By Andrew Gondwe

Chitipa, December 22, Mana: Chitipa Women of Substance, a grouping of Chitipa Women Civil Servants on Saturday donated assorted items worth K300,000.00 to maternity and pediatric wards at Chitipa District Hospital in celebrating Christmas and New Year festive season.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), Chairperson for the grouping, Suten Mwangomba said that the group decided to cheer the sick at the health facility as most patients lack some necessities while admitted at the hospital.

"We hope the gifts which we have donated today will ease emotional and physical challenges to patients especially those that have stayed long in the hospital and those that do not have relatives close to the facility," Mwangomba said.

Nursing Officer for Chitipa District Hospital, Grace Gollen thanked the women for the donation, which she said will help to ease some of the challenges patients and guardians face at the hospital.

"The door is open to all partners and well-wishers who want to assist our patients and even donating to the health facility as an institution,” said Gollen.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries of the donation, Efrida Musukwa, who had just given birth to a baby boy, commended the women for the gifts, saying the gesture was timely as people across the world would soon be celebrating Christmas and New Year.

“We have been provided with some basic needs such as sugar, salt and soap and this will assist us a lot especially those who have come from as far as Kameme, Misuku and Nthalire,” said Musukwa.

By Charlie Ligomeka

Machinga, December 22 Mana: National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust on Sutarday trained news reporters in Machinga drawn from six media houses on governance and democracy reporting, noting that the media has proven a true partner in providing civic education and promoting good governance.

District Programmes Officer for NICE Trust, Francis Mugwa, said the training aimed at equipping the reporters with knowledge on democracy and good governance issues for effective reporting

 “We want to provide reporters with the necessary knowledge regarding access to information. We will also have a media liaison officer responsible for communicating with reporters and offering training programmes,” Mugwa added.

He said that NICE Trust will facilitate reporters’ access to experts, provide travel grants, to promote transparency and accountability.

“We will ensure that NICE Trust operations, decisions, and actions are open and accessible to the public and media. This will help build trust and credibility,” he said.

He said NICE Trust recognizes the critical role the media plays in promoting democracy and governance on top of holding those in power accountable.

Speaking during the training, Machinga District Council spokesperson, Martin Chiwanda, said the training was relevant to the reporters who are responsible for reporting issues of governance and democracy.

“Most reporters shy away from reporting on these issues due to the time it takes to get responses from duty bearers. This prevents them from focusing on critical topics,” he said.

Chiwanda commended NICE Trust for organizing the training, observing this will help reporters understand rights to information access and procedures to follow when accessing information in the public interest.

“There is a need to fully train reporters to understand their role regarding Access to Information law and how they can get information in line with this law. It's unfortunate that many know they have that right but don't know the procedures,” Chiwanda said.

Haneeph Maula, a Machinga District based Nations Newspaper Correspondent hailed the capacity building session, saying the training was timely as reporters will be able to explore issues of democracy and good governance with better understanding.

He expressed optimism that the training will have a positive impact on the quality of reporting on issues of democracy and good governance.

The meeting was organized through Boma Lathu project with funding from the European Union and the Malawi Government.

By Zenak Matekenya

Dedza, December 21, Mana: Dedza and Salima district councils have taken a proactive approach to addressing malnutrition by intensifying their probe into nutrition funding from the government to reduce malnutrition cases in the country.

Malnutrition remains a pressing issue in the country with malnourished children exposed to risk of suffering repeated illnesses and infections which result in significant economic burdens on families and healthcare system.

Through Oxfam’s Increasing Resources allocation and Prioritization Towards Nutrition Malawi project funded by GIZ, Dedza and Salima district councils have analyzed gaps in nutrition funding and developed minimum standard budgets to present to authorities as a lobbying tool.

Speaking Friday following a District Based budget analysis and minimum standard budgets development exercise for nutrition in Dowa, District Principal Nutrition and HIV Officer for Salima, Yamikani Makondi, said the effort is crucial in justifying the need for more funding.

“Government’s commitment towards nutrition funding is at least five percent of the district budget, but for Salima, for instance, we had a gap of about 3.7 percent because we had 1.3 percent allocation.

“Five percent is not adequate enough, but if we could access it all the better,” he said.

He emphasized that a crucial key in the fight against malnutrition lies in prevention itself, which encompasses cultivation of nutritious food to ensure steady supply of nutritive foods and preparation to ensures that the food preserves its nutritional value.

“Besides, utilization comes in to promote the consumption of nutritious foods and educating communities on key healthy eating habits,” he said.

District Principal Nutrition and HIV Officer Loti Makina said most interventions aimed at scaling up nutrition in Malawi are supported by partners, who often have specific areas of interest where they focus their resources.

He said this can create gaps in other equally important areas, leaving them underfunded and under addressed.

“Despite this challenge, government has taken a step forward by allocating funds towards nutrition, recognizing its critical role in the country's development. We are urging the government to do more,” he said.

Notably, he said Dedza has utilized some of these resources from government, to support households in developing backyard gardens, promoting a steady supply of nutritious foods.

Dedza district’s stunting rate has risen from 42 percent to 43.6 percent between 2023 and 2024 due to Elnino that led to poor farm produce against the country’s current stunting rate that stands at 37 percent with Salima at 34.5 percent.

Oxfam Nutrition and Food System Transformation Coordinator Chimwemwe Chilenga said the exercise was crucial to help district and the country to have a basis on how much is required to operate optimally.

“We have always complained of having limited resources, but we have never had a basis as to how much we need as a country, or as a district to operate optimally,” she said.

By Mwai Kumanda

Lilongwe, December 22, Mana: Shape Our Future Foundation (SOFF) has called on Community Leaders to take a leading role in fighting Gender Based Violence (GBV) and early marriages in their areas.

Education Programmes Coordinator for SOFF, Lawrence Kayesa made the call Friday during the Gender Sensitization meeting in Traditional Authority Masula and Chiseka in Lilongwe.

Kayesa said as SOFF they are committed to ending GBV adding there is a need for Community Leaders to work hand in hand with the government saying ending GBV is a responsibility of everyone.

“During our discussions in both areas, Community Leaders are saying that the problem of early child marriages and GBV is still rampant and there is a need for more interventions to curb the malpractice.

“Earlier this year, Lilongwe was one of the districts with a high rate of GBV and child marriage cases, come next year, we don’t want the same story. That is why we are here with all these people from different groups to discuss the way forward on what we can do to end GBV and child marriages,” he said.

Lilongwe District Health Officer Theresa Hunga said the early child pregnancy rate is a serious problem in the district as they record 30 to 40 cases per month; a situation she said is worrisome.

SOFF is also operating in three districts namely:  Lilongwe, Dowa and Nkhotakota.

SOFF is a non-governmental organization, which was registered in 2020, and the purpose of the organization is to reach out to village girls by giving them an opportunity for education.

By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, December 22, Mana: When her marriage collapsed, Liness Phiri, 32, assumed a huge responsibility to raise her three children alone.

Poor and jobless, she had to face it as the husband left the home to an unknown destination where he got lost in obscurity, never to be traced again.

Telling her story from her base at Chilindira Village in the area of Senior Chief Kaomba, Phiri says it has never been easy to provide for the nutritional and educational needs of the children.

“The biggest challenge was lack of food. We couldn’t harvest any because we could not afford to buy fertilizer meaning we stayed the whole year with no food, surviving on piece works. It was difficult and unsustainable.

“Children could not consistently attend classes and their health status was getting poor because of a huge nutrition gap,” she says.

The high cost of living and skyrocketing prices for farm inputs including seed and fertilizer made Phiri’s home perennially food insecure, exacerbating the troubles of the already impoverished family.

Her story is a shared experience for most households in Kasungu District as 38-year-old James Kwenda from Traditional Authority Chilowamatambe testifies.

Kwenda says there have been high levels of poverty amongst households, manifested through lack of food, poor housing, malnourished children and high school dropout rates.

“With little or no capital to venture into businesses, we almost normalized poverty. We thought that is the way of life.

“However, we were concerned with the future of our children if they don’t attend classes. We were worried,” Kwenda says.

Like many of such households in the districts, Kwenda and Phiri’s families took a turn following their enrollment as beneficiaries under the Social Cash Transfer Programme, a component of the Social Support for Resilient Livelihood Project (SSRLP) being implemented by the Malawi Government through the National Local Government Finance Committee with support from the World Bank and Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

Through the programme, at least 16 585 poor and labour-constrained households in Kasungu alone have received over K10.3 billion over the past seven years in cash transfers as capital to build resilience.

Grouped under Chitenje Cluster and trained by Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Comsip), Phiri is now a successful tailor designing and creating custom clothing such as dresses and uniforms.

She says the business has transformed her household in that she can provide for the family with ease.

“Business is good. I sell more items during mobile markets and make a reasonable profit, enough to support the family.

“I have also diversified into rearing chickens, pigs and goats which I sell to raise money for farm inputs while also benefiting from manure, she says.

For Kwenda, the investment in butchery and agribusiness has helped him graduate from a peasant farmer to a successful businessperson. He buys and sells produce such as soybean and maize.

Kamuzu Cluster is another group of beneficiaries located near Chiwengo, the home of the country’s founding President Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

Lozani Banda, a secretary for the cluster says the group has opted to invest in Mbeya fertilizer production capitalizing on the available market for organic fertilizer owing to skyrocketing prices for chemical fertilizers.

“Since most people here cannot afford to buy chemical fertilizers, we saw it as an opportunity to invest in Mbeya fertilizer which despite its many benefits, is cheaper.

“Initially, we produced 55 bags which we sold at a minimum price of K45 000 per 50 kilogramme bag. Production is ongoing so that we meet the available demand.

Banda says the group envisions forming a cooperative specializing in farming and fertilizer production.

“We testify that we have been transformed following the trainings on mindset change, environmental conservation and business management which Comsip gave us.

“The fertilizer we make responds well to calls to adopt modern farming approaches that can deal with effects of climate change. Compost fertilizers not only retain moisture but also replenish the degraded soils resulting in bumper harvests,” she says.

Commenting on the fertilizer initiative, Principal Agriculture Officer at Kasungu District Council, Jonathan Baloyi encourages the group to sustain the venture saying the market for such products is available.

“There is great demand for inorganic fertilizers because of the effects of climate change and the rising prices for chemical fertilizers. So this initiative must be sustained.

“Climate change is a big problem and government encourages all such efforts that could help mitigate the impacts. As we replenish our soils with inorganic fertilizers, we are also fighting food insecurity,” Baloyi says. 

Business Development Manager for Comsip, Febron Mwiba, expresses excitement that the training has had a transformative impact amongst the beneficiary households.

“We encourage them to be in groups and then we give them practical training that can assist their households.

“Our training centres on how to run village savings and loans groups (VSLs), business management, environmental protection, actionable smart agriculture and soil improvement technologies like compost and Mbeya manure making,” Mwiba says.

He notes that compost manure is easy to make because the raw materials are easily found and in the end, households can harvest more for both food and commercial purposes.

“We have been to all the 28 districts with the training, reaching over 300,000 people.  

“The groups have various objectives for keeping money depending on training we gave them but the common denominator is that the funds must be invested into a business that can give them more returns,” Mwiba says.

The social cash transfer programme targets thousands of ultra-poor and labour-constrained households who receive varying amounts of monthly stipend depending on household size and the number of school-age children present in the household.

It began as a pilot in 2006 in Mchinji and has now spread to all districts aiming to create wealth, improve the nutritional status of households, increase school enrolment and, by implication, reduce school dropout rate in primary and secondary school.

By September 2017, the programme had benefitted over 777,000 people in over 174,500 households across 18 districts, including 430,000 child members before spreading to all 28 districts in 2020.

In Kasungu alone, at least 16 585 beneficiaries have received a total of K10.3 billion since the first transfer in August 2018.

Principal Social Welfare Officer for Kasungu, Victor Nyirenda, says the programme has had a positive impact in the district citing increased school enrolment as an example.

“We have seen tremendous change amongst households in the district. We have seen families now owning livestock and some producing various crops for both subsistence and commercial purposes. Still, some have ventured into businesses while others have formed loan groups.

“I would say we are in the direction as regards poverty reduction. Comsip has assisted a lot in ensuring that the money that the beneficiaries get is multiplied through village loan groups and businesses. In the end, the impact has been huge,” says Nyirenda.

He says it is encouraging that most of the beneficiaries use the money as capital and use the profits to meet their various family needs.

“In such an arrangement, the little they get turns out to be very valuable.

“The results of the programme show that unconditional cash transfer programmes to the ultra-poor can protect consumption and generate additional economic activity,” he says.

Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Jean Sendeza thanks development partners for funding the social welfare initiative which she says has economically empowered vulnerable households.

“My appeal is that beneficiaries should use the money productively. We would like to see them graduate from their current status and then we can enrol new beneficiaries into the programme.

“And lastly, I appeal to traditional leaders to ensure that only deserving people are enrolled,” Sendeza says.

By Benedicto Maguda

Blantyre, December 21, Mana: As one-way of promoting children education in primary schools, a group of well-wishers on Friday donated school uniforms to 21 learners at Chanda Primary School in Group Village Head Kaselema T/A Chikowi in Zomba District.

Speaking with Malawi News Agency (Mana), leader of the group who is also Chairperson for the School Committee at Chanda Primary school, Ben Chipole said they came up with the initiative after observing that most learners at the school could not afford a school uniform.

“There are a lot of problems learners are facing at this school, but school uniform is a major one. That is why we have come to donate school uniforms to some of the learners. We are hoping that this will motivate those who have received the gift to continue going to school and boost their performance in class,” said Chipole.

He said in the past the well-wishers had also donated different items to poor families in different villages in the area such as food, sugar, salt, soap and sleeping mat.

Chipole asked different stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations, religious, political leaders and other well-wishers to join hands and help learners in different schools including Chanda Primary school.

“There are so many people who need help in different areas including children in our schools. Therefore, there is need to come together and donate a little we have so that we can promote education in the country,” he said.

Isaac Joseph, a beneficiary who is in Standard 5 at the school said he was happy that he was among those who received the uniform saying that it will help him to work hard in class.

“Most of the times I was not attending classes because I did not have a school uniform to wear to school but with this donation I will work hard in class for a brighter future,” he said.

By Andrew Gondwe

Chitipa, December 21, Mana: Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, has applauded Lusubilo Community Care Organization for training care-givers in promoting Early Childhood Development (ECD) in northern region.

The ministry’s Chief Child Affairs Officer, Martha Chiwanda, made the remarks Friday in Chitipa when she awarded certificates in early childhood development to 40 caregivers drawn from Chitipa, Karonga and Rumphi districts after completing a two-week training.

Chiwanda said the ministry is committed to ensuring that care-givers are well equipped with knowledge and skills on child stimulation so that children grow and develop holistically.

“The graduants have gone through a very critical training as they also, among others, acquired knowledge and skills on how to handle children, including those with disabilities, so that every child is supported according to their needs,” said Chiwanda.

She urged the care-givers to build good relationship among themselves, primary school teachers, community members, parents and guardians so that the targeted children for community based care centres (CBCCs) have adequate parental care, education and support.

"Such relationship among all involved players will ensure that children are well transitioned from CBCCs to primary schools where we expect them to perform much better than those who never went to CBCCs,” she said.

Lusubilo Community Care Organization Orphan and Vulnerable Children Officer, Wisdom Kayange, said the organization conducted the training to impart caregivers with knowledge on ECD principles.

Kayange said most caregivers have difficulties in handling children under ECD due to lack of knowledge of what is expected of them.

"We expect that these caregivers will share the knowledge gained with their colleagues and communities which they live in so that children's rights are protected and promoted," Kayange said.

One of the caregivers, Catherine Mshali, from Tichepetse CBCC in Rumphi District described the training as an eye opener in as far as child development is concerned.

"Now the knowledge and skills we have gained will make us improve our service delivery as we will follow all the principles based on ECD government recommendations," assured Mshali.

Among the 40 care-givers, 33 are female while seven are male.