made Dr Davis Mkwambisi, the director of Kumudzi Trust, to come to the conclusion that something was wrong in this village.
“How can you have so many children roaming around a small village? This was the question that came to mind every time I came here”, he recalls, “ It was clear that the people had no access to family planning messages, or that if they had the messages were not being delivered in the right way. We also observed that there were high levels of poverty here in the rapid appraisal we did.”
The situation at Chalera village justifies fears by the National Statistical Office that Malawi’s population estimated at 13 million in 2008 is likely to grow to around 20 million by 2040 if no stern control measures are put in place.
Malawi is already suffering from various effects of rapid population growth including shortage of farm land and scramble for natural resources and social amenities, according to population experts. This is not exceptional to Chalera.
“The main problem we face here is shortage of water. Of course, we’ve enough food to feed ourselves; but because the population is increasing, farm land is becoming scarce, and we might face a big problem in the future”, laments group village headman Chalera.
While the government and independent organizations are largely using public gatherings with official technical speeches on the need to control population growth, one NGO – Kumudzi Trust – is using a different approach.
It has employed traditional dances and acoustic music to disseminate messages about the negative effects of rapid population growth in this village.
“We run a programme called Kumudzi Eco Learning Centre. The aim is to teach the people environmental management as well as make them aware about the affects of rapid population growth on the environment,” says Dr Mkwambisi, who is also a lecturer at Bunda College.
He says Chalera village was chosen as the programme site because of its proximity to Bunda College and because most students from the college conduct their research studies there.
Kumudzi Trust organizes what it calls cultural days where traditional dances and acoustic music fused with messages on family planning are performed. Usually hired are the upcoming acoustic band Galang’ombe Boys and Tilitonse Cultural Troupe.
After the performances, the villagers engage in a roundtable discussion spearheaded by the village development committee. This is a forum where women, men and children talk openly about the effects of population growth.
Thokozani Julius, Health Surveillance Assistant for Mazinga Catchment Area, explains the source of overpopulation in Chalera village. “We do give messages, but the problem is that men shun the village meetings organized to talk about family planning. So the messages only go to a single part of the population.”
He adds that most men also feel they are being degraded to be taught how to run their families in the presence of their spouses hence they shun public meetings on family planning.
According to Mr Julius, women also have a greater advantage because they get health education from antenatal clinics when they are pregnant or when they are taking care of under-five children.
He says most of the households estimated at two thousand in the catchment area have a minimum of six children with an age difference of less than two years.
One of the villagers, Hudson Solomon, from Sinosi village has an interesting response as to why people still have more children despite knowing the advantages of family planning.
“Some people think that they need to have more children so that when one or two die, the rest would support them in future. However, they do not know the irony is that most child deaths are caused by lack of care.
“The more children you have, the more problems you have to feed them, so they end up being sick and die. But when you have a few children it is easy for you to feed them and send them to school and they grow up well,” he observes.
Speaking to this reporter under a deafening sound of traditional music, village headman Chalera says the approach has significantly helped to improve the understanding of the implications of high population growth among his subjects.
He says government and several organizations have been to his area to disseminate messages about birth control, ‘but some people can’t just take the message,’ adding that some people still believe in the traditional belief that the more children one has, the wealthier they are.
“They still want to live in the old days where people had not less than five or six children. If you tell them that things have changed, they don’t understand. They insist on having more children as a sign of wealth.
“Only a few people here have taken up modern family planning methods because the hospital is very far away,” he observes.
Village headman Chalera says the initiative by Kumudzi Trust has helped to bring change because more people now are lured to attend public gatherings where messages about birth control are disseminated.
“The people are attracted to the traditional dances and music. So when they come they end up getting the message as well,” he observed on the sidelines of one of the cultural days I attended recently.
Health worker Julius agrees with the chief: “This is very helpful because people in the villages like to associate themselves with things which are part of their life like the traditional dances and the songs. In this case, as the people listen to the traditional music and watch the dances they get the message at the same time.”
On the side effects of modern family planning methods, he says not many complaints have come to his attention although some women do take contraceptives after being advised at the outlying Mitundu Health Centre.
Dr Mkwambisi says the cultural days have helped to bring change. “Bringing together men, women and children means we are having a holistic approach to family planning at the same time creating a debate on the topic. You can see even children are talking about family planning and they will grow with it their mind.”
He says Kumudzi Trust is implementing the programme under an action plan in which a village strategic plan will be developed to see people of Chalera significantly reducing the number of child births from December this year.
He says this would be a departure from common thought that strategic plans are only meant for big companies and organizations, saying the village plan will incorporate issues of ecotourism, income generating activities, improvement of sanitation and enhancement of population control messages.
Dr Mkwambisi observes that most people in rural areas have limited access to family planning methods such as condoms and contraceptive pills because government has no capacity to reach out to the remotest areas.
As rightly observed by Dr Mkwambisi, a holistic approach is needed to ensure that Malawi’s population growth is proportionate to the country’s size and resources because the reproduction rate of 2.6 percent per annum is just too much for a land locked country that is barely 118,484 square kilometers. Certainly this cultural approach cannot be overemphasized.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
The Big Fall: Soldier Down as Mutharika’s Body Jets In
The arrival of the body of president Bingu wa Mutharika did not go without drama at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe on Saturday, April 14.
As the body was being ferried out of a South African military plane by high-ranking officers from the South African National Defence Force, one of them stumbled down the steps of the aircraft.
He limped a few steps before he joined the parade of the soldiers that handed over the body to the Malawi Armed Forces, apparently having suffered a minor injury.
"I stopped crying for a while to control my laughter", commented one friend on his Facebook page.
The picture here shows the towering officer failing to control himself as he slipped down the airplane ladder.
As the body was being ferried out of a South African military plane by high-ranking officers from the South African National Defence Force, one of them stumbled down the steps of the aircraft.
He limped a few steps before he joined the parade of the soldiers that handed over the body to the Malawi Armed Forces, apparently having suffered a minor injury.
"I stopped crying for a while to control my laughter", commented one friend on his Facebook page.
The picture here shows the towering officer failing to control himself as he slipped down the airplane ladder.
Friday, March 2, 2012
New Fertilizer Application Methods on the Cards
A research project to transform the way farmers use fertilizer in Malawi is underway courtesy of the ministry of agriculture’s Research Services Department.
The Soil Health Diagnostic Trials project comes against a backdrop of farmers’ complaints that they have not been yielding enough despite using fertilizer.
In Malawi the tradition has been that farmers use any type of fertilizer for basal dressing and top dressing regardless of the type of soil and its natural nutritional components.
This is the trend that the Soil Health Diagnostic Trials project aims to change to ensure that farmers maximize on yields by using the right type of fertilizers in the right type of soil, according to its coordinator Dr Wilkson Makumba.
“The area fertilizer specific recommendation is going to assist us to reduce the quantities of fertilizers that we are applying per hectare”, he says.
“Like the 92 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare is being applied everywhere but we do need all that in all areas. In some areas they have adequate amounts phosphorus that they do not need even adding extra, some have medium quantities that we really add the quantities”, said Dr Makumba.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has put $ 420, 000(MK 70, 000 000) in the project.
“We decided to fund this programme because it falls within our mission where we want to promote agriculture in order to have a food secure Africa”, says Rebe Harawa, AGRA Program Officer responsible for soil health in east and southern Africa.
“To be food secure it requires use of both chemical and inorganic fertilizers, but to use organic and inorganic fertilizers you need to have the right type and the right amounts of fertilizers in the right places. And this project is to fine tune the fertilizer recommendations”, she added.
Director of Research in the Ministry of Agriculture, Alfred Mtukuso says the project will help farmers save on fertilizer costs. He said currently farmers are not getting maximum yields because of a blanket recommendation for fertilizer application the country has.
“There is a lot of variability in the soil types and fertility levels in the country, so this project is fine tuning the recommendations so that they are area specific to suit the types of crops grown in a particular area and therefore we’ll be getting maximum yield,
“But also this project will address the issue of total soil health. In other words, applying chemical fertilizer alone is not enough. We need to apply organic manure and intercrop our crops with legumes to build the organic reserves in the soils,” said Mkukuso.
It is expected that final results of the research will be made available to the public after three years, but currently farmers involved in the trials, for example in Chiwamba, Traditional Authority Chimutu in Lilongwe are already utilizing the experience.
Group Village headman Mseche hailed the project as a major compliment to farmers’ efforts to improve crop production by using lesser inputs. “When we see our maize growing greener, we know that we are going to have enough food. We need this research because our soils here are degraded”.
Currently farmers in Malawi produce less than a tone of maize from a hectare, but experts says there is potential of 10 tones where proper farming methods are followed.
AGRA works to achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers
The Soil Health Diagnostic Trials project comes against a backdrop of farmers’ complaints that they have not been yielding enough despite using fertilizer.
In Malawi the tradition has been that farmers use any type of fertilizer for basal dressing and top dressing regardless of the type of soil and its natural nutritional components.
This is the trend that the Soil Health Diagnostic Trials project aims to change to ensure that farmers maximize on yields by using the right type of fertilizers in the right type of soil, according to its coordinator Dr Wilkson Makumba.
“The area fertilizer specific recommendation is going to assist us to reduce the quantities of fertilizers that we are applying per hectare”, he says.
“Like the 92 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare is being applied everywhere but we do need all that in all areas. In some areas they have adequate amounts phosphorus that they do not need even adding extra, some have medium quantities that we really add the quantities”, said Dr Makumba.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has put $ 420, 000(MK 70, 000 000) in the project.
“We decided to fund this programme because it falls within our mission where we want to promote agriculture in order to have a food secure Africa”, says Rebe Harawa, AGRA Program Officer responsible for soil health in east and southern Africa.
“To be food secure it requires use of both chemical and inorganic fertilizers, but to use organic and inorganic fertilizers you need to have the right type and the right amounts of fertilizers in the right places. And this project is to fine tune the fertilizer recommendations”, she added.
Director of Research in the Ministry of Agriculture, Alfred Mtukuso says the project will help farmers save on fertilizer costs. He said currently farmers are not getting maximum yields because of a blanket recommendation for fertilizer application the country has.
“There is a lot of variability in the soil types and fertility levels in the country, so this project is fine tuning the recommendations so that they are area specific to suit the types of crops grown in a particular area and therefore we’ll be getting maximum yield,
“But also this project will address the issue of total soil health. In other words, applying chemical fertilizer alone is not enough. We need to apply organic manure and intercrop our crops with legumes to build the organic reserves in the soils,” said Mkukuso.
It is expected that final results of the research will be made available to the public after three years, but currently farmers involved in the trials, for example in Chiwamba, Traditional Authority Chimutu in Lilongwe are already utilizing the experience.
Group Village headman Mseche hailed the project as a major compliment to farmers’ efforts to improve crop production by using lesser inputs. “When we see our maize growing greener, we know that we are going to have enough food. We need this research because our soils here are degraded”.
Currently farmers in Malawi produce less than a tone of maize from a hectare, but experts says there is potential of 10 tones where proper farming methods are followed.
AGRA works to achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Malawi Finally Starts GM Cotton Trials
LILONGWE: The Malawi Government has finally given Bunda College, located in the country’s capital Lilongwe, permission to conduct confined field trials on genetically modified (GM) cotton, after nearly three years of assessment.
Bunda College scientists and officials of the National Biosafety Regulatory Committee confirmed this at a stakeholders’ awareness meeting held in Lilongwe on Friday, November 4.
According to Professor Moses Kwapata, Principal of Bunda College, who chairs the trials committee, it will take at least three years for results of the research to come out. The approval was officially made on August 19, 2011.
The trials are aimed at coming up with bore worm resistant and herbicide tolerant cotton varieties.
The notion is that this variety, known as BT cotton in the scientific circles, will help farmers earn more as they will no longer be required to spray their crop up to eleven times as is the case now.
On the other hand the tolerance to herbicides means that farmers will have reduced workload because, instead of weeding, they just apply herbicides – chemicals that kill weeds in a garden. The conventional cotton varieties currently on the market would die if herbicides are applied to the field.
Professor Kwapata said, “So far we have identified the field where the trial will be conducted (at Bunda College), we have already started preparing the land in anticipation to be planted in December or early January this year.
“We also have initiated the process acquiring the seed from South Africa and we have already put up a team that will be looking at the trial site on a daily basis.
“And we hope that once this has been planted in the field, it will also provide the farmers and other stakeholders an opportunity to come and see and evaluate the trials. It will include BT cotton plots and conventional local cotton varieties so that people can compare the differences as with advance in seasons.
Caroline Theka, an environmental officer in the Environmental Affairs Department Biosafety Registration Office, said the trial at Bunda College will closely be monitored by the authorities.
Asked whether the trial approval delayed because of Malawi’s limited capacity to conduct safe genetic modification, she said, “Yes and no. Yes in the sense, as you know, this is a new technology…people are apprehensive and cautious as well – so the issues of taking it back and forth delayed.
“But also people weren’t just sure of what to do, so that took a bit of time, so we can say capacity, yes, and also its because of apprehension and conscious”.
She said the office of the National Biosafety Registrar will work with Bunda scientists from the time they will be importing the seed, as they plant it, to the time the results will be released as prescribed by standing procedures.
“We will have our own monitors who will be going there over time and again.”
The BT cotton to be tried at Bunda is already being grown in other African countries such as Burkina Faso and South Africa.
Scientists, however, have to test here to ascertain how it can perform in the Malawi environment.
The approval of the BT cotton trials comes at a time when Malawi is working on increasing cotton production to complement tobacco, whose prices have fallen drastically over the years, as the main foreign currency earner.
BT cotton is said to have the potential of producing four times higher than the conventional crop per hectare when well taken care of.
2010 was the 15th anniversary of commercialization of products of agricultural biotechnology worldwide with an excess of 1 billion hectares of land, eight times the size of South Africa, planted with genetically modified crops.
Bunda College scientists and officials of the National Biosafety Regulatory Committee confirmed this at a stakeholders’ awareness meeting held in Lilongwe on Friday, November 4.
According to Professor Moses Kwapata, Principal of Bunda College, who chairs the trials committee, it will take at least three years for results of the research to come out. The approval was officially made on August 19, 2011.
The trials are aimed at coming up with bore worm resistant and herbicide tolerant cotton varieties.
The notion is that this variety, known as BT cotton in the scientific circles, will help farmers earn more as they will no longer be required to spray their crop up to eleven times as is the case now.
On the other hand the tolerance to herbicides means that farmers will have reduced workload because, instead of weeding, they just apply herbicides – chemicals that kill weeds in a garden. The conventional cotton varieties currently on the market would die if herbicides are applied to the field.
Professor Kwapata said, “So far we have identified the field where the trial will be conducted (at Bunda College), we have already started preparing the land in anticipation to be planted in December or early January this year.
“We also have initiated the process acquiring the seed from South Africa and we have already put up a team that will be looking at the trial site on a daily basis.
“And we hope that once this has been planted in the field, it will also provide the farmers and other stakeholders an opportunity to come and see and evaluate the trials. It will include BT cotton plots and conventional local cotton varieties so that people can compare the differences as with advance in seasons.
Caroline Theka, an environmental officer in the Environmental Affairs Department Biosafety Registration Office, said the trial at Bunda College will closely be monitored by the authorities.
Asked whether the trial approval delayed because of Malawi’s limited capacity to conduct safe genetic modification, she said, “Yes and no. Yes in the sense, as you know, this is a new technology…people are apprehensive and cautious as well – so the issues of taking it back and forth delayed.
“But also people weren’t just sure of what to do, so that took a bit of time, so we can say capacity, yes, and also its because of apprehension and conscious”.
She said the office of the National Biosafety Registrar will work with Bunda scientists from the time they will be importing the seed, as they plant it, to the time the results will be released as prescribed by standing procedures.
“We will have our own monitors who will be going there over time and again.”
The BT cotton to be tried at Bunda is already being grown in other African countries such as Burkina Faso and South Africa.
Scientists, however, have to test here to ascertain how it can perform in the Malawi environment.
The approval of the BT cotton trials comes at a time when Malawi is working on increasing cotton production to complement tobacco, whose prices have fallen drastically over the years, as the main foreign currency earner.
BT cotton is said to have the potential of producing four times higher than the conventional crop per hectare when well taken care of.
2010 was the 15th anniversary of commercialization of products of agricultural biotechnology worldwide with an excess of 1 billion hectares of land, eight times the size of South Africa, planted with genetically modified crops.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A ray of hope
Over the past months on this blog you have read diaries of women who have suffered abuse after they disclosed that they are HIV positive: women abandoned by their husbands, denied access to land, prevented from taking leadership roles, rejected by family members, denied access to subsidized farm inputs and many more.
This is just a tip of the iceberg because it is an open secret that many women and girls are suffering in silence because of their HIV status.
However, it should be recognized that Malawi is making significant improvement in the public’s acceptance of HIV and AIDS, efforts to prevent further spread and mitigate the distress of those affected.
This is why today we present to you the story of a woman who is a living example of how Malawi has come to accept a section of its population once almost outlawed.
Former MYP boss
Miriam Patel hails from Mkalawire Village, in the area of Traditional Authority Mkula in Machinga District in the Eastern Region of Malawi.
Born on November 27, 1961, she did her education up to Standard 8 but she has done a lot in her life including serving in the once dreaded military wing of the former ruling Malawi Congress Party - Malawi Young Pioneers (MYP).
“After I dropped out of school in Standard 8, I joined the Pioneer where I served for three years. I rose up to the position of instructress.
“After left the MYP, I was married to a police officer-in-charge, but the marriage ended just after a few years and I left for my home village”, she recalls.
She had one child from her first marriage.
“While I was living in the village, I got married to another man. His parents however appeared not to be happy with me and marriage did not last long. Again, he left with one child - a boy.
“Subsequent to that I left for Mangochi where I started doing business. I was cooking rice and selling it to traders in the main market at the district headquarters”, she explains.
Then she got married again – a third husband! That was in 2001.
“I become pregnant, but I was getting ill frequently. My legs were becoming swollen time and again because of anemia.
“I had to leave for my home village, but my new husband did not follow me. He ran away.
“After sometime I gave birth to a stillborn. I did not do anything about it. I told myself that it was ‘God’s plan’.
A few months later she seriously fell ill. Coincidentally it was the same time Malosa Community Based Organization (Macobo) was being established in her area.
“The organization was looking for two people in our village to be trained in home based care. I was one of those chosen and I was also trained in HIV counseling.
“Through the lessons I undertook, I convinced myself that I needed to undergo an HIV test because I was frequently bedridden.
“I went to St Luke’s Hospital where I was found HIV positive. But the hospital staff did tell me the results of my blood test I think because they knew I was already an HIV counselor. They just forwarded my forms to Macobo.
“Sometime later the hospital was looking for people to start taking antiretroviral drugs. I gave them the names, but at the end I told them to include my name as well.
“I remember one of our bosses asking me why I wanted my name to be included on the list, but I insisted because I knew they deliberately did not want to tell the results of my blood test.
“Then they added my name to the list and that’s when I knew that indeed I was HIV positive.
A changed society
Miriam was on the first people to start taking live prolonging drugs in Machinga.
“I was one of the first people so much that my number is 4. I’ve been taking the drugs since 2004,” she says.
“In the first days I was worried, but later I accepted that I have to live with it. My parents were also shocked when they learnt that I was HIV positive, but I told them I was not dead. They now realize what I meant as they see me still living today.
“Yes, indeed, previously we faced a lot of discrimination in various spheres. People thought we could not contribute to community development. It was difficult for us to access coupons for subsidized fertilizer, for example.
“But after we enlightened them, more people here now accept those living with HIV just like another person.
“In 2009, I took three traditional authorities to Dowa where we conducted a campaign against discriminating people living with HIV in the distribution of subsidized farm inputs.
“The situation has now changed. We are now given priority”, explains Miriam.
“After being trained in counseling, we were advised to form a group which we called Tagwilizana (United).
“First we sort assistance from the National AIDS Commission (NAC) which provided us with broiler chickens. We were also assisted by the Malawi Social Action Fund which gave us goats which were keeping up to now.
“Then the District AIDS Coordinators came to find out if we were interested to join the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA). I was the first to be approached and I was among the first women that launched the organization in Blantyre in 2006.
Miriam says she has lived a comfortable life since coming in the open to declare her HIV status.
“I consider myself fortunate because I did not suffer stigma and discrimination as it is usually the case when one declares his or HIV status.
“Some of my friends whom I counseled and told them to start receiving medication were not so lucky. They have been rejected by their family members and some have died because their families stopped them from taking ARVs.
She is thankful that St Luke’s Hospital is very caring. The hospital has a special room where people living HIV receive treatment.
“We go to the clinic on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We are treated better probably because the hospital is owned by a religious institution.
In some parts of Machinga, our colleagues do not have the same opportunity. For example, in Chikwewu, they have a shortage of nurses. Because of this people living HIV were given only a single day within the week to receive treatment.
“During such days, people with other ailments are not allowed to visit the hospital. This fuels stigma and discrimination because it is easy to notice that those visiting the hospital on that particular day are living with the virus.
It would be better if they were receiving the drugs just like those suffering from any other disease”, she laments.
A call for action
Working under COWLHA, this woman is leading a campaign to end cultural practices that encourage the spread of HIV, such as fisi,(hyena) where a man is hired to father a child in childless family.
With the establishment of COWLHA, Miriam says more women living with HIV in Machinga are now exercising their rights.
Miriam urges all those who have not yet gone for HIV testing to do so. On the other hand she encourages those who are HIV positive to come in the open because that will free their minds and help them live a comfortable life.
She particularly calls on the youth to go for HIV testing.
“These days we have HIV messages everywhere: on radio, TV and newspapers. They should advantage of this to avoid being infected”, she advises, “They should abstain from sex and work hard in class to have a bright future.”
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Author’s note:Tell us what you think about any of the articles you have read on this colunm by sending your comment to georgekalungwe@yahoo.com or just drop your comment in the dialogue box under the article to help us evaluate feedback.
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My Survival Story on ZODIAK Online is sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Osisa).
This is just a tip of the iceberg because it is an open secret that many women and girls are suffering in silence because of their HIV status.
However, it should be recognized that Malawi is making significant improvement in the public’s acceptance of HIV and AIDS, efforts to prevent further spread and mitigate the distress of those affected.
This is why today we present to you the story of a woman who is a living example of how Malawi has come to accept a section of its population once almost outlawed.
Former MYP boss
Miriam Patel hails from Mkalawire Village, in the area of Traditional Authority Mkula in Machinga District in the Eastern Region of Malawi.
Born on November 27, 1961, she did her education up to Standard 8 but she has done a lot in her life including serving in the once dreaded military wing of the former ruling Malawi Congress Party - Malawi Young Pioneers (MYP).
“After I dropped out of school in Standard 8, I joined the Pioneer where I served for three years. I rose up to the position of instructress.
“After left the MYP, I was married to a police officer-in-charge, but the marriage ended just after a few years and I left for my home village”, she recalls.
She had one child from her first marriage.
“While I was living in the village, I got married to another man. His parents however appeared not to be happy with me and marriage did not last long. Again, he left with one child - a boy.
“Subsequent to that I left for Mangochi where I started doing business. I was cooking rice and selling it to traders in the main market at the district headquarters”, she explains.
Then she got married again – a third husband! That was in 2001.
“I become pregnant, but I was getting ill frequently. My legs were becoming swollen time and again because of anemia.
“I had to leave for my home village, but my new husband did not follow me. He ran away.
“After sometime I gave birth to a stillborn. I did not do anything about it. I told myself that it was ‘God’s plan’.
A few months later she seriously fell ill. Coincidentally it was the same time Malosa Community Based Organization (Macobo) was being established in her area.
“The organization was looking for two people in our village to be trained in home based care. I was one of those chosen and I was also trained in HIV counseling.
“Through the lessons I undertook, I convinced myself that I needed to undergo an HIV test because I was frequently bedridden.
“I went to St Luke’s Hospital where I was found HIV positive. But the hospital staff did tell me the results of my blood test I think because they knew I was already an HIV counselor. They just forwarded my forms to Macobo.
“Sometime later the hospital was looking for people to start taking antiretroviral drugs. I gave them the names, but at the end I told them to include my name as well.
“I remember one of our bosses asking me why I wanted my name to be included on the list, but I insisted because I knew they deliberately did not want to tell the results of my blood test.
“Then they added my name to the list and that’s when I knew that indeed I was HIV positive.
A changed society
Miriam was on the first people to start taking live prolonging drugs in Machinga.
“I was one of the first people so much that my number is 4. I’ve been taking the drugs since 2004,” she says.
“In the first days I was worried, but later I accepted that I have to live with it. My parents were also shocked when they learnt that I was HIV positive, but I told them I was not dead. They now realize what I meant as they see me still living today.
“Yes, indeed, previously we faced a lot of discrimination in various spheres. People thought we could not contribute to community development. It was difficult for us to access coupons for subsidized fertilizer, for example.
“But after we enlightened them, more people here now accept those living with HIV just like another person.
“In 2009, I took three traditional authorities to Dowa where we conducted a campaign against discriminating people living with HIV in the distribution of subsidized farm inputs.
“The situation has now changed. We are now given priority”, explains Miriam.
“After being trained in counseling, we were advised to form a group which we called Tagwilizana (United).
“First we sort assistance from the National AIDS Commission (NAC) which provided us with broiler chickens. We were also assisted by the Malawi Social Action Fund which gave us goats which were keeping up to now.
“Then the District AIDS Coordinators came to find out if we were interested to join the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA). I was the first to be approached and I was among the first women that launched the organization in Blantyre in 2006.
Miriam says she has lived a comfortable life since coming in the open to declare her HIV status.
“I consider myself fortunate because I did not suffer stigma and discrimination as it is usually the case when one declares his or HIV status.
“Some of my friends whom I counseled and told them to start receiving medication were not so lucky. They have been rejected by their family members and some have died because their families stopped them from taking ARVs.
She is thankful that St Luke’s Hospital is very caring. The hospital has a special room where people living HIV receive treatment.
“We go to the clinic on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We are treated better probably because the hospital is owned by a religious institution.
In some parts of Machinga, our colleagues do not have the same opportunity. For example, in Chikwewu, they have a shortage of nurses. Because of this people living HIV were given only a single day within the week to receive treatment.
“During such days, people with other ailments are not allowed to visit the hospital. This fuels stigma and discrimination because it is easy to notice that those visiting the hospital on that particular day are living with the virus.
It would be better if they were receiving the drugs just like those suffering from any other disease”, she laments.
A call for action
Working under COWLHA, this woman is leading a campaign to end cultural practices that encourage the spread of HIV, such as fisi,(hyena) where a man is hired to father a child in childless family.
With the establishment of COWLHA, Miriam says more women living with HIV in Machinga are now exercising their rights.
Miriam urges all those who have not yet gone for HIV testing to do so. On the other hand she encourages those who are HIV positive to come in the open because that will free their minds and help them live a comfortable life.
She particularly calls on the youth to go for HIV testing.
“These days we have HIV messages everywhere: on radio, TV and newspapers. They should advantage of this to avoid being infected”, she advises, “They should abstain from sex and work hard in class to have a bright future.”
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My Survival Story on ZODIAK Online is sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Osisa).
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