Deliwe Makata, 23, is a beacon of innovation and dedication.

She founded Women Inspire to reach out to girls, preparing them for the world at hand. Deliwe has helped many girls to get an education.

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‘‘We have a programme, ‘Msungwana wa Lero.’ So far, we have trained, enrolled and graduated 75 girls from Ndirande Township,” she says.

Deliwe adds that the programme is a capacity building initiative for girls in vulnerable communities to equip them with theoretical and practical life skills.

The skills include responsible transition to adulthood, building self-esteem, good health and hygiene such as strong mental development. The programme runs for six months.

She took on this task upon realising the struggle in preparing girls for facing the world such as decision making.

Women Inspire also has the Tsogolo Lathu component which adopted 20 girls from 20 secondary schools. It provides school fees and mentorship for two terms.

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One of the beneficiaries, Patience Makina says: “I used to fear public speaking, but through Msungwana wa Lero, I developed confidence.”

Zoe Makata, attested to the same: “I am more courageous and sure about my future. The training opened my eyes to career possibilities. I am more confident and understand the importance of education.”

Women Inspire was established in 2016 and will have been operational for two years next month.

Deliwe also founded Cleaners N More, established in November 2017. This is a company dedicated to serving the less advantaged and giving them a life of meaning.

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“Cleaners N More is a human development centred business registered as a cleaning company. It provides employment to cleaners and ushers them into financial independence,” she says.

According to Deliwe, cleaners are in the majority in the country and need to be taught positivity for their maximum contribution to the country.

“If I have a chance to influence people’s lives, it has to be them- firstly by giving them the job they are looking for and building them up to become even more than cleaners- through personal development trainings. But I can’t do it without giving them what they need which is money. So, I will give them a job to improve their lives,” says Deliwe.

The trainings and coaching also comprise financial literacy and investment plans for people of their salary ranges.

So far, Cleaners N More has trained over 70 cleaners.

‘‘As a component of Cleaners ‘N’ More, we introduced a segment called ‘Trained maids’ where people hire a trained maid from us at a price or train their own maids. We have trained 40 maids from different households,” she says.

In this line of work Deliwe does not work alone.

“We have three working staff, a marketer, a human development specialist and a graduate from the Malawi Institute of Tourism (MIT) who does hospitality and people management trainings.  They all work daily, but mostly, it is dependent on the amount of work to be done,” says Deliwe.

She began her work out of the passion and runs the two entities because she loves to see people’s lives change.

Deliwe didn’t really experience hardship while growing up, but was able to see the gap in society and what she could do.

She said that although making money is an important aspect, the major goal is to help the workers.

She carried out a simple research and realised that most cleaners did not wish to be that, but circumstances pushed them into it.

For most of them, it was all they could afford with the level of their education, coupled with levels of unemployment rates in the country.

On challenges, Deliwe says running a non-governmental organisation (NGO) or a company for a young person is difficult as the environment is not conducive.

“People look at you and think you are just another excited young person. They don’t take you seriously.

“Finding clients is not easy, getting people to trust you is very difficult because we already have established cleaning companies in the country,” observes Deliwe.

She has not won big contracts, yet, but with the provision of trained maids, she believes they are making progress.

“I wanted to build an NGO that supports women and girls that is not feminist. I am not feminist. I believe what is being done today in empowerment is trying to fight what men are becoming.

“They are not our competition; we should know our place in society. At the end of the day, the beauty in being a woman is being and doing everything that a man cannot do or be,” she adds.

She attributes her success to seven friends who accepted her vision and have vastly contributed to the operations of her NGO.

Deliwe is also indebted to the commitment of over 500 volunteers spread across the country delivering the goals and objectives of the organisation.

She is Chancellor College Bachelors of Arts in humanities final year student and is currently working on a book Go for Gold due to come out in February, 2019.

The book is a dare to success gift to the thousands of people with so potential to be and do more.

She adds that the idea was born from reading other authors as well as her personal growth and experiences in running the two entities.

The handbook is a reflection of the kind of woman she is, one who believes in a better tomorrow that a great number of young men neglect by not awaking their inner most giants.

She is the second born from a family of four children. Deliwe went to Blantyre Girls Primary School from where she got selected to Lilongwe Girls Secondary School from 2008-2011.

From Lilongwe Girls, she got selected to Chancellor College in 2012, however, she could not complete her final year in 2017 due to financial challenges her family encountered.

She withdrew from school for a year and returned this year to complete her education.

Deliwe says her grades are excellent and she is able to keep up with school, running the NGO and cleaners company in addition to writing the book.

Asked how she is able to do it all, Deliwe said, time management, knowing what to do, when to do it and of course the skill of how to do it.

“I believe 24 hours is more than enough. And it’s mostly about passion. When you are living a burning life filled with dreams and ambition, your passion drives you,” she says.

However, she let go of many things in the need to save up on time.

It’s not easy, she admits, but she does not allow anything to affect her school, because at the end of the day, all this can be done later.

Deliwe wants to finish school and concentrate on everything else.

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For most people, if they are not the city council, the probability of sweeping a market place equals none. And when they need funds, they will not consider sweeping the streets.

For Gertrude Gugu Mlanga, waste collection means cleaner cities and the creation of jobs.

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She is an artist with a trade called Trashion, transforming waste into fashion.

“I wanted my art to have a different story, tell a different story and have a different impact on people,” says Gertrude.

It’s a dirt job. Every day, she picks dirt and waste in bins, swamps and all dirt areas. However, she thinks collecting and dumping waste is not enough. For her, she sees gold in wastes.

Gertrude—with nothing, but hands— picks plastic bags and bottles which she turns into bangles, home décor and combines the same with paintings.

With this art, she has trained over 120 girls and 80 women, giving them an opportunity to hone skills in waste recycling, turning them into a sense of fashion.

Not only that, Gertrude works with different artists, including musicians, models, photographers and graphic designers.

She employed some of the artists and helped expose their various arts.

“I thought beyond what they would need. I came up with a creative hub for their work space and to display their works,” she says.

Justice Grey, a painter, says that since he got connected to Trashion, his life changed for the better.

He makes more money and has been pushed to achieve. Justice calls Gertrude a true leader who has pushed him forward and he anticipates a lot of success in Trashion.

In addition, the hub offers art and fashion designing classes- where people learn sewing, designing, drawing and painting.

This is also another income generating activity for the artists. So far, there are eight students.

Gertrude is also working with schools to train girls on how to produce various artworks from recycled products and promote entrepreneurship.

She helps needy girls meet their school needs after selling the products.

“Every girl has needs at the end of the day. Parents cannot provide everything that a girl needs. So, we teach girls how they can make something to afford what they need,” she says.

She adds that Trashion teaches girls to make something useful with cheap materials- with the highest costing K500.

“We taught them how to make bangles using a plastic bottle, a little piece of fabric and a bit of glue. Girls from different schools around Blantyre, including Namiwawa and Chilomoni primary schools, have benefitted from the intervention,” she says.

Nevertheless, there are many trades Gertrude could have picked other than plastics.

“I really hate the surrounding when it is filled with plastics. I think in Malawi, we have a tendency of throwing plastics anywhere. We are not aware that we should throw things in the right place,” she observes.

Plastic is the number one material ruining the environment. Many can attest to the devastations it has brought.

“I wanted to use that to actually educate people that this is one item that we can actually recycle,” says Gertrude.

She says, looking back to the last five years, it is clear that the agricultural aspect has not been good with soils being ruined.

She notes that when people throw these plastics, they actually bury them, adding that plastics don’t disintegrate, but stay the same- ruining the environment in the long run.

This, to Gertrude, was another aspect that she looked at and needed an immediate medium to get to people faster to make them aware of the wrongs in plastic disposal.

She picked music and fashion as the quick and effective ways of reaching people.

“We walk around a lot collecting plastics, especially in towns and in the evenings when all the dust bins are full. Sometimes we get to have clean-up days in the markets,” says Gertrude.

So far, they have managed to clean Mbayani Market and participated in the Zingwangwa clean-up day, plus a big walk that was conducted to ban thin plastics.

On whether every plastics goes, Gugu said there are times when a specific type of plastic is targeted depending on the day’s particular agenda.

“Sometimes we get to collect what can actually be disintegrated using proper machines. We have recycling plants in Malawi whose companies look for a particular type. We just target those and in exchange, we get cups, containers and combs,” she says.

Their plan, she says, is to distribute to schools with the phala programme.

Gertrude noticed—during a trip to some schools when they went to introduce Trashion—that some children waited on each other to use cups for porridge because they didn’t have their own.

In terms of expansion, she says they have the clean-up Mudi River project in motion, in which she has partnered with other people who deal with compost.

Not only that, Trashion is planning another training session for a second group of youngsters.

“My vision is to create a thousand jobs and more in the art industry and I want to reach every corner of the country, in ensuring that waste is recycled and disposed of properly,” she says.

The 24-year-old says Manotta, her friend has been her biggest inspiration and he has pushed her a lot in this.

“We artists have a problem whenever we are in our different artistic worlds. We have a problem connecting with people,” she adds.

She had a dream, but the entrepreneur in Manotta connected her to people with the knowledge in recycling and the industry. He made sure they got to where she thought Trashion should be.

Angelina Gerald said being a trasher has more benefits because when they meet, they share ideas and improve each other’s creativity and productivity.

The industry, however, is not smooth. Getting sponsorship for the project is hard, since they are young artists and Gertrude says people don’t take them seriously or don’t trust them.

Being a young woman in the industry is also not easy as she has to compete with men.

Gertrude is the first born of two children. She completed her bachelor’s of arts and humanities degree at Chancellor College in 2015.

She went to Bwala Secondary School for two terms and moved to Lilongwe Girls Secondary School.

Gertrude wrote her Standard Eight exams at Mtsiriza Primary School.

She did a years’ long internship with Green Land Services, from 2016, but realised that she was not cut for the job.

With the money she had, Gertrude bought a tailoring machine, fabric, paid for a shop and started to run her business besides work.

She quit her job in 2017 after realising her love for arts and went fully operational in her business which had already been running for six months.

“I wasn’t giving 100 percent attention to my job or business, so, I quit,” she says.

She says Manotta was not the only one who helped her get established, but her friend Dineo Mkwezalamba, an economist and entrepreneur, also pushed her and is always guiding her to do well.

Her artistry goes back to 2006 to 2009 where she would draw clothing designs for pay.

In college, she was already making pottery and design dresses for clients at a fee.

Both her parents passed away in 2011. She and her brother stayed with relatives. After graduation, she started living on her own and she helps support her brother who is in college.

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“I had cancer, God healed me,” says Tawina Kumwembe.

After a year of battling cancer of the uterus, Tawina, 41, is now a woman who is restoring hope among society’s vulnerable groups.

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She founded the Midnight Prayer Warriors Ministry- a faith-based organisation which has for the past two years been providing spiritual and material support; rehabilitation and a feeding programme at Maula Prison in Lilongwe.

“The ministry’s purpose is to promote a culture of prayer through active involvement and fervent prayer of its leadership and members watching the mid night hour just like Paul and Silas in Acts 16:25-26,” she says.

Tawina believes that she was saved by prayer. She got sick in 2013 and was made well in 2014.

She says she shared the news with her friends and this motivated them to come together and start praying as a team for various issues.

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Today, the group has over 100 members.

“We rehabilitate offenders to avoid a relapse into crime, provide psycho-social support, mentoring and other transitional services.

“The main goal is to provide former convicts a path towards a better life,” she enlightens.

The ministry started on December 22, 2014 with seven members who had agreed to pray and intercede for personal issues through social media platform.

With time, the ministry grew and began to carry out social work. Apart from prisoners, it reaches out to vulnerable groups such as orphans, the sick and the elderly.

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“We reach out to abandoned groups, particularly those in hopelessness,” Tawina says.

They have so far reached out close to 1 000 inmates and 350 orphans.

“At Kachere Young Offenders Prison – a place where young offenders are placed for reformatory services, we have reached out to over 265 offenders, over 300 in-mates at Maula Prison and close to 100 female inmates at Chichiri Prison,” explains Tawina.

The prison visits include adopting prisoners, especially those serving long sentences and providing them with basic needs.

They also do the same to orphans in orphanages. In addition, the adopted orphans are given school fees.

Tawina says the source of the resources is contributions by members of the ministry.

“On a few occasions, we have partnered with other well-wishers like Chance for Change and built a new kitchen for the juveniles at Kachere Kachere Young Offenders Prison.

“We also gave the centre learning materials through support from the International Women association of Malawi (Iwam),” she says.

Tawina adds that they were prompted to support the centre after observing that it has minors as young as 12.

“We saw the need to support juveniles to improve the quality of education at the centre. We donated text and note books,” she explains.

Through this initiative, the group is helping the centre to educate young offenders and the results have been motivating.

For instance, four students who sat for the 2016 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) and eight students who wrote the Primary School Leaving Certificate Education (PSLCE) examinations successfully completed their education and passed with excellent grades.

On July 7 2018, the ministry visited Maula Prison sick bay as part of the independence celebration where a decent meal was prepared for sick in-mates.

Here, they met Brian Mtonga from Zambia, an inmate who had served his sentence for nine years.

He was released on June 14 2018, but was detained by the prison authorities due to immigration issues. He would be released after relations come and clear him.

Explains Tawina: “We helped Brian with his paper work and finally was released a month later.”

Being helped to leave the confinement was not enough. Upon his release, Brian was stranded. He needed transport, shelter, food and means to contact relatives.

“He linked up with one of our ministry members who accommodated him and was given food and clothing,” she says, adding Brian was also given transport to his home.

He is quoted in one of the Ministry’s manuals saying: “I never anticipated the kind of assistance I received.”

From the experience with Brian, the ministry decided to have a half-way home (transit shelter), to help inmates with temporary accommodation through support and care as they await to re-unite with their families.

The group came up with another initiative since it is not easy for ex-prisoners to migrate back into society.

“We came up with the Prisoner Re-entry Initiative (PRI)- to link ex-convicts with faith-based communities and institutions working within Maula Prison,” she adds.

Tawina says they far so far helped four ex-convicts, one man and three women get back into society.

Fosters Sikwese, a member of the ministry, says the difference is in ministering as giving bread alone, people may forget, but meeting the spiritual need ensures sustenance of their lives.

On ensuring ex-convicts reformation, Kumwembe says there is a need for proper rehabilitation, creation of jobs and spiritual nourishment.

“They are regarded as criminals; most of which end up committing crimes due to pressure and hardships; hence, the need for the intervention,” he observes.

The work, however, is not smooth. Challenges, according to Kumwembe, include the lack of support and finance.

“The ministry has limited finances versus the need on the ground.  For instance, we still need to reach out to student prisoners with literacy materials and there is a growing need in orphanages on education support, food and other non-food items,” he says.

Not only that, but in follow up procedures, they need money to develop a half way home to assist former inmates migrate back into society.

As they minister, the team observes female inmates who have young ones staying with their children in prison, exposing the innocent child to harsh prison environment.

Assistant superintendent for the ministry Foster Kamuyanja, who is also Regional chaplain for the Central Region said the prayer warriors group’s impact cannot be omitted, especially at Maula Prison.

“The general perception deems a prisoner as rejected and unworthy.

“The work in ensuring that inmates are completely reformed to avoid relapses rests on society which collectively should address factors that made the inmates commit a crime,” he says.

He said the community needs to understand that prisoners are only there to serve their respective sentences and should refrain from stigma and discrimination which only makes former inmates suffer invisible imprisonment and societal mistrust.

“Inmates are part of the larger community as such, prison is temporal. The community should, therefore, start from where the sentence expires to avoid habitual offending,” he notes.

Kamuyanja says there are many factors that push one to commit a crime and the spiritual aspect plays a big role in reformation.

The knowledge of wrong and right, he says, goes beyond that which is constitutional; hence, it helps inmates to understand an act as a crime and a sin before God.

The warriors have helped prisoners reconnect with their God through repentance and forgiveness.

Tawina works with Central Region Water Board as secretary.  She is also in the agriculture business.

She went to Lilongwe Girls Secondary School, Chipasula Secondary School and Ludzi Primary School. Tawina did her college at Lilongwe Technical College.

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Takulandirani kuno kwa mfumu yayikulu Bwananyambi Kuchimake kwa azitsogoleri amene amalimbikitsa mamphunziro a ana achitsikana. Tili ndi ma By-laws amene sakulora kholo kukakamiza mwana wamkazi kusiya sukulu kapena kumukakamiza kupita ku banja.

These are the words inscribed on a road side signpost that welcomes you to Chief Bwananyambi’s home in Mangochi.

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They mean: “Welcome to Chief Bwananyambi, the home of leaders who encourage girls’ education. We have by-laws that do not allow parents to force their daughters out of school or get married.”

The signpost, erected just about a metre from the main road, is not just a welcoming message to those visiting the place for the first.

It is also a stern warning to the Bwananyambi community members against depriving girls of their right to education and stealing their childhood by marrying them off at a young age.

Bwananyambi says girls from her area are coerced into early marriages by men who trek to South Africa looking for piece work.

She says the practice is common that those who marry such men are envied, but she is determined to put stop this practice.

Born Saujiya Phande many years ago, Bwananyambi is a tall and stout woman with a still voice of reason steadily breaking norms of stopping girls from going to school for early marriages.

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She is the voice that echoes in her area, reminding everyone of the need to respect women and girls by according them a conducive environment to realise their full potential and dreams.

Hers is a voice that chides the patriarchal society she grew up in against objectifying a girl. Just like her physique she is tough, courageous and determined.

The chief’s personal story inspired her to champion girls’ education and use whatever in her power to protect them from early marriages and ensure they reach their full potential.

Bwananyambi recalls how she was married off at a young age because, back in the day, it was a norm and fashionable.

Parents saw no problem in marrying off girls. In fact, girls were groomed to become good wives and not career women.

“I have this anger within me. I do not feel good about the fact that I never had an opportunity to go to school. After I was elevated to a chief, I vowed to use my position to promote girls’ education,” she said, adding that the majority of people in her area lack basic education.

“My position is respected by people. A good leader is one who is able to intelligently articulate issues affecting the people of his or her area. To do that, one needs some form of education. Again, it is equally important to have subjects that are enlightened. I want my people to be educated,” she said.

She strongly believes that by educating a girl, you educate her family and the nation.

“Growing up, I never had female role models to look up to and dream of becoming like them. I want girls in my area to be role models for their families and children to build an educated generation.

To achieve this in a society that commodifies and looks down on girls was never going to be a walk in the park.

It would require more than just aspirations and words, but decisive action; hence, the formulation of the by-laws that govern and guide the conduct of all her subjects.

With the laws read out to all of her subjects, Bwananyambi is ending child marriages and educating girls.

The by-laws were formulated through consultation with all members of the community.

“I did this deliberately to avoid people thinking I was being harsh on them. Some chiefs even challenge to be dethroned if they fail to implement the laws.

According to the by-laws, no child- girl or boy- should be seen loitering around during school time. When found, parents are fined K55 000.

If parents marry off a girl below the age of 18, they are fined K35 000.

And if a minor is impregnated by a man older than her, the matter is immediately reported to the police. The case is treated as rape.

On top of that, the man is fined K70 000 plus community service.

Religious leaders are not allowed to bless any marriage where the girl is below the age of 18.

If found on the wedding day, the wedding is cancelled.

Bwananyambi says: “There is no one in my area who can claim not to know these laws and consequences of breaking

the laws.”

So far, she has successfully ended two marriages while many others are pending conclusion.

Bwananyambi doesn’t just end marriages. She sends girls rescued from marriage back to school.

She pays their school fees and all other girls who cannot afford to do so.

One of the girls she has been paying school fees for is now at the Mzuzu University.

With K350 000 from her income, she started Bwananyambi Education Fund (BEF).

From the fund, she has sent 87 girls rescued from marriage and those who dropped out of school because of pregnancy, back to school.

Under her belt are two education projects: Go to school-targeting every child in the community and back to school-targeting those rescued from marriage and those that dropped out of school.

“I believe there can never be meaningful development in my community if people are not educated. I want to leave a good legacy-an educated community that protects girls from abuses.

Her main challenge is the lack of funds to help all those who need it.

“Many girls come to me for help, but I am unable to help them all. It pains me. I wish someone gave me a push financially to help these girls,” said the chief.

Out of 13 chiefs in Mangochi South, Bwananyambi is the only female, but is not intimidated.

“They never look down on me. When I speak, they listen.”

In February 2017, Parliament amended the Constitution and raised the age of marriage from 15 (with parental consent) to 18 years old for boys and girls.

The President signed the constitutional amendment into law in April 2017.

The move brought the Constitution in line with the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Bill adopted in February 2015, which sets the minimum age of marriage at 18.

Resolving legal inconsistencies is an important step towards protecting girls from child marriages, but more concerted efforts are needed.

A report by Unicef, State of the World’s Children 2016, says Malawi has one of the highest rates of child marriages in the world, with approximately one in two girls married by the age of 18.

According to Unicef, many factors interact to place a girl at risk of marriage, including poverty, the perception that marriage will provide ‘protection’, family honour, social norms and customary or religious laws that condone the practice.

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Dear BMW,

I am one of your most profound followers because I believe you give the best advice so I hope you will be able to give me a solution to a problem I am having.

You see BMW, I was brought up in a strict home, one of the requirements which is most strict on us women than the men that we must remain pure (sexually) until marriage. I did just that until my wedding day to a man whom my parents had selected for me. We have been married for over a year now but BMW although this man is my first, he does not satisfy me at all.

He finishes before I have even started feeling anything, I can describe sex with him like sleeping with a tree, I hate sharing that part of me because he satisfies himself only as if my duty is to provide pleasure for him and forget about my own feelings. I thought sex was supposed to be an intimate thing shared by two people who love each other and care about each other’s needs, BMW I don’t even know what an orgasm feels like. So, I remained pure for nothing?

Purity, Liwonde, via E-Mail

 Dear Purity,

Biggie was busy this week as he was in Lilongwe  on official duties. But when I saw your e-mail, I shared it with MG2 to help me with a response. Here is her response:

My sister Purity let me first thank you because you have kept yourself pure until marriage, which is very rare these days when teens are having marathon sex with people as old as their fathers. Purity, I hear you very well because before I met BMW (oops) I was in a similar predicament, my boyfriend was lazy, too lazy and I know you are not the only woman going through this torture.

You see, men can be selfish sometimes, they only think about themselves and not their partners. That is why a man is only your friend in bed, when he is done with you he does what he wants. Some men do not even give you a call to say thank you for the nice time you gave them. That’s men for you! But do not lose heart; sex is the most wonderful thing, once you meet a man like BMW. I can attest you will never look back. Feeling and watching me climax, is what he does best.

But your husband should be ashamed for his under-perfomance. I believe a man is not a man sexually until he has made someone climax. Orgasm is the best part of sex for a woman and once he manages to get you there you will look at him in a different light, and I can bet you will even be begging him for some more.

So my advice to you my sister is, try to talk to your husband about your problem. Tell him how you feel about your sexual experience with him. If need be, when the time comes that you are in the moment, tell him how to touch you and what to do, if need be, guide his hands to places you want to be touched. And remember foreplay is the best way for a woman to be aroused, so incorporate that into your lovemaking. If he is a good man as BMW he will listen.

Dzimvere mtolo!

Biggie

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When torments of loss threaten to swallow you whole, there seems to be no open door for escape.

Mercy Kasito, 25, experienced agony at the loss of her best friend to cancer, Ferai, two years ago. 

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She says the death of Ferai really ate her up. She stayed up late in the night, tossing and turning in her sleep- unsure, failing to cope with the death of the 21-year-old.

To deal with grief, Mercy founded Mended Hearts on January 30 2018, the day Ferai was born.

At this years’ 2018 Global Leadership Summit, she won the Grander Vision Honorary Award for Mended Hearts, attracting a K 50 000 cheque.

Explaining her journey she says:

“I needed someone to be there for me, to talk things out and listen to me. Mended Hearts is the platform where I help and share with others.”

Since Mended Hearts, Mercy has helped several groups, including suicidal youths, the divorced, orphans, the abused, those who have lost their loved ones and those in troubled marriages to deal with their situations.

Her organisation rose from a Youth Global Leadership summit she attended through the Blantyre Baptist Church.

Whilst there, she encountered how Sheryl Sandberg- a speaker and author wrote of her sorrow and overcame her grief.

“She walked us through a video of how she lost her husband. I read Option B, her book which explained her struggle. I was motivated,” says Mercy.

As part of Mended Hearts, Mercy founded Girl Code Movement which has 104 members split in groups comprising Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Chitipa and Thyolo district girls.

She has only met 40 girls and interacts with the rest online. Mercy does not work alone, but with leaders in every district.

In the movement, a group of women meet for Bible study to encourage each other to live Godly lives.

It is also a platform where girls help each other emotionally as well as offering advice on life’s hurdles placed on their paths of daily living as well as personal success.

Tamanda Zidana from Blantyre says the Girl Code Movement has impacted her life greatly as she lives a life of total dependence on God.

She says she has learnt that God should direct one’s plans and the need to be a hard worker.

“We have graduates in our groups and we talk about success in education and at work,” says Tamanda

Working with four counsellors has helped sustain Mended Hearts in the quest to reach out to every group thus far.

“Let’s face it. I am not married, never have been. We had to involve people that have been there, know what marriage feels like,” she adds.

Needless to say, her organisation reaches out to married people as well, hence the work of counsellors.

Showing the depth of Mended Hearts, she picks a few narratives from an array of their work.

“We have rescued three people who almost committed suicide. There is a girl, who was at the end of her life, but is now a nurse.

“I met another girl on the streets, Lizzie (not real name). She came from Lilongwe after running away from her home. We rescued her,” says Mercy.

An interview, Lizzie, narrates her story: “My parents divorced in 2015. They moved out of the house and I remained with my three sisters. My life took a hard turn.

“I became their maid. I washed my sisters’ clothes to eat and woke up every 4:30 am to do chores just to eat. Whenever I got sick, my sisters had nothing to do with me. Whatever went wrong would be my fault,” she says.

Lizzie adds that she never used running water from the tap, but from dirty ponds to wash her clothes for allegedly not contributing towards the water bill.

With tears in her eyes, she says: “My sister poured hot water on my back because of a television remote. I was taken to the hospital and from there, I never returned home. I tried three times to commit suicide, but failed.”

The streets and her friends were the only solution she had. She became a heavy alcohol drinker and later fell pregnant.

“I never knew there was God until Mercy came into my life. She became my mother and Mended Hearts my family,” says Lizzie.

Adding that before then- hated by her sisters- she considered herself alone, unloved and uncared for.

Mercy said talking to Lizzie is what stood out for her because she had to walk her through healing.

She is raising her child, doing business, her life and family relationships restored by God through Mended Hearts.

On how her organisation came to grow, Mercy says: “We would meet up with a few interested people to plan.”

Kitty Gomora, married with two children explains her story: “Last year, I saw an article in the newspapers and I got involved with the meetings.”

She says they have Bible studies online and since then, she has seen God take her out of situations.

“My marriage had issues and my life was cluttered. I drank too much, but my lifestyle is different now. I have learnt to be calm which has improved my marriage. Since then, my husband comes home on time. We live in harmony. Mended Hearts and Girl Code have changed me, even financially,” she explains.

Mended Hearts works with Daughters’ of Destiny-a Christian grouping of girls- with normally a turn up of 53 plus girls in her sessions.

Mercy is also involved with Student Christian Organisation of Malawi Forum (Scomaf), going out to secondary schools; ministering and counselling students.

“I can’t count how many I have reached out. I have been in Scomaf since 2016,” she says.

Mercy helps five orphaned children with school materials.

On challenges she has encountered, Mercy says the newspaper story put her on the spotlight.

She says many people came through not because they needed help, but frustrated men wanting to date her.

“You know how when you bring out a lonely heart issue everybody thinks you are the one who is looking for something. So, that has been hard because they don’t know the limit. They don’t know where to draw the line.

 “I’ve had challenges with people looking down on me. When I look at some of them, I feel like God has prompted me to help them, but with the way they come out, it’s hard for me to come through,” she laments.

Her dream is to reach out to as many people as possible; in colleges, secondary and primary schools as well as companies.

Despite her own troubles, she has to deal with everyone’s troubles when they call.

“I don’t know if it is just a gift or the way God wanted to. I am a very emotional person. Your problems become my problems,” she adds.

Mercy studied hospitality and tourism management; and has a diploma obtained in 2012.

From there, she went to Protea Hotel- Ryalls for training, then worked as a receptionist from January 2015.

In December 2016, she won the Employee of the Year Award among 182 Ryalls employees, something she says she never saw coming.

She now works as reservationist agent having been promoted at the hotel. n

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For most people, achievement is defined by a great job, success, plenty of money and property.

But for Tendai Banda, all she wanted from a young age in her life was to be useful.

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To that end, she found herself volunteering for various organisations such as the Youth to Youth Empowerment, Age Africa, Maphunziro 265, Kwera Fund.

Tendai was voted the 2018 Inspirational woman of the year by Gesu Awards and she also won the Mandela Washington Fellowship Award of 2017 after a retrial having failed two years before.

Gesu (Italian for Jesus) Awards rose out of what’s-up Gesu- an online ministry designed to embrace, educate and empower women by raising what its founder Ethlet Miscot terms a, ‘woman with a difference.’ 

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The awards started in 2017 to celebrate women making a difference in communities in Malawi.

Tendai trains young people in soft skills, motivates young girls to aspire for more and achieve using education.

She also mentors both boys and girls on their career ambitions.

Tendai says she learnt about the Gesu Awards when they were calling for nominations of outstanding women in various Facebook groups.

When people mentioned her name, she was humbled to learn that people were noticing her work and are being inspired. It motivated her to keep going.

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Today, she counts having motivated 1 500 young people from 20 schools, 2 500 in youth events such as conferences and girl guide camps; and 30 that she has engaged in personal mentoring.

She notes that most of her successful motivation exercises have been the ones done one on one.

And doing these gives her a sense of personal fulfilment in the knowledge that she is helping people accomplish something in life.

Getting feedback from the youngsters after a session, how they relate to what she is saying or when someone gets a job after they work together on an application, she says is her greatest return.

“The one I am most proud of is of a young man I engaged with from the moment he learnt he got a scholarship to study accounting at Zanzibar University. We went through the process of preparing for his trip together,” explains Tendai.

Having encouraged him throughout his study, she is proud that he has graduated from the university with a distinction- adding that their job together is not done.

“The list goes on, but I would like to underscore the fact that most of the times, we keep asking ourselves about how we can contribute to Malawi’s development. I found that a sure way is one person at a time,” she says.

Alina Mwasinga, a mentee says Tendai helped her develop confidence and discover herself.

With Tendai’s help, she got selected to this years’ Mandela Washington Fellowship.

She now is the voice of the voiceless and mentors youths at Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

Tendai states that having someone who can benefit from one’s skills, audience and time should be what ought to be offered to others.

She adds that and it goes a long way to hear about how much their lives change for the better because of the help one gave.

Asked if she single – handedly organises these talks, Tendai says she either gives motivational talks with youth groups she is a part of, while the rest are through invitation by people or organisations who have heard about what she does.

Recalling her volunteer work, she says she was given a unique platform to use her educational skills and life’s experience to give back to her community

Adding that the Mandela Fellowship is also a big influence to her work having learnt about servant leadership.

Realising who she is helped her understand better ways of doing things and improving her work. 

Fellowshipping with other young leaders from across Africa also meant learning from them what she could not at home.

During the fellowship, Tendai spent six weeks in professional development at a United States of America organisation, Atlas Corps.

She believes this  helped her learn to work in a fast paced environment and take on some work ethics which she applied to her work with Unicef and later on with the United States Embassy’s public affairs section, her current job. 

The exposure to a different experience also had a positive impact on her life.

Her quest was to learn to become a great leader and she believes the Mandela Washington Fellowship trained and branded her better for her work with young people.

“I want young people to aspire for greatness because I believe I missed out on some opportunities,” she says.

She doesn’t want them to go through the same, hence, by using her experience, Tendai hopes they reflect on how they can do things better and plan for their success.

“I want them to believe that if I was able to overcome all the challenges I faced, they can do it, too, but so much more than me,” she says.

Listing the Mandela Fellowship as a time she almost gave up as being fit for the programme, the award winner says the tide only turned with a friend’s encouragement and help­—keen on following instructions and a realisation she had chosen the wrong track earlier.

“If I didn’t have challenges, I would be a robot,” she says.

She had some dreams which never came to pass whether in her personal or professional life, but knowing that she could try again or look for other opportunities have brought her, this far.

To overcome, she says she learnt to love herself: “I believe that we don’t invest much in becoming better people before we join ourselves to the world.

“My life changed when I knew that, as a person, I am going to fail, but will have to pick myself up, take time to heal and get back with life,” says Tendai.

As a leader, she realised the need to invest in knowledge and experiences enough to share with the people who look up to her.

She believes this has built her into a much stronger person.

Her final straw in building herself was in embracing the fact that everyone is on a journey, but using different paths.

This helped her to stop comparing herself with others and realised that her path is different; hence, she should celebrate the small achievements which are big milestones to her journey.

Her current job also involves working with young people— encouraging them to do amazing things either in academics or community work.

In promoting girls, Tendai trusts that a decent education for girls is a pathway to opening their minds to a world of endless possibilities.

Having met young women who have achieved so much from education, she wants that to be the norm for any girl or young woman.

She observes that menstruation hygiene management is also an important factor for girls and young women in Malawi which is experienced differently, with some being happy, others having a horrific experience every month.

Tendai says enough knowledge and comfortable safe sanitary materials can keep girls going in their education and social spheres.

“I have given period positive talks to about 300 girls in my community as well as conducted a pad making workshop as part of my 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship project to encourage girls to still go to school even during their menstruation. There is more that needs to be done in the field,” she adds.

On the other hand, she says support is very important. Some women, she notes, are born confident while others need someone to encourage and reassure them that their dreams are still valid.

She says girls need to want to be achievers: “You have to be hungry enough for your dreams as nobody is going to do that for you considering they are busy trying to do that for themselves.”

Inspired by Nelson Mandela’s words: “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”

The 29-year-old holds a master’s degree in development studies and a bachelor’s degree in humanities from University of Malawi, Chancellor College.

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“I believe education has a place in opening one’s mind and eyes to see the many opportunities available and have access to what the world offers,” says vibrant Chifuniro Kamwendo a teacher with a vision at Blantyre Secondary School (BSS).

She is a finalist in the Global Teacher Prize competition, nominated into the top 50 finalists out of 10 000 applicants worldwide.

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This qualifies her to become a teacher ambassador for the Varkey Foundation in Malawi.

Kamwendo runs a project at BSS which aims at improving the teaching and learning of hearing impaired (HI) students, which has run for more than a year.

“It is a very good and impactful project which needs to expand to the rest of the nation,” she says.

However, she does it on a small scale because of inadequate funding.

In this project through a grant she received of $2 000 (about K1.5 million) from the International Research and Exchanges (IREX), she has helped all the 19 HI students at Blantyre Secondary School.

With the same grant, she recruited a specialist teacher for the HI students and also trained teachers in basic sign language who continue to help these students.

Furthermore, the initiative has extended to Zingwagwa Primary School and Stella Marist Secondary School as the knowledge gained was shared to special needs teachers in the mentioned schools.

Professionally, Kamwendo says she is not trained as a special needs teacher, but was faced with a challenge of teaching hearing impaired students when she started working as a teacher in 2012.

Said Kamwendo: “Every day, I would go in and out of that class discontented with what I was doing, I knew the lives of those students were not given the chance to change and become better through education. I knew the system had overlooked this part and maybe, I was meant to be there and do something.”

Being bothered about it every day and with further exposure of the outside world, she says her prayer of helping the hearing impaired students got answered and she ventured into this project.

The global teacher prize is a Varkey Foundation initiative aimed at awarding an exceptional teacher, who is making outstanding contributions in their profession and to society.

It is worth $1 million (KK730 million)- highlighting the important role high performing teachers play not only in their students’ lives, but also surrounding societies- appreciating and celebrating their tireless efforts is the main aim of this prize. It started in 2015.

Kamwendo says, looking at the financial hurdle in helping the HI students, she decided to call for global attention and support by nominating herself for the Global Teacher Prize.

But this is not all she does. The teacher incorporates the use of technology in her classroom which is very essential to learning in this era.

She records video lessons with subtitles which help the students.

Kamwendo started doing this in 2017, the year she was able to buy cameras, after receiving the IREX grant.

This method gives the HI students the opportunity to do revision of class work at their own time. In addition, the captions of the videos help the HI students know how to spell since they are able to see words on the screen.

Patricia Nkhoma, a teacher who specialised in hearing impairment commends the project, adding that though she interprets for the students, BSS is riddled with very intelligent students.

She notes that repetition through the videos picks the HI students up in places they were left out during the actual lessons.

Nkhoma says the video lessons initiative started for students in Form Three, but the inadequate resources rendered the process unsustainable, hence, it is only done for Form Four students.

Normally teachers, only teach when they have a class, but for Nkhoma, she interprets in each class from morning till evening, a challenge, but much bigger is the gap that is there; since they have students with hearing impairment from form 1 to form 4.

However, she says that the HI students’ performance has improved as they would not pass beyond 20 percent.

Presently, they are hoping that three or four will have their Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) this year.

Kamwendo adds that the videos are particularly important because students’ ability to spell improves their writing and reading skills, another resultant for improved performance.

In addition to helping the HI students; two years into her teaching job, she started holding empowerment meetings every term, inviting professional women to mentor and guide the girls, especially and sometimes partnering with other fellow female teachers.

BSS receives the best performers from the Primary Leaving Certificate of Education (PLCE) results and the majority of them come from poor backgrounds which according to Kamwendo; means they have no exposure and have low self-esteem, particularly the girls.

At the beginning of secondary education, the girls are bright and excellent though still timid.

However, she discovered that as most of the girls go up the classes, their performances drop, which pushed her to help them realise their self-worth, encouraging them to work hard and dream big- beyond their incapable communities.

Expressing her passion and drive, she says, every day she looks forward to new opportunities to change a life.

“My energies are fueled up with the thought that ‘There is a child who needs me to become better’, There is nothing satisfying than seeing a positive change which you have contributed to,” she says.

Kamwendo cites that everyone has met and has been helped by teachers of different kinds, formal or informally and in different aspects.

“We are largely who we are because we have had someone who believed in us, in our education; who believed we would read and write when it was difficult to do so; who was so passionate to instill right values in us,” she observes.

She defines teaching as a calling that takes one’s sacrifice and patience, as it involves nurturing lives.

She adds: “I respect and recognise all what teachers do, not because am in the profession, but because God opened my eyes to their worth.”

Kamwendo says she is happy with some of the developments happening in Malawi in education, the new curriculum that is promoting skill development in students for instance.

However, she observes there are many policies that don’t raise the standard of our education; which at the moment is still not good.

These policies, she says have to do with administration to teaching and learning processes.

Kamwendo fears that if these are not looked into, Malawi’s education will remain at the same level.

“I see a productive and self-reliant Malawi if education is put as a priority among others. We cannot talk of education without recognising the good and exceptional job done by teachers at all levels,” says Kamwendo.

Despite all the challenges teachers face in the school, she believes a motivated and well taken care of teacher cannot be stopped-as they can do anything to achieve and improve other’s lives.

Her life wasn’t and is not all smooth. Challenges in life are inevitable and essential because you come out better, she says.

Kamwendo was born in a military family of 11, however, one passed away. She comes from Chipoyo Village, Balaka.

When she was nine years old, she moved to live with her sister who had found an opportunity in the city and she took her along.

She says she went to different primary schools, including Dziwe Primary School in Balaka, St. Pius Girls Primary School in Blantyre and Phungu LEA School in Lilongwe.

She went to Defence Force Secondary School and underwent her undergraduate studies at Chancellor College where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in education humanities.

After, she did a short professional course under Teaching Excellence and Achievement Programme at George Mason University in the USA.

She has been a teacher for six years and has helped many students in different platforms and in her different capacities; as a teacher, a chaplain at the school and a role model to the girls.

If awarded the Global Teacher Prize, she says she would make sure no school age going child faces a barrier to education due to lack of school fees, basic needs or disability.

And also, she plans to enlarge her existing project for the HI students at BSS to reach all schools with the hearing impaired students across the country.

She says she would also fight for minimisation of obstacles of the hearing impaired students when they qualify for college through support in the introduction of special programmes in community and technical colleges.

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When I got widowed in 2011, I quickly realised the need for self-reliance, begins Susan Chimbayo Chairman of the Nandolo (Pigeon pea) Farmers Association of Malawi.

Having lost the bread winner in the family, she knew the reins were in her hands. Lucky for her she says all her children were all grown.

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Before her husband passed away, Susan was into small scale farming and businesses, but these alone were not enough.

She says she needed to move further from her grade, to something better and bigger.

Said Susan: “I got inspired by women empowerment advocacy from non-state actors and with time, I revamped my farming activities,”

Her big motivation, however, was a visit to the village where she saw farmers suffering and she wanted something better for them.

The farmer says she became a serious farmer of maize, tomatoes, soya beans, groundnuts and pigeon peas.

Luck smiled on her and Susan began to supply to agro-processors and institutions.

Slowly with her active interactions with processors and exposure to extension interventions; she saw a possibility of growth through small to medium productions.

“I started on a 2.5 hectares of land and now I am farming 10 hectares,” says Susan.

The association she heads was born out of the need to move pigeon pea farmers forward, an undertaking that could only work if farmers combined their forces to overcome the challenges as well as to explore opportunities available.

Being the leader in promoting Malawian pigeon pea farmers, giving them a powerful voice and improving their livelihood is the vision that runs the association.

Susan explains that being the voice, promoting and safeguarding the interest of all pigeon pea farmers in Malawi is the lifeline of the work she does.

She says she was privileged to be chosen as their chairperson.

With over 6 000 paid members and close to 30 000 registered farmers across the country, she says she has deep passion for the association, her love growing with time.

Many pigeon pea farmers also appreciate the associations’ interest to protect, as well as assist in the marketing of pigeon peas.

Fixon Mkwamba chairperson of Lomola cooperative which comprises 10 villages, including Ndalama and Kanthawire in Thyolo District says before the association, farmers were being duped as they sold their nandolo at K50 0r K40 per kilogramme (kg), which meant a 50 kg bag at K2 500 or less.

When the association advised them of a market, members and non-members of the cooperative put together 500 bags, which were sold at K230 per kilogram, a great improvement, however, there were innumerable challenges.

“We were told clubs, cooperatives and associations would sell first at Admarc, but to our surprise it was vendors and politicians who sold their nandolo,” he says to sell.

The association came to their rescue by calling Zodiak and Times media to cover the injustice and only after this intervention did they sell some of the bags, however their fellows didn’t sell a single bag.

The association went ahead to organise demonstrations in protest of the lack of sales, prompting government to intervene by buying from them.

To this end, they sold 43 100 kg, providing them with about K9 million.

“We can see the association’s vision being fulfilled in us,” narrates Fixon.

“It gives me great satisfaction to see the lives of small holder farmers changing from their former levels to owning a decent house and providing basic needs for their families,” adds Susan, expressing the extent of the associations’ work.

Narrating the very beginning of the Nandolo exodus (journey) she says in 2013-2014 she was involved in the Participatory Marketing System Development (PMSD) forum meeting for pigeon peas organised by Christian Aid, which is also the organisation which helps the association.

This brought all actors in the pigeon pea value chain to explore opportunities and challenges for the development of a viable pigeon pea industry in Malawi.

During the PMSD forum meetings, participants discussed several issues concerning the pigeon pea market chain from production to exporting. The partakers included, pigeon pea farmers across the country, members from the NGO sector, processors and traders; extension providers and researchers from government and service providers such as financial institutions, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and input suppliers.

Farmers available at the PSMD numbered 21 who after being enlightened on the prospects and challenges of Pigeon peas, agreed that forming the association would be the only solution.

The 21 farmers each contributed K5 000 for registration and to launch the association.

Nandolo farmers association was registered on June 4 2015 and was officially launched on July 24 2015 by the Ministry of Agriculture.

“The combined forces of the pigeon growers aim to achieve increased production as well as maximising our return from pigeon pea production,” Susan states,

Their current processes in poverty reduction include the Pigeon Pea Sector Improvement Project (PPSIP) whose main mandate is improving the livelihoods of rural household farmers through improved Pigeon Pea Value and better market access.

Explaining the advantages of the crop, Susan says that, pigeon pea is a low input requirement crop, which makes it easy to grow at the same time it is a crop that improves soil fertility.

“If pigeon peas were being processed at a high level, it would lead to the creation of jobs reducing the levels of unemployment in the country, as well as helping the country to earn forex through exports.”

Pigeon peas are largely consumed in the southern region and some parts of the central region, in the form of Makaka a mixture of cassava and nandolo. Pigeon peas are also eaten as relish which either go with nsima or rice.

Elsewhere like India for instance it is an important food source, the same applies to other parts of the arid or dry infertile world. Value added products from pigeon peas offer an affordable alternative to meat-based protein as observed in the Philippine’s journal, a research done by Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and development; apart from being a source of income for small holder farmers and rural households.

Products from pigeon pea flour include Pigeon pea cakes, cookies as well as pasta ingredients

‘With the challenges of Climate changes, pigeon peas stand a greater chance of doing well than other crops because it is drought resistant.” Susan says,

The list for investing in pigeon peas are many, all the crop needs is, to be given enough consideration in terms of resources such as land, labour, capital and sensation so people are more aware of the crop.

Chimbayo says their biggest challenge, being a farmer based organisation, is resources mobilisation. She says its main source of funds comes from the membership fee, which has muddled the growth of the organisation as well as failing them in their goal to reach all pigeon pea farmers in the country.

She says the association was formed on the principle of unity.

“United we stand, divided we fall.” She says, citing the famous saying. Pigeon pea farmers being organised, means standing a better chance of benefitting from their production.

With a powerful voice, they would voice out their concerns and lobby for the support they need like policies and increase their bargaining power.

Freedom to explore more business opportunities, the farmer would not be limited to only being a producer but would be in a better position to expand their base to a trader, exporter and processor.

Susan is a mother of four, two boys and two girls and she has two grandchildren, she worked for Blantyre printing and publishing company for 15 years and moved on to being media manager and later accounts executive. She holds an advanced diploma in business management.

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“I was one of the children who were born with a silver spoon. However, that pride and glory did not last; it was only lived 12 years of my life until the day he died in 1997.”

“He was the breadwinner of the family. His loss meant a lot of hardships, especially for my mother who strived to provide for four children at a time she did not even have a job.

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It is worth mentioning that I had a very strong mother who sacrificed her career to raise a good family. I lost my father to Aids and Tuberculosis (TB).”

“Later on, I lost both my brother and mother in 2008 and 2012 respectively to the same ailment.”

“Growing up without a father meant losing a sense of security and dreams.”

“My education was not easy. I had a lot of interruptions in my school attendance; at times I was sent back for failure to complete school term fees over three times in a term.

“There were times I had to support my mother’s small-scale vegetable garden and poultry, before going to school to afford transport costs just to attend half of the days’ lessons.”

An early ambassador for the “Here I am campaign”, Thokozile Nkhoma narrates her ordeal and involvement in the fight against HIV and Aids.

Here I Am was a global campaign to support the replenishment of the Global fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria.

Malawi is a beneficiary of the fund as such, the significance of the campaign to Malawi cannot be over emphasised.

“The impact of HIV and Aids has left a big hole in the lives of many, including my family. Malawi lost a lot of people and left a huge number of orphans.

“I know what if feels like and I survived the hard way- having had to take care of my family members from a tender age,” she says

Her experiences motivated her to join the response and ensure no girl or orphan lives to experience the effects of these two diseases.

Rising above the loss of her loved one’s is the hardest feat she endured, when giving up education would have been easier.

Her knitted motivation, after seeing her father’s battle against Aids and his eventual death, she says there was no way she could do nothing.

“My father’s journey inspired me so much that every time I’m down, I look back and say, okay, this is why I have to stand up and move on,” she says.

With the campaign, Nkhoma adds that the majority of people reached were politicians within donor capitals.

She joined the Here I Am campaign when she was 27 years old, however she says in recent years, the paradigm has been shifted towards pushing domestic resource mobilisation for sustainable national health programmes.

Today at 34, Nkhoma directs facilitators of community transformation (Fact), an organisation she established in 2012 which works towards ensuring the marginalised populations of children, women, girls, youths and the undeserved.

She is an advocate, a researcher, values the interconnectivity with people and a capacity builder.

To this end it was not sweets and biscuits.

Nkhoma says: “There are challenges I encountered when I was still in school. Financial problems to help my mother.”

In addition to the poultry, her mother ran a tomato business. Through that, they mobilised resources for her school fees and households needs.

But it was her mother’s best friend who came to their rescue- she owned a school and decided to support her by giving her a free secondary school education.

In 2003, she joined Chancellor College and later withdrew due to family support matters. She got a job afterwards.

It was only in 2011 that she joined the University of South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies.

And later, she graduated with a certificate in leadership from the Multi Media University of Kenya and a Diploma in Business Administration (ABE).

Finally, she got a certificate in early childhood development through Action Aid.

Globally, Nkhoma works with TB People International as an interim focal point for Africa and with the Africa Coalition on TB.

She coordinates the constituency of TB affected people within the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board together with her colleague from Uzbekistan.

Her organisation: Fact, holds a national civil society platform for interaction, sharing experiences and establishing initiatives to end TB within communities.

She is also a civil society adviser on the World Health Oganisation (WHO)’s civil society engagement mechanism, particularly with focus on the Universal Health Coverage 2030 agenda.

She strongly believes in raising awareness and interacts with members of Parliamentary TB Caucus and the National TB Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Network.

She works with 10 clubs of adolescent women and young girls in Lilongwe and Salima districts, conducting sexual, reproductive health and rights sessions.

Her drive is to contribute to the achievement of a world that is equitably developed, with just societies, free from poverty and preventable human suffering.

“We have buried our heads in the sand and forgot the pain and suffering still being experienced. My passion will cease when we attain elimination of the three diseases that bring grief in the lives of people and break families.

To successfully defeat the diseases, we need to focus on closing the tap on new infections.

“With TB, ensuring that the missing cases are found; an area, yet, to be overcome, is crucial.  The more people we have who are not put on treatment the higher risk of new infections within the communities,” she highlights.

She adds that funding and making masses aware of getting screened and treated for TB earlier, to cut the infection chain within the communities are paramount.

Nkhoma says Malawi’s high cases of teenage pregnancies, shows that young people are more often engaged in unprotected sex.

Worst still, she adds Malawi is over dependent on donors to support disease programmes while the trend in external financing is decreasing.

 “Let’s get tested to know our status. Let’s be champions to end TB and HIV, a successful future begins with a healthy life,” says Nkhoma.

Looking at her life’s experiences, it’s a wonder how she got to the global, national and community ring steering the wheels of health.

Her journey in her work became cemented with the Malawi Interfaith Aids Association (Miaa), a place she believes gave her a breakthrough, during the Save Campaign where they hosted the first ever international faith-based conference, attracting over 3 000 local and international delegates at Bingu International Conference Centre (Bicc) in 2012. She worked with Miaa for two years.

Through this event, she recounts meeting very influential people working in her field.

“My meeting with Stop TB Partnership opened all the doors to the world,” she observes.

But this success did not come easy either. She had to work extra hard and sleep less.

Counting a great influence and pillar of what she is and has become, her husband Ignascio Nkhoma, she says, because she got promoted and positioned at all levels, working extra times when you are married is a challenge.

She says her husband has been there to support her.

Nkhoma says of all the hurdles, living without her mother has been the most painful experience. However, she died when she had gotten married.

“I still miss the best friend I found in her, but I believe her life was well lived and I celebrate the fact that she is happy and we, her children, did not disappoint her wishes despite the fact the odds were far from possibility,” she says.

Work related challenges she meets, are gender related, as a woman in a leadership role, there is some level of gender discrimination and demeanor.

Her word to the nation is: “Talk about how to grow internal mechanisms of generating fundamental resources to self- sustain our educational, health and broader national development needs.

“Have strong political will that will not only initiate these efforts, but strengthen and close the loopholes on abuse of the resources, we have as a nation be it within the hospital setting, police, civil service in general, private sector and NGOs

“Be citizens who are stewards of progress; have a culture of discipline, which begins with leaders in our midst that communicates and walks the talk on these virtues and those leaders are all of us.” n

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Most people don’t realise, but they mourn their lack of achievement because they cannot tell the difference between a dream and wishful thinking.

Temwa Chirembo, 22, tells a different story. She says a dream is what you do.

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She is co-founder of Ukani Malawi, a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) whose focus is on girl empowerment and gender equality in Malawi’s three regions.

The young woman runs various programmes such as entrepreneurship, leadership training and career day talks in secondary schools.

She also holds seed grant initiatives and mentorship programmes.

Among her contributions, those that stand out are the breaking red project which trains girls in menstruation health hygiene management and the distribution of reusable pads.

She also provides girls with skills on how to make them. The projects’ aim is to ensure girls don’t miss school and don’t drop out.

Through this intervention, Ukani has reached out to 600 girls since its conception in 2016-with funding from Usaid- through the World Connect Implement.

The second that stands out is the Young Mothers’ Project which integrates teenage mothers who have dropped out of school back into school through financial support and mentorship.

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Under the same, they have the teenage pregnancy prevention programme that raises awareness on HIV and Aids in which they also provide training on sexual reproductive health.

This was launched in January 2018 and is currently working with 20 girls, 12 of which have returned to primary school and eight to secondary school.

All this, Temwa carries out with her founding partner 21-year-old Modester Mangilani and 75 volunteers who have been trained in leadership and entrepreneurship.

On how they started, Temwa says all they had was a dream.

“We started in July 2016. We have struggled with funding having started with less than K4 500.”

“We had a dream to change the lives of Malawian girls so we had to continuously hold fund raising events and sometimes financing for events would be hard,” she says.

The absolute attitude of the two founding partners tells more of their belief in their dream made reality.

Modester says the problems and battles the Malawian girl child goes through kept pulling at her heart.

She says the Malawian favours boys, and she feels duty bound to make sure that girls such as herself are given equal opportunities.

She says seeing hope restored, the new light instilled in the girls after they work together and excited for the future, she cannot compare this satisfaction to anything else.

“Every day is a new experience. I have gotten to meet extraordinary people and learned so much from them which builds me and gives me new passion to do what I do”, exclaims Modester.

She says she loves being part of the fight for change and gender equality and no time has been favourable to women than now.

Modester believes now is the time for the girl to become anything she dreams.

She says she was that young person who was afraid to take a bold step and in many situations, still finds it hard to do so.

“Seize the day. You’re never too young to go for what you want. In fact, going after it while young is even better,” she adds.

Modester advises not to let anything hold anyone back.

“Ukani started off on doubts, too, being worried about whether people are going to take us seriously or not. Two years down the line, we are doing so much more than we imagined,” she says.

You may not know everything it takes to make your dreams work, but sitting around, waiting to have everything figured out is no help, according to her.

Modester observes that it is not true that it takes money to start something.

She says their organisation started with nothing, yet, they have been able to reach many girls.

She further observes that not everyone needs materials to be helped or money as advice goes a long way in motivating someone, helping them see life differently and giving them purpose to pursue greater things.

Currently, a fourth year student Modester confesses that balancing the two can be tricky.

“It can get overwhelming sometimes, but time management and knowing one’s limits help; as well as getting one’s priorities straight.

For Temwa, in addition to running Ukani Malawi, she works part time with the Forum for Aids Counselling and Training as a mentor and trainer in Thyolo which aims at reducing child marriages and pregnancies.

She has just completed her studies at the Polytechnic, where she was studying for a degree in business administration.

In the past, she also served as director of women’s affairs and senate representative for the University of Malawi students’ union.

Equally to Modester, juggling the students’ union, her organisation and being a student, was her biggest trial, yet.

She says it was really hard, but she triumphed, as she had to learn time management and that she spent it doing beneficial things.

She is also a 2018 Young African Leadership (Yali) alumni where she got training in civic leadership.

Temwa plans to continue working with Ukani and the development sector. She one day hopes to join politics.

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Even if our lives are abundant with wisdom and accomplishments, character and the will to accomplish the tasks at hand are pivotal.

Due diligence to perform with excellence is the life story that retired Chief Justice Anastasia Msosa represents.

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Both her personal and intellectual conclusions she has drawn from her work embodies the mindset of the “new black woman”- giving rise to women and girls that they are not the downtrodden.

Born in a rural village in Dedza in 1950 to a veterinarian father, who at the time worked for the government and an illiterate mother, Anastasia—fifth born in a family of seven children— started her education journey at a boarding school at the age of six.

In 1957, a time when most people did not go to school, Anastasia says she and her siblings were fairly educated.

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“My father valued education; my mother was uneducated, but she also valued education. With limited resources, they made sure we had all we needed.

I don’t know whether they knew that was the key, but here I am,” she said.

Anastasia completed both primary and secondary education at Likuni Girls and from there; she went to Bunda College of Agriculture.

Having a veterinarian father meant her childhood was spent on the farm. She grew up at Chitedze Research Station, a place her father was transferred to from Dedza.

While at Bunda, Anastasia’s eyes were opened to more chances of joining other professions.  She applied to study law at Chancellor College.

But to go for law, it required either two years of work experience at the college, a degree or that one should be a very good student, ‘not behaviour’, she says with a laugh, but in terms of performance.

She made it into law school and in 1975 at the age of 25, she qualified as a lawyer having been awarded a Bachelors of Law, the beginning of her career in the law field.

Anastasia began work as a state advocate, worked briefly acting as a government lawyer, but acting on behalf of the state in civil and criminal cases.

She then moved to the Department of Legal Aid in 1990 where she was representing individuals who could not afford a lawyer.

She progressed to become senior legal advocate, principle legal advocate and chief legal advocate for 13 years. She became registrar general and administrator and was heading the office up to 1992 for two years, before she became a judge.

This kind of career progression, at a time when there were no female lawyers was no child’s play.

At Bunda College, Anastasia was one of the three girls in a class of 50. Her class in law school had seven students and she was the only girl.

“I was not intimidated,” she firmly states.

Though she went through an all girls secondary school, Bunda gave her the strength to deal with a male dominated environment and the environment at Chancellor College did not dissuade her determination.

“My academic journey has been great,” she adds.

She does not look at any time in her life as a field of pain. She also does not paint it as a struggle, yet, she went across stairs that many men did not and today are, yet, to achieve what she has.

Anastasia, became the first female judge of the High Court and first female Justice of Appeals before she assumed the position of Chief Justice. On how she managed these feats, she takes a moment and says, when she was in the department of Registrar General, she attended a lot of courses which equipped her for the work she carried out.

In 1993, she became chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to 1997. Re-appointed in 2005, she upheld the position for two terms until 2012.

However, 1993 stands as a historical moment. Her reign as first ever MEC chairperson, Anastasia ushered the country into a new era of multiparty democracy.

Bold in her efforts to maintain the rule of law, her strength as Justice and a human being falls in her understanding that her capacity was the starting point for engagement with every Malawian.

Fear did not and does not live in her vocabulary; her cool voice as she narrates the events indicates that she never lets nervousness in.

“I would say that in 1993, most of the people in Malawi were prepared. The body was elected in May 1993 and elections were slated for June 1994.

“We had a lot of work that had to be done in the shortest period of time,” she explains.

On the challenges she encountered, she hesitates and only states: “I was young and energetic. We had to work really hard, it meant sleepless nights and one of the exercises was to come out, however, in the end.”

She says they had to make sure they fit in everything, had a plan of action, toured the country, demarcating constituencies and plan for the registration exercise.

The former judge can only be described as a leading military historian whose consuming interest was in leading her team.

A lot of cooperation, an understanding of the work and a team of commissioners that was prepared to work was the reason for the success.

“When you have the law, the resources and are equipped, everything is simple. At my age now, it would have been difficult. We were on the road from Blantyre to Chitipa,” she adds The law had been used to make people doubt and fear, but she worked to make people believe and do.

She gives the impression of one who knew what she was talking about, an authority that assuredly derives from the fact that she had done her research and it only mattered to her to get the elections right.

But was her journey really that rosy?

Anastasia, who got married to Anderson Msosa—an accountant- says none of her seven children followed her path.

One who remotely studied a related course—a  Bachelors of Arts in human rights and one a statistician, a medical doctor  and two are into computers.

“They didn’t have the desire, I would think so because they all concentrated in sciences,” she offers a quiet laughter.

“I was rarely home. It was work that kept me away from home, so when I look back, I ask myself how did I manage?”- the only time she appears to have had a frail moment.

God first she says, as she responds to self introspection.

On excelling in her profession, she says: “The problem comes when you start to diversify, forming your own laws.

“Don’t beat the drum. At the end of the day, you think of the people that trust you to do the job and I was given very good and able commissioners.”

The conclusion she offers to an excellent performance in a democratic Malawi that history today records.

An account from former president Joyce who came into power in 2012 and appointed Anastasia Chief Justice following the resignation of Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo.

“Chief Justice Anastasia Msosa is one woman I have watched and followed for a long time and I have always been amazed at how much a woman can achieve in a life time.”

Banda said when she came to power as the first female president in the country, she appointed Msosa as Chief Justice not only because she was a woman, but because she also happened to be the most senior in the system and well qualified.

“When I look back, I believe that it was the will of God that come 2012, Malawi would have, for the first time a female president and a female chief justice,” she said.

Anastasia not only got a nod from Banda, but an undisputed vote of 117 out of 118 parliamentarians where only one had differed; as overseer of the Judiciary.

She was Chief Justice from 2013 to 2015. She retired in 2015 at the age of 65.

Anastasia is one woman who has achieved all the titles one can get in the Judiciary. However, she opted for a quiet life when asked why she has not pursued politics for instance. Her response is:

“I believe that everything has its own time. I have a passion for farming. It’s not a very active one; I have a number of plots and a number of other activities.”

She cites her work at the Malawi Electoral Commission and courts as areas that sometimes require her experiences.

Her analysis of the current landscape of elections is that the playing field has become complex.

She says one has to deal with civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, but at the end of the day, she says; “you want them to be independent and as an electoral body, an independent referee.”

She observes that respecting the views of other people is what matters; “follow the rules of the game.”

She adds that each election comes with its own challenges.

On the current scenery of law, she says, law, too has evolved as there are many female lawyers and that one can choose to specialise.

Anastasia is a role model and an inspiration not only to female judges and lawyers.

Her name appears on the list of 20 Pioneer achievers in the History of Malawi Volume 2. n

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While most people depend on their jobs to sustain themselves, Joyce Evercie Banda decided she would follow her heart in entrepreneurship.

Banda, 39, is the founder and director of Wijays Enterprises—a soap and detergents producer; Corporate Partnerships—a company that offers office cleaning, landscaping and interior designing. She also grows herbs and vegetables.

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Wijays made the top 11 finalists out of 200 applicants in the 2019 Growth Accelerator Challenge. It won a $40 000 (about K29.5 million) grant.

The challenge was pioneered by Growth Africa and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on sustainable development.

“When I was young, my father used to splash us with money when he was happy. I used to buy bananas and make zitumbuwa [banana fritters],” she says.

She sold the merchandise at a football pitch on weekends from the age of eight and in Standard Three.

Sometimes she bought groundnuts to fry and gave the money to her mother for safe keeping.

“That spirit of financial independence grew on me. Even in school, I wouldn’t bother my parents much for money,” she adds.

Apart from that, she says her mother did a lot of enterprising.

Her mother travelled across cities doing businesses such as Kaunjika, cosmetics and any hot business at the time.

Joyce adds that doing business stemmed from self -motivation.

She runs Wijays from a production plant at Kanengo Industrial Area with a standard machine that produces detergents.

The process of making organic and herbal soaps, however, is hand-made alongside her team.

Her business acumen might have appeared as a child’s play, but today, she has 288 workers.

Wijays produces dish wash liquid, toilet cleaners, multipurpose cleaners and soaps from aloe Vera, rosemary and lavender.

“My background has nothing to do with the soaps and detergents production. I’m an administrator by profession,” she says.

After primary school in Ndirande, Blantyre, where she was born and raised, she went St Anthony Henry Secondary School in Thyolo.

She then did a secretarial course at Mzuzu Technical College. She then worked with the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) in Mzuzu as a secretary while running a poultry farm and a shop.

Joyce then worked for the National Aids Commission (NAC) in Lilongwe. The whole time she thought of upgrading her education and finding other sources of income.

“Getting out of my father’s house without a degree was not the end of my passion or career. I told myself that I would work hard to get the qualifications I wanted,” she says.

Her education has a lot of gaps as she had to educate herself.

As she worked, she put herself through to a Bachelor’s degree in Business management and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA).

“I knew education was important not only for my work but, businesses,” she adds.

While in Lilongwe, she quit her job and started running a restaurant at City Centre which she says succeeded at the beginning, but later crumbled.

“We would have more customers one day and a handful three or four days later. I began to make losses and couldn’t sustain it,” said Joyce.

She says she did not supervise her restaurant enough.

Reeling from the backlash of the restaurant business, Joyce started looking for a way to start another business and Corporate Partnerships came to mind.

She established Corporate Partners and offered cleaning services to government, private institutions and hotels.

Corporate Partners was no smooth ride either as she could have 15 contracts one year and four the other.

To avoid headaches, she looked to having different income activities and added corporate decoration activities.

She also faced difficulties in acquiring the right detergents.

Through Corporate Partners, she grew an interest to make her own detergents, as she could not find required detergents on the local market that were also affordable.

As a result, she went to South Africa to get the required resources which did not fare well in profit making. The running up and down and payment of duty affected her income output.

To minimise all these, Wijays came to mind. After research on where she could learn to make detergents, in 2016, she went to South Africa for training for four weeks.

Partners, she bought a detergent producing machine.

Joyce says she has been importing herbs form Tanzania and South Africa to minimise costs of travel and increase profits.

She also bought herb seeds from South Africa and planted in her garden.

Joyce recruited 24 female farmers from Nkwenembera Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) M’bwatalika in Lilongwe, provided them with seeds to grow the herbs which she will buy from them.

She says she decided to work with the women to economically empower them.

Presently, these women are being trained in producing herbs by a herbal expert she recruited.

For sustainable economic empowerment, Wijays, will continue to sell the seeds to farmers, and train the farmers.

“I was fortunate to get the grant from Growth Accelerator Fund, some of which will be used to buy an extracting machine and a machine to produce the soaps at a larger scale,” she says.

Joyce adds that the market is big and they are failing to meet demand.

On estimations of current customer size, she gets about 500 customers per day at her Lilongwe shop and offers services to about 14 institutions in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu.

Her vision is to be an essential oils supplier in Malawi which she says the country does not have and to incorporate 100 farmers.

Having worked with several organisations, she says the freedom she has now working at home is nothing like anything she has had before.

“Entrepreneurship is a challenge; it makes you think about new ways of survival. It keeps you alert and turning negatives to one’s favourable solution.

“Don’t wait to be recruited. Be an employer. That’s key to our economic development. Corporate Partners taught me businesses are not for life, especially contractual businesses,” says Joyce.

Losing contracts every month from government, private and parastatals was devastating, but Joyce did not give up.

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“My life purpose is to help others live a happy, fulfilling life and grow in their spiritual, personal and economic lives,” says Estelle Nuka, life coach and founder of EWN (Estelle Wongani Nuka) Consulting and Training.

She has worked with several establishments, especially in the financial sector.

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Today, she dedicates her life to guiding women and men to live productive lives and avoid financial burdens.

Nuka has coached over 50 women and she counts having trained more than 500 individuals.

Her recent contribution is to the number two bestseller book on Amazon Success University for Women, which aims at helping women going through challenges as they navigate through life and careers.

The book was co-authored by 24 other women world-wide who have experienced tragedy, failure, losses; each rising above the darkness and finding a way through it all.

Nuka’s story in the book is titled ‘The mortal vehicle’s fuel of success’.

In the story, she describes her life trials, inlcuding the ups and downs in her career and how perseverance made her the woman she is today.

Fourth-born of nine children, Estelle was born in 1966 to a policeman and housewife. Her parents raised three other children.

Growing up in the 1970s, she says meeting their daily needs proved difficult for her parents.

She recalls a time, in primary school, when her father failed to pay school fees for everyone.

She says despite the challenges, her father did his best, to give them an education, though he did not earn much.

Estelle went through several primary schools and she finally completed her Standard Eight at Limbe Girls’ (St. Maria Goretti) Primary School.

She went to Stella Maris for her secondary school education and to University of Malawi’s Polytechnic for a three-year diploma in business, then a Bachelor in Commerce, where she majored in accountancy.

In her fourth year of her degree chase, she landed an internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers, an auditing company.

Upon completion after five years, she was offered a job to be based in Mozambique.

It was in 1989, when the Mozambican civil war, which had killed over one million of its population, was in its 15th year; to audit Cahora Bassa, an arch dam and hydroelectric facility on the Zambezi River.

Nuka is the fourth woman to work for Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which at the time had a policy for no female employees.

“I did not think PricewaterhouseCoopers would send me there. Me and the entire team went there by a chartered plane and heard of how other planes were being gunned down,” she says.

But she does not count that as her biggest challenge yet.

In 1990, Estelle got married, had a son in 1991 and switched jobs in 1992 to raise her son. In 1993, she enrolled for studies to qualify for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Acca).

During her second employment with Women World Banking (WWB), a donor funded project in 1993, Nuka was pregnant with her second child and was hit hard with her greatest trial.

“I was heavily pregnant and about to sit for my (Acca) exams. I had not been paid for a year and was informed I could only get paid if I filled the hourly time sheets for work done at the office. It was impossible as I was studying,” she says.

Her husband was working for Admarc at the time, a public servant whose salary was not adequate.

In addition to her son, she and her husband were raising eight other dependants.

She says since she was due to have her second child, she sat down to write a letter to her mum, asking her to come and care for her baby as she wrote her examinations.

But before she could write the letter, she got word that her mother had died.

“It had to be my father because he had been sick, my mother was well,” she recalls.

Upon reaching home, she found two corpses—both her father and her mother.

 Although the future looked bleak for Nuka, she never gave up on education. She fought through the pain of loss, lack of finances, wrote her examinations and qualified.

Prior to setting up EWN Consulting & Training in 2014, Nuka worked in various institutions and served on several boards.

Looking back to 25 years (the period she has worked for several companies) and beyond on how she was able to handle school, work and a family, she says she owes her success to her father who always told her she is intelligent.

As a woman, the only challenge she recalls was balancing work and home.

In terms of the workplace, Nuka says she is assertive and does not allow to be marginalised.

She has written a book in honour of her mother title Mama You Are a Hero.

Nuka is a fellow of Acca, a registered member of the Malawi Accountants Board and Institute of Accountants in Malawi.

In her firm she provides consulting, training and coaching services for corporations and individuals on financial management, leadership and principles of success and transformation. n

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Effie Liabunya-Somanje is the first woman to enter the journalism profession in Malawi in 1964.

This was soon af!ter independence when most people would not dare enter an occupation that got them publishing much less or speak anything about the government.

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But she braved the times to become a reporter in the broadcasting industry.

Government propaganda was rife at the same time and everyone lived with a needle and wool, ready to work on their mouth should they be tempted to speak against the government.

The short drive from Blantyre town, down a road to a varied home area took me to Effie’s, after passing a small bustling makeshift market, to her beautiful home.

Smiling brightly and very hospitable, Effie narrates her journey in the media industry as the lone female journalist of her time.

Effie, soon after completing her O levels at Lilongwe Girls Secondary School, was got a job as a reporter for Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), with three others, all men.

In those days, she says looking for a job was not difficult as it was only two years after independence.

“We were learning on the job. Members of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) would train us, however, MBC at the time was full of expatriates [whites]. Only in the newsroom, we had a black man, the late Aubrey Kachingwe as the head of department.

“We were field people and it was very exciting. After recruitment, they went out to write stories, but after sometime, became desk journalists working as sub-editors,” she says.

At the time, she says the corporation was building a newsroom, recruiting and traning them.

From the sub-editor, Effie moved to senior sub-editor and then editor-the only woman at a most volatile time.

“Journalism wasn’t popular then. People were afraid and the political party atmosphere pushed people away. It wasn’t easy and it was risky,” she says.

She adds that journalism was a very difficult job because people were being arrested for no reason and put in prison- an act that scared most people.

Effie says journalists they were not comfortable and only wrote ordinary stories, never going out of their way to write damaging stories.

“Maybe because we were new as a people after gaining independence,” she adds.

She doesn’t blame the late Hastings Banda, but attributes it on the hatred that people around the former president who she says were ignorant about the profession.

In the course of her work, Effie had a chance to get trained in Britain for three months.

Among other journalists from Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Barbados, they were all men except for one woman from Iran.

Of her experiences, she says Britain was an eye opener. There were many female journalists, but the home atmosphere did not give them the chance to write as professionals.

Told to write an impression story titled “the president is dead”, she says because of the fearful background she had, she couldn’t write it-afraid someone from home will know she wrote it and would be imprisoned.

“Because of always being afraid of how to handle news, I was also writing rubbish on the other end,” she says.

At the BBC, she was not attached to the newsroom per say, but learnt from different departments such as foreign news, local radios and trained in writing for television broadcasting.

Upon return, Effie found her director in prison. She only worked only for two years and quit.

“I had to leave. I found my files at the police,” she says.

Her friend who worked at the police station informed her she was being investigated; however, they could not find anything on her.

“I kept quiet. I couldn’t do things in a hurry and if I left immediately, they would have been more suspicious.”

She resigned due to the lack of freedom.

From 1994, she says there was a bit of flexibility, many things have changed. In those days, there were good times and bad times.

With a smile, she recalls the smart dressing of the journalists- suits she says not jeans-something to be proud of.

These days, she says journalists are writing true stories as they come, but they have also lost the dressing code.

On free journalism, she says, journalists are not really free, especially here in Malawi as politicians do not like to be exposed.

What they were doing in their time was praising, even something evil.

“Journalists become enemies of politicians they expose. This trend was everywhere,” says Effie.

She cites Reuter’s journalists who have been jailed for seven years in Myanmar for reporting mass human rights violations where the court ruled that they reported on official secrets.

She observes that during the eras of Bakili Muluzi and Bingu wa Muntharika, they had their own way of EW PAGE 7

making journalists restless, with difference of people not being put in prison.

Effie noted that these leaders are all the same-they harass journalists.

Electronic media, she says has brought freedom and is positive about having free journalism in the future because journalists today don’t care about the attitude of a certain politician, are confident and doing well.

Asked of her proudest moment or work, she said it was the period she did not give them a chance to write what they wanted.

“We were not free. It wasn’t our choice. When people went to cover parliamentary deliberations, the story would go through so many hands and by the time it came out, it would be a diluted story, losing its entire originality,” she says.

Effie adds that this lack of views affected our country, likening it to a communist country where almost nothing went out.

She says they had to listen to BBC about what was happening in Malawi as “we were closed in.”

Effie recalls the fear of wives.

In those days, she says there were some politicians who were entertaining wives.

When beaten or angry, they would go and tell stories about their husbands claiming they called the government stupid.

On opening up of airtime for all views on MBC, Effie says it doesn’t matter whether MBC breaks away from its pro-government stance or not because different media have a wide reach today and the country is making progress in information dissemination.

On schools of journalism, she says in their time, the Thomson Foundation where the British trained journalists was available, however, local training wasn’t as good as it is now.

They banked on sending people abroad, she believes for exposure as well.

She says exposure helps and there’s need for merging the two learning experiences for journalism students today. Kamuzu, she says used to say Kuphunzira ndi kuyenda, when one is exposed they don’t come back the same.

She says given a chance and a freer environment, she would have wanted to pursue journalism further, but she did not want to go to prison.

Of her childhood, Effie had a very difficult life growing up, her parents divorced. She says it was very tough. Her father divorced her mother for only giving birth to girls.

Her father managed to educate Effie and her two sisters. After secondary school, however, she didn’t go to college, though she was selected to do secretariat.

She says she did not want to go as she was making money at MBC.

Her father remarried, started getting the boys who in the end fist fought with him.

She says, however it is the girls who did well in life. Effie got married to orace Somanje (now deceased). She is a mother of four and she has five grandchildren.

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“I didn’t know how other people start and run businesses. It was a struggle. At times I would really cry,” says Jean Pankuku, owner of Tehilah enterprises and value addition centre.

She is a food technologist who has developed several products and runs a bread and bun bakery, which goes beyond bread to help build a healthy population.

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Jean makes these products from orange fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP), high in Vitamin A under the brand Thanzi.

Her bakery, also makes bread and bread products from wheat flour.

The entrepreneur also trains students and provides OFSP farmers with a market, apart from providing employment.

She narrates how she has managed to stay above waters despite struggles that could have made most in her shoes give up.

Thity-eight-year old Jean was born in a family of 11 children, the ninth born of three girls and eight boys.

Throughout her secondary school life, she aspired to be a medical doctor, but was selected to Bunda College of Agriculture.

Unwilling to accept a path in agriculture, she took too long to adjust and was unable to select a major.

She ended up doing general agriculture.

Unable to secure employment after graduation, Jean took to piece-works, doing short surveys.

In 2005, she started cooking at home, would package it in containers and sell in some offices at lunch hour in town,

“It wasn’t easy, but I needed to get going. The upbringing we have does not inpire confidence to leave school and go into business, especially after a college degree. People get surprised when you cook nsima and sell. They want to see you in office,” she says.

She says she did not do it for long.

Thereafter, she went to teach at a private school for two years and joined World Hope organisation as a home-based care officer, nutrition coordinator and also worked in agriculture projects.

She said her passion for food nutrition came back.

Under Hope, she took care of the elderly, orphans and chronically ill people in their homes in areas further from the hospital.

Her role was to help them with balanced nutrition as well as influencing to grow herbal or medicinal plants.

She then went to India where she got a master’s degree in food science and technology.

A food technologist’s focus, she says is in product development and value addition.

Jean joined Universal Industries for hands on experience.

She developed the Gluco Nutri-Phala- her first assignment- and soya pieces.

But her most outstanding contributions began when she started working on OFSP products.

Malawi has always grown orange sweet potatoes, however, the new varieties by the Irish International, through breeding, are highly fortified with vitamin A.

Vitamin A deficiency was a very big problem, especially in under five children, now brought down by different interventions.

They are known as by-fortification which Jean says is cheaper than government spending a lot of money on Vitamin A provision.

Jean went to Rwanda where she saw various products from sweet potatoes and all she wanted was to make products of her own.

She developed sweet potato flour which she says as opposed to the dried traditional method, exposing to the sun challenges takes out the vitamin, the flash drier (machine) retains a good amount of vitamin A.

The nutritionist says at the time Universal Industries received a sweet potato puree making machine, which was only lying idle as no one knew what to do with it.

As her own initiative, she made sweet potato crisps which were love, and later biscuits which also got good reception.

But she wanted to use the machine, but it was seen as a waste of resources.

With the help of a friend in 2016, she took the puree to one of the bakeries and made bread and buns out of it, as Universal did not have bread making machinery.

Though the bread was well received, the bakery owners were not as receptive and when ownership changed, her intervention went under.

Having encountered such hindrances, she decided to do it on her own.

She, however, could not find second hand machinery as most were too broken to fix.

Jean finally got her own set of equipment from South Africa in 2017, rented a place in Luchenza- closer to Thyolo and Mulanje- closer to Ofsp farmers .

Unfortunately, she needed three-phase electricity, which the building did not have.

Escom took two months before EW PAGE 7

responding to her that she needed to upgrade the transformer or buy her own. After a series of follow ups, she was told she needed about K9 million.

She then moved to Matindi where she found a building that had the electricity, but no water.

Hopeful that the water board would not take as long as Escom did, she moved the equipment, but water was only connected after four months.

All this time, she had not completed payment for the machinery, but kept paying rentals and other bills.

Hopeful all would go well after the water connection, she was met with the 25-hour blackouts

“You could make the bread put in the oven and lights went out. They are things made with yeast and with fermentation you throw away everything. I thought maybe it’s a wrong business,” she says.

All the supporting services were also what she couldn’t get.

The genset she needed cost K12 million and packaging material was another problem.

The certification process with Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) was not easy either.

She has been in situations where people undermine her ability and refuse to deal with her.

The seasonality aspect of the OFSP is also a challenge.

Between the sweet potato seasons, she rotates between Thyolo, Mulanje then down to Chikwawa and Nsanje who do winter farming.

She gets the potatoes from individual farmers and sweet potato growing associations in the villages through extension officers or famers clubs.

On harvest or field days, she gives talks on what she needs with partners who are training farmers.

Asked how far women can go with value addition, she says there is so much.

“I’ve travelled and seen how countries use their local grown crops. We have honey, but farmers are further away and remain stunted. We have cassava which can be made into bread. The big bananas in India are made into crisps and we have bananas in the north.

“With Malawi, you have the knowledge, but not the factories. Students may learn, but theory and practice are different,” says Jean.

She says what kept her is the excitement of mixing ingredients, not knowing what will come out and looking at the products after.

“I can have many ideas, but without resources, nothing can be done,” she says.

Jean won the Emerging Leader Award from the Institute of Food Science Technologists in 2017.

Her current plan is to train women identified from different women local markets, selling doughnuts and mandazi so they can start to use sweet potatoe puree. n

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“Financial literacy is key for women to thrive economically and make sound decisions for their families.

“It is impossible in this century to operate at a level of excellence without sound financial knowledge,” says Sarah Lindeire.

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She is the founder of Tingathe, a local organisation that works with vulnerable, out of school youth, aged between 18-30 years in peri-urban areas.

Established in 2016, 360 youths have graduated from Tingathe skills training programme and about 33 women graduated in Azimayi Tingathe Geni, a financial literacy women empowerment programme.

Women have since time immemorial been barred from accessing knowledge and information to thrive and not just survive in the business environment.

Sarah explains that some enter the business arena without sufficient knowledge and support system.

She says when they do not succeed as they had hoped; the patriarchy attributes this failure to their sex and not to the many environmental and social hindrances women face.

She adds that when a woman is equipped with this knowledge, her eyes open to a universe of opportunity and acquires the skills and knowledge to do things that put resources in her pocket and assets in her name.

“Malawi is among countries that lack inclusive growth and women’s financial literacy is vital to the nation’s inclusive growth, which begins at family level and the community.

“Our women are behind in terms of financial education, a bid which has left most in abusive marriages and avid poverty,” she says.

Sarah explains further that financial inclusion for women include giving women the knowledge and allowing them to exercise their right to have a seat at the table where big decisions are made.

“It is not possible to achieve equity and reduce poverty without being legitimately inclusive and being deliberate in ensuring women are equipped with sound knowledge in financial management,” she says.

Sarah observes that women, families and indeed the entire country will continue to be impoverished if we continue to operate as if only men have the onus and ability to contribute to the greater mission.

She has been conducting financial skills and capability trainings for women to reduce gender-based barriers in the business environment.

Through the trainings she conducts, her organisation focuses on equipping women with sound business management and financial literacy skills, equipping women with personal leadership, sexual reproductive health (SRH) knowledge, child protection knowledge and human rights knowledge.

Sarah, through Tingathe provides access to a network of women and men in the business environment in their saving groups (local savings groups or village banks) and in the wider network of Malawi.

It also provides a start-up revolving capital for women to start or boost enterprises.

In equating financial literacy, financial behaviour and attitude for women’s excellence in business, she says the knowledge that a person has is what enables them to operate at a level of excellence or not.

Sound financial knowledge helps individuals make decisions and maintain a lifestyle that is in line with the knowledge that they have.

She explains: “An attitude for excellence is the fruit of the value one develops for excellence. The more one understands and embraces excellence the more they can strive for it.”

Sarah partnered with Aubrey, her husband to establish the business. Tingathe, she narrates that she partners with communities to build wealth and a wellbeing that sticks.

This is achieved through vocational training programmes for young men and women that combines training in marketable skills with knowledge courses in SRH, human rights and responsibilities and physical wellbeing such as yoga and capoeira.

She also runs a growth centered business management and financial literacy programme for youth and single mothers; and life skills training throughout her community engagement trainings.

Malawi has one of the youngest populations on the continent and this, she says is an exciting opportunity for all of the energy and innovativeness of the youth to be used to transform this country.

“Alas, many of our young people drop out of school or come out without any marketable skills and have little to no access to opportunities for them to thrive,” she adds.

She says the vocational skills building programme is their flagship, through which they provide Tingathe certificates, however, their youth are able to sit through Tevet exams.

We envision: “A society that has, empowered, influential and economically independent youth,” She says.

Through their Azimayi Tingathe Geni programme, a short course that specifically targets women from peri-urban communities; by July this year, they will have graduated 100 women.

Sarah was born in January 1990, the last born of six children.

She is a Malawian feminist with over nine years programming experience in gender and governance; ending violence against women and girls (Evawg), sexual related gender based violence, vocational training for youth, human rights and child protection.

She has worked at the global, national and grassroots levels, engaging various stakeholders and interest groups.

She was also awarded the 86th most influential woman in the World by Women Deliver in 2012.

She says through her journe,y she has touched many women who in turn have left a mark on her life.

Sarah says there are many wonderful people who inspire her, but the people who inspire her most are the women she journeys with.

“With all the odds stacked against them, women of my country go forward-ever willing and ready to learn and transform and carrying the whole country on their shoulders. These women inspire me the most,” she says.

Her path hasn’t been without challenges. Every day has its challenges, wins and opportunities.

“I am blessed to have an incredible husband and knowing that we are taking this path together, the dream is truly one we share. I have an amazing family and wonderful friends who are believers like me,” she says.

Her daily mantra; ‘Just enjoy’ she says she enjoys her life, her work and everything.

“There are a lot of financial resources in this world held by very few people. I often think that too many of us would prefer to spend a lot to look like we care than invest sincerely in other people over time to see real transformation,” she adds.

Being a young, African woman with so much drive is something disconcerting and delightful, which she says can hinder inflow of finances and can also bring them in.

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Eleanor Banda is the founder and executive director of Extreme Investments, a company that has arms in fitness and wellness; beauty and fashion and food catering.

Eleanor also mentors and supports women with business startups, helps them in coordination and organisation of their businesses.

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She targets women in village savings and loan associations (VSLS), village banks, religious and social gatherings.

In addition, she mentors secondary school girls and boys in Lilongwe.

Eleanor says women in village saving banks have the capacity to do well, but most of them do not run profitable ventures as they lack knowledge on business management and growth of their startups.

A village bank is a group of people who save together and take small loans from those savings.

In these groups, their activities run in cycles of one year, after which the accumulated savings and the loan profits are distributed back to members.

Village banks provide simple savings and loan facilities in communities which give access to financial services.

Eleanor observes that the flexibility that members have in village savings banks, such as saving more frequently in very small amounts and building more income result in the lack of business expansion.

“These ventures not only contribute to improving household security, but empowers many women by giving them a base for dealing with abuse,” she says.

She lists women village banks from Area 49: Proper, Shire, Habitat, Federation and Mutu as areas where she has motivated women in groups of 30 and more on growing their small businesses.

Eleanor has helped five young women to get loans for their startups.

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Some, she says are AM Global distributors and she is helping one to open a grocery in Zomba.

Eleanor is a Chancellor College graduate who majored in sociology, a discipline that offers a distinct perspective on the study of human behaviour, groups and societies.

She also studied Psychology as a minor at undergraduate level.

Eleanor holds a Master of Business Administration and Marketing Management and a professional postgraduate diploma offered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)UK.

She is also member of the Young African Leaders Initiative (Yali).

She lectures in Marketing at the Malawi College of Accountancy (MCA).

Eleanor has motivated hundreds of students and provides needy students with school materials

She also helps needy girls, whom she identifies through teacher approach.

Currently, she is supporting two secondary school girls, and one at Chancellor College with materials and monthly upkeep.

The Chancellor College woman, Eleanor says had psychiatric problems, partly due to poverty and due to academic and social pressure.

She stresses on the need to reach out to learners with emotional support and their educational requirements at various stages of their education.

“I believe that we are all responsible towards shaping society in the right direction. Development of the entire nation is everyone’s responsibility and shouldn’t be left in a few hands.

“For the secondary school girls, we are only paying school fees. Our finances are very limited since we are not working with any partners and we don’t have donors,” she says.

The money comes from profits Eleanor makes from small businesses.

She began the fitness and wellness business after seeing gaps in healthy living.

In wellness, she explains that one is aware and makes choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life and that wellness is more than being free from illness.

She says many people do not realise the need for physical, mental and social well-being and it is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

The absence of this, especially among women and girls, she says has led to poor confidence and depression which led her to opening a fitness gym.

In her beauty and fashion business, she says make-up, manicures and pedicures, fashion advisory to people, especially women make people realise their worth.

“We want people to believe in themselves because that way, they will be able to do bigger things for their families, their communities and even the nation,” she says.

Banda adds that a people who do not believe in themselves are in conflict with themselves and their development roles.

She says most women and girls look down on themselves, despise themselves, which makes them inactive in development activities.

Apart from running businesses and supporting others, Eleanor is a writer and has authored a book titled ‘Inside you is where it germinates from’ that challenges women and girls to go beyond what they see as limitations.

“As humans, our potential is limitless. We cannot even use up 100 percent of the potential God has blessed us with,” she says.

Banda encourages everyone to dream big, overstretch their dreams and goals.

For women and girls, she advises them to believe in self -discipline and self – control for the achievement of goals.

She says hard work is key as nothing good comes easy, but that all the good things must be worked for.

The book is designed to position readers for transformation, growth and development.

Eleanor is the third born of four. She says her dreams and work have been fashioned by her family who have been very supportive.

She is 33 years old.

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A sure sign of success is when you don’t need a last name to introduce yourself, some say.

But for 35-year-old re-elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Mulanje South East, Naomi Kilekwa, her dream revolved around the people in her local community and attaining self-realisation though the odds were against her.

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Born October 5, 1984, the fifth born of six children, Kilekwa was only able to complete secondary school and get a higher education through sheer will.

Kilekwa walked over 20 kilometres to and from, to get to secondary school. After writing her primary school leaving exams she was selected to Milonde community day secondary school.

Due to the distance, most girls dropped out of school, but her persistence to be educated pushed her on. 

Though she was able to complete her secondary education, when she got her Malawi School Certificate Examination (MSCE) results, she was not as lucky as others to make the Malawi University selection. She had to stay home as her parents could not afford to send her to a private institution.

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A limiting factor that put a barrier to earning more education. Unwilling to be defeated in her pursuit of education and wanting a better future. Kilekwa decided to work as a security guard, in order to find school fees for her college education.

Working as a security guard earning a low-cut salary, it took Kilekwa to save up her earnings and pay for her own education with the Malawi Institute of Bankers for a certificate in Banking and later the Malawi Polytechnic where she got a diploma in Information Communication Technology (ICT) which she says was offered under City and Guild.

Kilekwa braced her unwelcoming situation to take herself through school, as nobody could work hard for her own future or life, she had to take it up.

Though she got her banking certificate and ICT diploma, Kilekwa did not dream of a job with a prestigious financial company and or the bank.

“I wanted to help the people in the area I was living in especially girls. I wanted girls to be able to attain their education.” She says,

“I went to the same schools I know how painful that was,” narrates Kilekwa recalling her long walks to school.

During her time there were few schools and pupils had to travel long distances. She says she wanted to do something about helping others get access to education. She had been there, she knew and understood.

“I did not want others to go through what I had”

She began her journey in politics in 2007 at the age 22, with the desire to bring change in her community and contested for a seat, in parliament in 2009. She did not make it.

She, however, did not give up and could not give up. She says she faced heavy backlash as a woman. Was chastised, called names but she could not let ‘trying’ go.

 In 2014 at the age of 30, she made it into Parliament and in the recent May 21, 2019 tripartite elections, Kilekwa has retained her seat.

At the most she says she wanted to change her area in terms of education, which has faced high rates of girl school drop outs, and bringing schools nearer was a dream she wanted to see fulfilled.

She says the distance to school did not only affect girls but boys as well.

Many children in rural Malawi, face more than the daily 20 kilometres journey to go to school and back. From the time they begin Standard One already most face five and six kilometres or more to get to school. Some harbour hopes of getting selected to boarding school in their district or other to finally get a break from the walks.

But very few are lucky to make the selection most have to settle for Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSS) often which do not give them a breather.

Most reports indicate that distance to school is among the key reasons contributing to high school dropouts in CDSS at a time education has become a pillar for everyone’s success.

In the five, year term, she has represented the constituency, Kilekwa has used her position to expand St. Elena and Nanjiwa junior primary schools to become full primary schools.

She has pushed for Chimwaza and Milumbe community day secondary schools which has reduced travel to school and increased the number of schools in her area.

Kilekwa is responsible for bringing electricity to Milonde, Lumala and constructing a clinic at Namayinga.  She observes that though challenges in terms of schools have been alleviated in most areas. The water problem continues to haunt the communities and especially the women.

Having drilled 40 shallow wells, to alleviate the problem she says the communities not only need more wells but piped water which she hopes to finally accomplish in her new term.

She adds that health is also one area where women face more problems, and with the maintenance of Mathambi, Chimwaza and St. Elena health clinics more women can now get better health care from the health facilities.

On her Parliamentary journey, the MP says, the road into politics is not easy, in 2007 when she was starting, people didn’t expect a woman to have that position. She says, though many tried to pull her down she managed to forge ahead.

The May 2019 elections didn’t bring a new era for her as the name calling and degrading did not and has not stopped.

There were many incidences of female candidates being harassed and this scene has not changed.

“They do not expect a woman to be in this position.” Says Kilekwa who points to her contributions in the last five years, as the reason for people’s trust and vote, as they can see a difference.

Politics is not an easy through street. She advises young people who aspire to go into politics to not look down on themselves. She says young people need to know of the possibilities, should not fear and give people their views.

“You have to listen to what people want and concentrate on making changes,” she advises

That those who did not make it, especially women, not to be discouraged, “I did not make it in 2009, but I made it, keep on trying,” Kilekwa says its trial and error.

Kilekwa is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). She went to Chimwaza primary school. Later Milonde CDSS in Mulanje and got her MSCE certificate at Chisomo Private Secondary School in Lilongwe.

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Low representation of women in politics contravenes the country’s Gender Equality Act which prescribes that one gender should take no more than 60 percent of public leadership positions.

However, this law has been scorned by parties and voters alike.

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Malawi, since 1994, has seen poor representation of women in the national assembly and last week’s 44— a 22 percent increase— is a far-off step towards equal representation being fought for in the 193 member House.

Though 305 women contested for parliamentary positions in this year’s elections, up by eight, fluctuations have been the order with 1994 having 10 female legislatures, 16 in 1999, 27 in 2004, 43 in 2009 and 32 in 2014.

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Party politics have not been gender neutral, efforts have been made by most eminent structures to bar and disenfranchise women not just as leaders, but as voters as well.

Although the 50:50 Management Agency ensured female candidates got the vote across the board, innumerous issues continue to haunt women.

Law lecturer at Chancellor College and gender activist Ngeyi Kanyongolo says one of the issues to be looked at is whether the 50-50 campaign is good enough.

She says the campaign tries its best, but it is a project being run by donors and that political participation is a very big issue.

She observes that the ministry of gender should have taken the lead.

“The agenda we should be pushing now is for government to fund not just economic empowerment, but political empowerment for women as well.

“Law reforms that didn’t work in 2014 are immensely needed. At the rate we are going, it has become obvious that it will take us 20 years to achieve the 50 percent,”she says.

Kanyongolo says lessons need to be drawn from Rwanda, a country that has more than 60 percent representation of women in its Parliament.

May 21 for women, she says was a slight change, but not good enough when compared to the bench mark.

Political commentator Mustapha Hussein says deliberate efforts need to be carried out to increase women’s representation.

Deliberate legislation in the constitution or quotas, for instance he agrees are what are propelling substantial increase of women in notable countries such as South Africa at 42.7 percent, Senegal at 41.1percent, 46 .2 percent for Namibia and Mozambique at 39.6 percent female legislatures.

The 1994 Malawi Constitution makes no provision for quotas to ensure women’s representation in elective bodies.

But it stipulates in Article 13 subsection (a) (i) on gender equality as it calls for “full participation of women in all spheres of Malawians society on the basis of equality with men.”

Hussein says political parties should also provide support as is the case with South Africa where parties have reserved a quota for women.

Though various programmes such as the 50-50, voter mobilisation by National Institution for Civic Education (Nice), these have helped.

“There’s still work to be done to overcome cultural, economic barriers and constrains such as the legal and policy frameworks.

“If quotas were provided, it would lead to substantial increase. As it is, it seems we are moving in circles sometimes we increase sometimes we fluctuate,” says Hussein.

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