Seveteen-year-old Moneyi Chingaipe has become the first Malawian to win a medal at this year’s African Union Sports Council Regional Annual Sports Awards (Rasa) held in Windhoek Namibia.

She is a girl from Lilongwe rural—Kapalanga Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Kabudula and the ninth born of ten children.

She was born on February 2 2002 and comes off as shy and quiet, but a force to reckon with on the track field.

Moneyi is a Standard Seven schooler at Milombwe Primary School. Her life as an athlete took an unprecedented turn.

Nathan Chingaipe—her father describes Moneyi’s runs just like any other child’s as she was growing up.

“The usual barefoot runs around the compound, the play fields with the other children in the village are what she used to do— nothingthat pointed out that she would be representing her country,” he says.

African Union Sports Council (Ausc), Region Five hosted the fourth edition of the Rasa awards.

The awards celebrate and recognise sports luminaries in 10 countries—Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Moneyi was named ‘The best junior athlete in Southern Africa’ where she received a miniature and monetary prize of R50 000 (about K2.5 million).

The 17-year-old runner overcame rower Lorryn Ashley Bass of Zimbabwe and fellow runner Manqabang Tsibela from Lesotho to bag the regional accolade.

Moneyi, however, unlike her competitors was not raised in sports arenas as an athlete and or indeed given the basics of the field.

But in the Africa Region Five Games, she became the 3 000 metre gold medalist, paving the way for her to be nominated as the best junior athlete by Malawi Sports Council as well as Rasa.

“I started running at my school. Then I began to run in the city. I came number one,” she explains the beginnings of her international medals.

Her coach and head teacher Leonard Dzanja says Moneyi has always been outstanding as an athlete.

Dzanja, who joined Milombwa in 2017 says when he arrived at the school, all sporting activities involved using the ball and athletics was inexistent.

Due to his background in athletics training, he decided to get the learners running as part of their physical and sporting activities.

Having seen the potential the learners have, especially Moneyi who always stood out, he approached the Primary Education Adviser (PEA) and asked for zonal competition at which Moneyi shone.

“At the zone competition, I discovered others, but Moneyi remained outstanding in her runs. I saw that she has so much potential,” said Dzanja who formed athletics clubs which have learners from various schools.

Unwilling to let the Moneyi’s talent die a natural death, he took her to participate in the Central Region athletics competition where she beat all runners and came first.

From there, she was leading all groups— boys and girls alike.

Her talent is one that could not be hidden, but although she had potential, she couldn’t represent the country in a number of international competitions.

“We tried for her to go and compete outside the country, but she didn’t have a passport. Only this time were we able to find funding; hence, providing her with a passport. She has represented Malawi in Argentina, Algeria and Botswana,” he says.

In three major competitions— in the 1 500 metres race in Gaborone Botswana in 2018—her personal best time was four minutes, 57 seconds and 90 mini seconds.

She did the 3 000 m in 10 minutes, 24 seconds and 80 mini seconds— the clock that helped her carry the gold medal.

Moneyi also has a personal best of 17 minutes, 57 seconds and 57 mini seconds in the 5 000 metre race.

Dzanja says Moneyi is a hard worker and that because of her performance; other children in the clubs are being encouraged.

He says athletics is not just about running, but physical exercises that sharpen the learner’s brain to think faster and also do well.

Exemplifying Catherine Chikwakwa once Malawi’s sole athlete and Kefasi Kasiteni— Malawi’s top athlete, he says these talents can take the young athletes farther.

When asked how long she wants to run, Moneyi says she can’t really say about the future, but for now, she wants to continue doing well and get medals on the global scene like Kenya’s female athletes.

Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) general secretary, Frank Chitembeya says as a federation, they are overwhelmed with her performance.

She is standing as a young model to young women.

“Youth, in this country should know that there is life in sports and in athletics require dedication,” he says.

He adds that Moneyi has achieved the rare feat and she has also underlined the significance of the Malawi Sport Awards as all member countries’ National Sports Awards winners are automatically nominees for the regional awards.

“We are there to help her, but the first thing is herself,” says Chitembeya

For budding athletes such as Moneyi, Chitembeya explains that the federation has a strategy in place to groom and develop the athletes.

“Time and again we take her away from domestic activities and keep her in camp with other young athletes. So, we only give them short rests to see the parents at home so at the end of the day she and other athletes are fully developed,” he says.

On her way to Botswana, she came from the camp where she had been for three months.

He says the federation is also budgeting a lot towards the athletes.

Chitembeya also points out that sports events such as the Be More Race which Standard Bank is sponsoring has given them support to grow the talent.

Moneyi and other athletes are also preparing to compete in other competitions with the largest being the IAAF world championships in Doha Qatar taking place next month.

Moneyi says she is very happy with the medals she has received, thanks to the help of her coach and parents who have been very supportive.

A piece from her parents: “If she starts flirting boys, it will be the end of her career. If she has started helping the country, then she has some years to continue doing so. Asakhale wamawala, she has to safeguard her future and career.”

Moneyi encourages fellow athletes to be competitive so they can also get medals.

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The efforts we take in life are never lost, as lived by the first female Associate Professor of Law at Chancellor College Ngeyi Kanyongolo.

Ngeyi joined the college under the Bachelor of Education programme in 1987. Before then, she had never seen any lawyer or aspired to be one.

During her first year of college, she played hockey and interacted with law students such as Maureen Kachingwe and Justice Lovemore Chikopa, who also played the game.

“I would see them every Friday dressed up in black and white suits going to Blantyre for classes and I just got inspired,” she says.

Ngeyi was also in the Travelling Theater and enjoyed drama.

“I once watched lawyers, Edge and Viphya in a play. I learnt they were lawyers and thought they were very smart,” she says.

After her first year, she decided to apply for law. She got the credit grade, passed the interviews and joined the Faculty of Law.

It was only during her internship, after her second year that she went to court and saw a lawyer, all dressed up in legal regalia and addressing the court,

That picture affirmed her decision to become a lawyer.

Ngeyi graduated in 1991 and worked in a number of places, including a law firm and an NGO before joining the University of Malawi (Unima)as a law lecturer in 2000.

Her contributions to Malawi did not start and stop with teaching.

She is a name many look to when it comes to women empowerment in politics, labour, social security, land and customary laws.

She has published in various international spheres on issues that matter to women and is an avid gender activist, fighting change for women.

“I envision a world where knowledge transforms individuals so that people live as equals; where theory and logic informs practice; and lessons from practice are built back into theory. I see a world and, specifically a Malawi of less poverty and reduced inequalities.

“I am inspired by those that have sacrificed for the country, people such as Professor Jack Mapanje. They showed us the power of the pen, knowledge and ideas. People such as Vera and Orton Chirwa showed us what a law degree is capable of doing,” she observes.

Ngeyi was commissioner on the Special Law Commission on Gender and Law, part of a team that reviewed various laws on gender.

Fifteen years later, most of the legislation is in place, with few gaps to which she says the biggest challenge is low levels of implementation and enforcement.

She once served as president of Women Lawyers Society (WLS).

“We were less than 10 female lawyers when we began. Members were very dedicated to the cause of women and their passion to use the law to transform women’s lives was amazing. That made me realise that it is not always about numbers,” says Ngeyi.

She did not stop there, but also worked as vice president of Malawi Law Society (MLS).

At MLS, she learnt more about professional discipline, growth and the potential lawyers have to influence the running of government in a way that respects rule of law and human rights.

As dean of law, she enjoyed working with students—the energy and enthusiasm for knowledge among students and their passion to serve gave her hope for Malawi.

“The young generation has set its standards high and expects greater things from themselves and others. They live a life of hope, which is positively infectious,” she notes.

However, she recalls working with Dr. Vera Chirwa at Malawi CARER in the early years of her career, 1990s, where they would visit different villages and talk about human rights, especially to women as her greatest career moments.

Running her own law firm in the late 1990s and offering free legal services to women in prison, including getting women out on bail was another high.

She says some of the women had stayed in prison for over 10 years without trial and reuniting them with their families was fulfilling.

Generating new knowledge through research and review of various laws, especially laws on labour, gender and marriage, inheritance and violence against women in the 2000s also form the epitome of her achievements and her proudest moments.

Ngeyi was born and grew up in a family of nine. She was the first child— her mother worked as a teacher and father an administrative manager who later became a businessman.

She says growing up in Chitawira Township in Blantyre, they were relatively comfortable in a Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) rented house with tap water, electricity, one kilometre away from school and a health centre.

Her father mostly worked away from home and she says her mother had the greatest influence in her life.

But a short stay in the village in Standard Five where she enrolled at Kwanjana Primary School opened her eyes to a different reality.

“The disparity between life in town and in the village was just so huge, I can never forget it,” she adds.

Kwanjana school was four kilometres away from her home. She woke up at 4 am, leave for school by 6 am walk the long distance, cross a river without a bridge, sit on mud floor, with very few learning materials, get back home, to fetch water from the well, fetch fire wood and no electricity!

All this was traumatising, but also a life changing experience, she says.

At the age of 12, Ngeyi was selected to Our Lady of Wisdom Secondary School and later to St Michael’s Girls Secondary School.

Growing up as an adolescent at an all-girls secondary school shielded her from the male-female differences that she later in life studied about.

Not worrying about being male or female, she believes this prepared her for Chancellor College where she went at the age of 18.

Mature and confident, she easily handled the common negative prejudices that most girls suffer from, especially at such an age.

In her late 20s, she studied for her Master’s degree in Law with the University of London’s External programme while she lived in England after joining her husband Edge Kanyongolo who was studying for his PhD in Law.

“Combining my studies at Masters’ level with being a full time stay home mother without any house help was a challenge. We somehow both survived and came back to Malawi with our degrees,” she says.

For her PhD, life was very comfortable with a Commonwealth scholarship and a husband who stayed home to support her and the family full time.

Her path to associate professor she says has been a slow, fulfilling and exciting journey.

She joined the academia by chance, living in Zomba after her marriage to a fellow academic, Edge— it became inevitable to be attracted to a part of his world.

Ngeyi worked with lecturers in research and was invited to various conferences and activities in college.

Coming back home after three years of PhD study and academia, it was almost natural for her to join the Faculty of Law as a lecturer in 2000.

“It has taken about 18 years to get to this level. I did not have a roadmap to professorship,” she says.

“I planned to focus and remain engaged in my area of interest, to conduct research and share the knowledge, to build ideas and see the ideas translated into practice and have a positive impact on people’s lives. The promotion and title is icing on the cake,” says Ngeyi.

She expresses gratitude for what she deems a worthwhile recognition of her humble contribution to womankind.

To fellow women, she says: “Let us stay the course, the glass ceiling has been shattered by women such as mother and grandmother; by Her Excellency Joyce Banda; Prof Address Malata, Hon Mcheka Chilenje, Edith Jiya, Mbumba Banda, Dorothy Chapeyama, Emma Kaliya, Emmie Chanika, Senior Chief Kachindamoto and many women who have dared patriarchy and made a difference in Malawi. We owe it to the next generation, to our Country Malawi.”

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They say faith is a belief, so too is fear. To 18-year-old Eustina Ndaona of Phalombe, the two are just sides of the same coin.

The relief aid she has just received at Nkhulambe Evacuation Camp has left her torn apart; between hoping for the best and fearing for the worst.

She is a person with albinism.

Of course, she calls it a welcome ‘disturbance’. She has had no choice anyway in her life. Destitution has been the order of the day.

Her life is embroidered in hardships. She has rarely known any joy.

Eustina is a second born in a family of six, three of whom are dead.

“I lost my parents when I was about seven. Mum was the first to die before dad followed a year later. They both succumbed to varying illnesses,” she said.

Their death meant her aged and ailing granny was left vulnerable. There was no one to support her. Eustina had to step up to help fill the gap. She would alternate the roles between the granny and her two siblings.

She explained: “It means I was now turned into a breadwinner by default. Up until now, it’s a child-headed family, with me at its head in terms of providing the basic needs. As expected, it’s a struggle, but life has to go on, doesn’t it?”

Come early March 2019, another calamity struck again.

The recent floods did not spare her village, Siyankhuni, in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Nkhulambe. It was one of the worst hit in the 16 districts that were hit by the floods.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) reports that over 23 000 households were affected, displacing over 80 000 people in the district alone.

These would later be accommodated in 35 evacuation camps government and other relief agencies set up.

Eustina’s family home was destroyed. The flood also washed away the maize crop in the field. The task to ensure survival of her family just got tougher.

All hope to beat starvation and hunger this year was gone. For a moment, she felt like looking inside her own grave as fate was having its own desires on her family.

Fast forward five weeks, the same fate would place a rare smile on Eustina’s beleaguered face. She was identified as the first group of beneficiaries to the core relief items the UNHCR, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency, had airlifted into the country to help support about 10 000 flood survivors.

The items included family tents, plastic tarpaulins, blankets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, solar lamps and kitchen sets.

The agency is part of humanitarian working in close collaboration with government and other humanitarian partners to ensure people receive the required assistance and are protected from risks and dangers.

It has also deployed emergency staff to support relief efforts.

Of the relief aid the agency has distributed over the past week across affected communities, UNHCR Country Representative Monique Ekoko said: “I have seen first-hand the devastation this [Idai] cyclone has brought on people in Malawi, leaving them in dire need of humanitarian support. Our supplies will help provide shelter and basic items to survivors, including women and children, as they have lost everything.”

Nevertheless, Eustina is back to her worrying former self.

As if her condition as someone with albinism is not life-endangering enough, the relief items have just added to her vulnerability.

Among the relief items she got is a tent which is enough to host her entire family, some beddings and quality kitchen utensils.

“I am very grateful to the agency for these, but I’m still scared,” she says.

“I am more worried about our safety now. What if this will attract others who may not have benefitted from the same, to attack us?

It sounds a genuine concern.

Eustina, a primary school dropout, spends much of the day fending for her family. She relies on doing some piece works for their survival.

The granny is usually left alone to ‘defend’ the household.

In its recent report on the state of albinism across the continent, the African Union (AU) argues that though home is supposed to be a place of solace, refuge, rest and safety; most African communities have since turned into places of unspeakable horrors to persons with albinism

And Eustina can attest to the same: “The thing is, I have always felt targeted. The bullying I got at school in the early grades convinced me that I was a mistake. Perhaps that was what contributed to my dropping out later on, though my parents’ demise was the major one. It’s a pity I still get some stick over my skin colour today.

Village head Siyankhuni shared Eustina’s fears. He was, however, quick to allay them, arguing the community had enough structures to ensure her safety.

“Much as it is hard to trust anyone these days, we have committees specially looking into the welfare of such people.

Besides, the police around here have always been supportive enough to our community policing endeavors,” explained the village head.

According to AU chairperson for persons with albinism Overstone Kondowe, there have been about 600 reported cases from 28 countries in Africa since 2000.

The AU cites Malawi and Mozambique as countries experiencing the highest number of attacks on people with albinism in Southern Africa.

“And we believe that a lot more goes unreported when we consider that the majority of Africans with albinism live in remote areas with very limited access to police, the media and any other authorities,” said Kondowe.

Luckly for Eustina, such structures seem to be a stone-throw away in her community.

In a separate interview, Phalombe District Commissioner Memory Kaleso concurred with Siyankhuni.

She argued that the first line of defense still lies in the communities in which the vulnerable live.

“We have also identified structures that are directly responsible for such individuals with special needs, including Eustina. There are child protection workers and community police among the communities who coordinate safety measures to the affected.

“As for people with albinism, it’s a bit easy because we have them in clusters and we know exactly where one is,” she said.

In a report presented this month at a side event for persons with albinism during the 12th session of the conference of parties (COP) to the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities at UN Headquarters, in New York, USA; the AU called on member states and governments to do more.

“Whilst recognising the positive steps which our governments have made by putting in place laws, policies and national action plans (Kenya, Namibia Malawi, Nigeria and Mozambique) to address these atrocities, we call on them to implement and enforce these policies, laws and plans by having special protected budgetary support. We hope doing that will make a difference in our lives.”

For Eustina, it is yet to be seen whether the relief aid she got would be a stepping stone or yet another stumbling block in her young life.

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Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Chilinde 1 Ward Councillor, Juliana Kaduya is Mayor of Lilongwe City, the first female elected in the city.

However, she follows in the footsteps of first female mayor elected in Zomba city the late Joana Ntaja and her successor Melia Likoswe Douglas.

Lilongwe City is the largest of the three main cities, including Blantyre and Mzuzu.

It is home to 989 318 residents followed by Blantyre with 800 264, trailed by Mzuzu city which is home to 221 272 residents as recorded in the 2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census.

Kaduya won the city’s executive position in a tight race with 13 votes against Richard Banda who got 12 votes.

She is set to represent the people and lead in the city’s developmental projects for the next two and a half years.

Part 2, section (7) subsection 2 and 3 of the Local Government Act provides the functions of Mayor who is also reffered to as chairperson of council as a head of coucil. (3) provides that chairperson or mayor shall be responsible for the observance of the provisions of the Act.

Which among others are councils’ promotion of infrastructural and economic development, through the formulation and execution of district development plans within its jurisdiction;

The maintainance of peace and security in the local government area, in conjuction with Malawi Police Service; The consolidation and promotion of local democratic institutions and democratic participation; and Such other functions, including the registration of birth and deaths and participation in the delivery of essential and local services.

“As the first female mayor for Lilongwe city, I want to deliver, I want people to appreciate that women can,” says Kaduya.

She was born in 1979 the last born in a family of fifteen children of whom four are still living. Kaduya was raised by her sister after losing her mother at birth.

“My sister was my mother, she raised me as her own child. I called her mother, I did not know until later that she was not my mother,” she says.

After her primary and secondary education, she went to Domasi Teachers College where she got her Diploma in teaching.

She then taught at various primary schools, including Mount Sinai schools.

“Being a teacher is a calling.” Kaduya says she considered teaching her service to the community.

Having seen major setbacks in her community, such as lack of and poorly constructed bridges and poor infrastructure. She became motivated to try to serve in another capacity as councillor.

She says the areas in the communities needed drainage systems, with the various streams and rivers-crossing was a problem. She cites a bridge in her ward that needed concrete, carters for four wards, she says at the time it was all wood, and rotting.

Thinly located tap waters in a few households, she says also pushed her to contest as a councillor. Most people had to draw water from dirty sources. They were paying an exorbitant amount just for a bucket of tap water.

She won as councillor for Chilinde 1 in 2014, and was elected deputy mayor, then under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

To Juliana politics, just as teaching is a calling. A journey that begins from primary elections to the main elections.

The most outstanding obstacle she says is finances. “You need cash.”

“This journey is not as easy as it seems or the way some may think.” She says, though the Political Parties Act forbids handouts, one cannot run the wheels of politics without resources.

The need for materials and other provisions such as water and even ferrying those that are helping you to places are all aspects that need money.

Being a communicator, she says is key and being passionate about what one is standing for, has been a good leverage for her success.

Looking back, her journey from first election as councillor of Chilinde 1 ward to deputy Mayor of the city, Kaduya lists the Kamuzu institute road as one of the city’s developments that began under her watch. A new hospital that is nearly complete, is another, where she hopes the tar marc road can extend to the hospital for easy access.

“We have plans, we will die, and our children will find them. When you are a leader in council, it is you who lobby for development and not pay for development,” she quotes her job description.

In her position as mayor and as leader of fellow councillors Kaduya hopes to propel the city’s developments.

Apart from working with fellow councillors, Kaduya says the citizenry also have a role to play in developing the city.

Private companies, the public sector, she says have to be involved in planning and carying out city developments.

“They must have a vision of how they want their industrial areas to look like,” she says. “We shouldn’t put ideas in people’s minds, but their ideas.” On most pressing issues in the city at the moment, Kaduya says there’s garbage all over- sanitation is the biggest problem.

“People are just building and littering anyhow, the city does not look good,” she explains that structures that do not follow city plans are similar to garbage. They make the city look unclean. Sanitation, Kaduya explains does not only begin and end with managing waste products, but also well constructed infrastructure that follows city specifications.

As custodians of infrastructural and other developments, Kaduya says that every site in the city has its unique development plans-specific building requirements. She says clean cities will only be built if plans are followed.

Apart from ensuring clean cities, Kaduya hopes to lobby for street lights and engage with the residents on a personal capacity to light up the streets with security lights and enhance their security. Which she says the people cannot do without.

One of the councillors who voted for Kaduya into the position of mayor, Ruth Chingwalu of Mtandire ward, says she has confidence in Kaduya, whom she hopes can do more to lead in the development of the city, owing to her former experience as deputy mayor.

On her move from DPP to MCP, Kaduya was grateful to DPP members who supported her and voted her into office. She says, she switched because she was not comfortable. “You don’t write a letter to join a party it’s a matter of choice.” Kaduya says she chose MCP due to its values and vision, among the many parties that are available.

While others practise nursing and midwifery just to earn a living, the story is different for 60-year-old midwife, Charity Salima who comes from Lichale Village, T/A Mankhambira in NkhataBay.

After retiring as nurse and midwife in the civil service, Salima went on to establish Achikondi Women’s Clinic in Lilongwe’s populous Area 23 Township to provide quality health care services for women in that community and surrounding areas.

In any given month, Achikondi Women’s Clinic delivers, for free, atleast 60 babies and attends to 1 500 patients.

Through the clinic established in 2008, Salima, a mother of three, has delivered 8 000 babies with no recorded deaths, contributing to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2 which aims at ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age.

As part of the efforts to achieve the SDGs, all countries, including Malawi, are aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to as low as 12 per 1 000 live births.

Among the children delivered from the community, Charity Mphsyinja (named after Charity Salima) who was born on March 25, 2000 was the first to be delivered.

Hers was a home-birth and it is what gave Salima determination to support the women and give them quality medical care within the community.

And in her thoughts, a community clinic was ideal. “With no money in my hands but determination and the will to make a difference in the lives of women in this community, I started to slowly gather items necessary to set up a clinic. We began with meager resources at a rented place, but here we are today at our own building,” said Salima.

Fortune smiled upon her as she got assistance to build her clinic from the Norwegian nurses’ organisation and friend Linda Mcdonalds of Scotland due to her service to the community.

Her will to make a difference recently earned her recognition by the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II, who honoured her with the Commonwealth Points of Light Award.

The Commonwealth Points of Light Award celebrates inspirational acts of volunteering across the Commonwealth, and helps to inspire others to tackle some of the social challenges within their communities.

Her reaction to the recognition was that of delight: “I am pleased and very thankful to Her Majesty the Queen for this award. This is my calling to serve women and children in Area 23 and beyond, and I will continue with this work because it is my contribution in reducing maternal and neonatal deaths and encouraging community participation in reproductive health.”

On his part, the acting British High Commissioner, Gary Leslie who handed over the award on behalf of the Queen noted that maternal and newborn health remains a big challenge.

“Maternal and newborn health is still a big challenge in the country and in some parts of the Commonwealth due to the slow pace of scaling up community based care and human resources shortages. I hope Charity’s life of service and this award helps inspire others to make their own contribution to tackling some of the greatest social challenges of our time,” he said.

Commending Salima’s efforts, project coordinator for National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (Nonm), Harriet Chiomba noted that the retired nurse and midwife’s work is contributing to the country’s efforts in reducing the number of women and babies dying in child birth.

“When you look at the number of children delivered at Achikondi Women’s Clinic without a single death recorded, you can see that Salima is contributing to the reduction of maternal mortality rates. With no maternal death reported from this clinic, it shows that she is doing a good job,” she says.

Chiomba considers Salima as someone who has passion for her work, stressing that her service comes from the heart.

“If it was only a job where someone is expecting a pay at the end of the month, I think we could have had so many maternal and even neonatal deaths at the clinic. But because it is a passion and comes from the heart, it makes a difference. If all nurses and midwives were committed in the same way, things would be better,” she said.

Justice Rachel Sikwese, at 49, is Judge to the United Nations Dispute Tribunal (UNDT).

The youngest to ever sit at the tribunal, Sikwese will sit as a circuit judge dealing with labour cases among United Nations (UN) 44 000 employees and countries in the United Nations.

Through secret ballot voting by the UN General Assembly, she made the cut with judges from Uganda, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. However, she made one of the four after written and oral interviews from a pool of 325 applicants worldwide.

She will be half time judge with the tribunal for seven years.

Sikwese, the eldest of three, was born February 9, 1970 at Malosa Health Centre. She grew up in a very happy family in the farms across Malawi but spent almost all of her school days in boarding school.

She started school at the age of six at Chikanguya – Zomba. From age 10, she attended boarding school at Katete Girls at Champhira in Mzimba. From where she attended St Marys Girls Secondary School.

Looking back to her youth, she says her only challenge then was that she was not a conformist student.

“I challenged most school rules. Some teachers didn’t understand me, but I never got expelled because they wouldn’t lose a bright student, she says.”

During that time court walls and law books—the world of justice was not one she dreamed of. From St Marys she got selected to the University of Malawi-Chancellor College for a Bachelors of Arts in Humanities—the place where her interest in law began.

“During my first year of Bachelors, I met a female law student Etness Kumwenda. She was very pretty. I never knew until then that pretty girls could study law, she says.” That motivated her to apply for Law.

Upon completing her Bachelor of Laws, Sikwese went on to get a Master’s degree in Law at the University of Indiana in the United States of America (USA).

“My first job was in the Judiciary as Resident Magistrate 21 years ago and I rose through the ranks to Judge of the High Court, she says.”

Though she made UN judge, Sikwese says it was not manna from heaven.

“I have been side-lined for promotions, I have been bullied, been sexually harassed, I have been labelled names in the judicial system. I just focused on the bigger picture, she says.”

The many people who saw the best in her, encouraged and supported her, made her stand out at the UN although she is the most junior judge in the Malawi courts.

“I will be seating with Supreme Court of Justices from France, Italy, USA, Poland, Portugal because I didn’t get discouraged in Malawi. I focused on the bigger picture, stresses Sikwese,” who despite her experiences in pursuit of her career has made strides that the judicial system in the country relishes.

Through her specialty, Labour Justice, she notes achievements she has made through the legal framework, especially in Industrial and Labour Law.

Government approval of her recommendation to increase number of judicial officers at the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) from two to seven, opening of an IRC Registry in Mzuzu; the amendment of the Industrial Relations Court rules to give the IRC Registrar judicial powers.

Her initiative to seat on court circuits in more than 10 districts with high labour prevalence also rank highly as one of her most significant contributions to the labour industry, “Because they not only created jobs for lawyers [five jobs] but also improved access to labour justice to the vulnerable workers in Malawi.”

“My aspiration is to get labour justice to the remotest worker, at the lowest cost possible and with much efficiency, she says.”

Today IRC is a household name in Malawi and that is a very big development.

To be UN judge, she says, her legal expertise, drafting ability, writing proficiency, personal integrity and extraordinary contribution to the Malawi legal system, for instance, the reference books she has written and the manner in which she transformed the IRC were taken into account.

Sikwese, also an expert contributor to the World Bank Group (Women, Business and the Law), where she informs the group on the legal status of women in employment, says.

The laws toward women, are mostly conducive (we have anti discriminatory laws, gender equality laws). However there’s a lack of political will to implement them. For example, she lists senior positions in public office are filled without considering provisions in the Gender Equality Act of 201.

Asked on whether the current labour divide makes women inferior, she says labour does not make women inferior. It is education that women don’t have. We can solve the problem by educating girls and continuous education for women.

She says the current legal status on employment for women in Malawi shows backwardness on implementation of the otherwise best intentioned labour laws.

For example, chapter 55 part II of the Employment Laws, section 5 (I) says no person shall be discriminated against any employment or prospective employment due to sex, race or colour; 6 (I) says the employer shall pay equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of sex, race and others, chances in which most women are side-lined.

Her observation on the hurdles faced by women as they fight for better laws, she says the legal system including lawyers and judges is dominated by men.

This reflects in how cases involving women are handled especially on marital issues (divorce, custody of children, and distribution of property) sexual cases (defilement, rape, sexual harassment and many more)

“Women feel how other women and children and girls feel. I can’t say men feel the same way. Therefore, we need more women legislators, lawyers and judges, she says.”

But there is more to Sikwese beyond court walls.

Apart from pioneering her works in commercial, industrial and Labour laws, she is the founder of a charity organisation- Cancer Support Foundation which helps grassroots level persons on matters of the cancer problem.

She established the charity in 2008, to assist in whatever way she can to alleviate challenges faced by cancer patients.

“I established it after I lost my dear sister and best friend to cancer in 2008, she was 37 years old. I learnt a lot about cancer through her experience”

She says she tries to use that knowledge to help others in her sister’s situation, especially early screening for cancer but also HIV and Tuberculosis.

She also runs Mayi Sikwese Foundation which supports girls from Mtimbuka and Chisegere villages in T/A Mponda, Mangochi to access secondary school education.

“I spend half my time in Chiserege Village where I interact with my neighbours—the villagers. We talk about the importance of education for girls, but they have no means to send their girls to secondary school once selected, she says.”

Sikwese pays their school fees and uniforms to enrol in secondary school, once they are in the system, she says they get support from big organisations such as Campaign for Female Education (Camfed).

Her advice to young women is:

“My principle is to follow my mind and not the crowd. I am not a people pleaser. I can get all my dreams, wishes and ambitions accomplished because I don’t seek people’s approval to be myself.”

She delves more on how she succeeded.

“I am a very liberated person, I follow my heart but firm and very principled. I have instilled these same principles in my two children, she says.“

“Without challenges I would not have achieved much. Adversity helps me to focus more. My achievements are the sweetest revenge to my distractors!

“I was born an extremely focused person. I am much organised, close to a perfectionist. My vision is to be the best that I can be at any particular time in my life.”

Through her eyes today and beyond, she says the future of women is in education.

Joyce Mvula, the Queens shooter led the team high and fighting to position six after having fallen off a sixth ranking in the world.

“We told ourselves that it was not our position,” she says in reference to a previous position that she cites as a downer for the team.

Then, placed ninth, Mvula says the Queens is a good team. “We are hard workers—that [nine] position did not make us happy.”

The United Kingdom-based netballer, inspired the Queens in reclaiming position six, in the July 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool England.

Mvula joined the Queens in Wales as the team geared up for test match series against the hosts, Scotland and Trinidad and Tobago.

She was injured in May, during her club’s last match against Wasps in the Vitality Netball Superleague and she was given six weeks to recover.

On being a sports persona, she says: “To get there, you have to work hard, To get there, you have to perform. When you break a leg, you have to heal and keep pushing forward”

Limping off the court, a testament to an injured knee, Mvula had led Manchester Thunder—her team to championship, a feat that they had not achieved five years prior.

Hobbling off in the final quarter of the match, concern laced the netball fraternity that feared her injury could be a big blow to the Queens netball campaign.

The beauty of netball, Mvula says, you don’t succeed alone. The Queens thrashed sixth ranked Uganda, eighth placed Northen Ireland and teams Zimbabwe and Singapore, the most fast improving teams on the world netball scene.

To pull off the game, the way she did, Mvula says, it took teamwork.

Looking back on her victories in Manchester Thunder, Mvula stresses that it takes trust.

“If your coach, your teammates trust you, you do well as a team, she says.”

Mvula is a netball gem, who started playing netball when she was in primary school.

Her tall slender self, got people constantly courting her to join netball, but she had no interest at first.

Constantly bullied by peers for being tall, she began to go for netball practice to avoid the bullying.

“I started out playing as a defender with Blue Eagles Netball Club,” the team which would later usher her into a full blown national stage for netball.

“We lived closer to the club, at the time I was going to Nankhaka Primary School,” which is located in Lilongwe, Area 30.

She says while she was with Blue Eagles, she began to train as a shooter.

She recalls Blue Eagles’ coach, Samuel Kanyenda, as the one person who has built into the netballer she is today.

“He got me shoes, he got me all the sports gears that I needed,” she says, when she was 16 years old and in Form One she began to play in the Malawi National Netball Team.

She says it was Kanyenda who paid for her passport, the same passport she is using today.

Whenever there are big games, Kanyenda would always pick her up from school, and he would take her back after the games.

“He made me stay in netball, whatever I lacked he provided says Mvula,” who recalls that because of her age her father sternly stood against her playing netball.

The people Mvula played with were bigger, older and much stronger, she says, her father feared, she would get hurt.

He, however, gave in after seeing her performance, “I believe after seeing what I could do, he thought maybe it’s something that I was meant to be”

From Nankhaka, she was named best shooter in the Standard Bank Tournament, her first ever big game. She was spotted by Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) Queens, who signed her up.

MTL gave her a scholarship to study at Joyce Banda Foundation for her secondary school education, however, her heart remained with Blue Eagles.

Her goal-shooting skills not only won her a scholarship but also got her selected into the Malawi National Netball Team in 2010, and she has been on the team since.

Needless to say that she went back to play with Blue Eagles Sisters, her first and former club.

Part of the national team squad, during the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Mvula was spotted by the English Super League team Manchester Thunder.

She thanks Mary Waya, Malawi’s own renowned netball star, for her help in getting into the Manchester team.

Mvula, however-says, that she finds it to be the grace of God.

“I was young at the time, and did not have any game time. I was on the bench.” And to be spotted just like that, it’s nothing short of a miracle.

Even so, Mvula’s netball exploits, were a testament to her having made the English netball premier league, becoming the second netball export after Mwawi Kumwenda.

She began to play for Manchester Thunder in 2017, and has since won awards.

Awarded players’ player of the year and most improved player of the year by her club. Mvula has had to learn and adjust fast.

She was pushed to work very hard to catch up with the standards in the United Kingdom, hence winning the most improved player of the year award.

Manchester Thunder’s Joyce Mvula was also voted the Fans’ Player of the Season for 2019.

Skysports.com reports that after 5 500 votes, the Grand Finalist and Malawian international shooter, Mvula, just edged-out Loughborough Lightning’s captain Nat Panagarry to top spot.

Her high shooting accuracy combined with exceptional split-steps and excellent partnerships with Kathryn Turner and her mid-court attackers, throughout the season, and in the season finale, Skysports reports.

Mvula came first after a combined reveal of a 10-strong list of nominees by Sky Sports and Vitality Netball Superleague.

“The award means that I am loved by supporters. Anyone would have been chosen,” she says this gives her a starting point for her next season.

It has given her an urge to work harder and deliver more on the pitch.

She was also named player of the match twice during this year’s World Netball Cup games and twice each by her team and Sky Television.

Mvula’s performance not only reflects well on her ability as a player, but is also a sign that Malawian players can be the best. Her accurate shooting skills have been very significant for the Queens.

She has shown and proved that she can and every Malawian player can.

Motivated to work extra hard for her team, Mvula encourages those who look up to her, she says hard work has been key and it is hard work that will lead anyone to success.

She says netball has not been without challenges and disappointments. But determination to forge ahead has been crucial.

Sixth born of eight, Mvula was born on April 15, 1994. Her father was a police officer and her mother, a house wife. She was born at Mzuzu Central Hospital. She comes from David Momba Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Kampingo Sibande in Mzimba. She is currently a police officer with the Malawi Police Service.

Ruth Mumba started volunteering when she was 17-years-old. Her volunteering spirit took her to enriching 95 households from a Facebook encounter in Mbando village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mposa in Machinga- through a non-profit organisation, Abundance.

Abundance was founded by three friends, Deepa Pullanikkatil from Swaziland, Cyril Anand from Qatar and Thangam Pillai in India.

Deepa had worked in Malawi doing research around Lake Chilwa before relocating to Swaziland and she felt attached to Mbando community in Machinga and wanted to give back.

“I met Deepa on Facebook, where she sent out a call for assistance towards a project she wanted to start in Malawi and I responded to the call. This was in 2016 as I was looking for a platform to volunteer says Mumba.”

After exchanging a few emails, the founders came and we started work through the development of integrated development approaches in areas of natural resources, health and education in Mbando Village.

Mbando village, located on the shores of Lake Chilwa, is a fragile ecosystem, and is vulnerable to floods and droughts.

In the recent Cyclone Idai, many houses and farms were affected.

Majorly a farming and fishing community, there are challenges of poverty and lack of learning resources which the village faces.

Realising that communities’ lives are interconnected, for them to thrive, all socio-economic aspects had to be addressed says Mumba who was made director of Abundance on volunteer basis.

Abundance began with interventions in health through the provision of bicycle ambulances to ferry the sick to the hospitals. These have made for easy mobility to clinics for the sick and expectant mothers, resulting in quicker treatment than before.

“The bicycle ambulances are also used in medical emergencies such as road accidents or injuries during sporting activities, says Mumba.”

She explains that they have also been working in the health and well-being of the community through holding sexual and reproductive health seminars, taught girls and mothers how to make re-usable sanitary pads and held focus group discussion to look at how cultural norms affect health practices.

Knowing that electricity power is unavailable to the community, Mumba helped raise funds and set up a solar powered E-learning centre that is housed at Chilimba Secondary School.

“We crowdfunded to provide furniture, solar power, eight laptops, a server with learning resources and 150 keepods for 150 users. “

Access to computers in Malawi is a challenge despite connectivity growing in leaps and bounds. Smartphones have been able to bridge the gap, however poorer people and those residing in rural areas are still finding it a bit hard to get on the internet.

For a long time, cyber cafés have been the first contact for most people using computers. Yet one big disadvantage is that users cannot save their documents on these machines.

A keepod is a computer product, works as any Universal Serial Bus (USB) [used to connect equipment to a computer] focused on bringing personal computing to students in low income communities all over the world, and has been praised as a possible solution to bridging the digital divide.

This, Mumba says has allowed teachers and learners to participate in virtual classrooms there by becoming aware of the world far beyond their village and gain access to education tools that were previously not available.

For the young adults and community members, Mumba says they have access to video tutorials that teach them best agricultural practices that they have been using in their gardens.

Mumba together with fellow volunteers envision maximised potential of technology and its application, through the E-learning centre.

Asked, why they took to this approach in helping the community, Mumba said traditionally as a nation we have sectors, but communities do not live sectoral lives. Everything is interconnected.

“We can’t talk of agriculture without talking about water, health, education and gender, projects that are community based should aim to address things that affect the entire demographics she says,”

“When you provide education and improve its delivery and quality, you see a community developing a different mindset towards issues. More girls stay in school longer thereby delaying early marriages that in turn benefit their health and their future families. Men learn different values, apply best agricultural practices in their fields, become more economically empowered and take care of their families better, she says”

The approach involves everyone in the community. There is more development that comes when the community feels a sense of ownership and responsibility towards aspects that affect their lives.

From 95 households of Mbando, the number of families learning and having improved lives has since increased to 105 households.

Mumba went to St. Andrew International High School. As part of a requirement for graduation every student had to volunteer. When she got into the University of Malawi for a Bachelor’s Degree in Science at Chancellor College, she volunteered for four years with a student’s organisation called Stimulus.

“We worked with children development centres every Saturday for the entire time a semester was in session, she says.”

If she can draw anything from volunteering is that it teaches one selflessness, time management and commitment to see something through no matter how tough things may get.

After her bachelors she began working as a geologist at Geological Survey Department, where she juggles it with a Master’s degree in Science (Geology) studies, from Chancellor College. Her laboratory sample analysis are being carried out at the University of Franche Comté in Besançon, France.

Delving briefly into her work, she says, geology can be used to study the rocks that exist on top of the geothermal resources as it gives guidance to the possible extent to which the resource spreads.

Working for the Geological Survey Department and understanding geology and aspects that affect it has made her aware of the importance of cultural awareness and the need to work with the communities she works in, one of her driving forces to helping communities conserve natural resources.

On challenges she has faced, she says, finding organisations that will allow for volunteering is one of the biggest challenges she faced after she left university. It took her two years to start with Abundance and she was actively looking.

Career wise,” I was always sure of what I wanted to do and my family has always been supportive. My work especially in the field work demands physical endurance and one has to prepare their body for that. However, sometimes you just don’t prepare enough for the 7-hour daily walks over hills and mountains with rocks in your backpack. Another challenge has been poor access to sophisticated geological software that can be used to produce quality data as well as run manipulations to understand the geology on Malawi better.”

Mumba presently a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow, she looks to do more with leadership skills gained and advises young people to constantly ask what they want out of life and use that to define their path.

“It’s not easy to know what exactly one wants. It takes practice and constant checks. Once that is defined, one should realise it is not going to be easy and the path to get to their goal is not straight forward. Knock on doors and ask for help, she says.”

Zeria Banda started out as a teacher geared to make a difference in the lives of secondary school students. Today she works as communications officer, and has dedicated her life to changing lives through selfless giving and writing.

At 23, Banda graduated with a Bachelors of Education from Chancellor College and went straight to practice what she was trained in- in rural Mchinji at Ludzi Girls Secondary School.

“I taught for only two years, English and Geography. I loved teaching, I would do it again. But living in rural Mchinji was not thrilling for someone born and brought up in the city. So I just wanted to move,” she says.

Banda was raised in the streets of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, home to more than a million people.

“I had a fairly comfortable life living in the city in a middle income country where I was born. I was completely raised by my own parents. Had utterly no experience living in other people’s homes,” she says.

All her holidays were spent at home as other people came to their house almost every holiday. She is very much used to hosting people and not being hosted starting from her parent’s house, she observes.

Banda at an early age learnt to take charge both at home and at school, becoming the headgirl at Njube High School in Bulawayo at the age of 15.

At 16, she decided she wanted to study at the University of Malawi. She was admitted to Chancellor College the following year.

“My parents were extremely supportive of my bold pathway venturing into a country they called home but, totally strange to me. I first set foot in Malawi in 1983 and have been in and out of the country, returning to work in my birth country from 1999-2005.”

“I was very much a favourite child, not spoilt per-say, but I got most of the things I wanted. I, however, did not inherit any estate from my parents, but I inherited much greater values that helped me create my own estate,” she narrates her childhood.

On her path to that creation, a journalism job is what she began with, joining Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as a News editor – English Desk in 1990.

“That time there was no journalism school in Malawi so my English major in college was good enough.”

Within a year, she says, she moved to the Reporting unit. Thereafter she embarked on building her capacity as a journalist, in the process earning a two-year Diploma in Communication Studies from the Polytechnic in 1996, another two years later, a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Ball State University in the United States of America (USA).

The class of 1996 at the Polytechnic was the pioneer to the current journalism programmes at the Polytechnic. She says it started as a small class of six students, admitting those who were already holding first degrees at that time.

“Most of us came from MBC, with only one from Malawi News Agency. I was the only female student,” she says.

Today, Banda at 54, has a 28-year track record in media and development communications, 20 of which in international development organisations.

Currently working as a communications officer for World Bank Group, managing Africa communications and partnerships, she tells of her successes.

“Every time I win competitively in my career path that’s most memorable. I got all my jobs competitively starting from MBC in 1990 through to the World Bank in Washington in November 2018, she says.”

She inevitably competed against giants in the profession but was always proud to come out atop.

Her first international job was with the Global Water Partnership in Harare where she competed against men only from five other Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) countries to be the regional communications officer.

“That was sweet success, “she exclaims.

Building her very first house in Namiwawa which she completed in 2013 is another memorable achievement.

“I built this house from my salary over a 10-year period. I had no loan over it. So when I finished it I really felt very good and more geared to build more,” she says.

However, through her long birthday celebration traditions, she has been able to reach out not only to her family and community she works with but her village, Phanga in Ntcheu.

“Annually, I reward myself on my birthday in a special way – I travel to fine spots within Africa, a continent I truly love – from the Egyptian pyramids in 1999 to Robben Island in South Africa, and many others in-between over the years.”

But the most memorable achievement was for her birthday in 2017 – which was going to her village in Ntcheu and building a church for God so His children can worship in a decent place.

She built a church, two years after pledging to construct a new one for her community in Phanga Village in Ntcheu as part of her birthday thanksgiving.

August, 2019, Zeria handed over a K16.7 million building to Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church.

“I go to the village very often, so I could see this was a very big need, she says.”

The church is a special way of spoiling herself while appreciating in essence that everything belongs to God and giving back to him should be nothing but a tone of joy- relieved to have finally delivered her promise.

Five friends she considers true, Banda says contributed K600 000 without her asking to support the building of the church.

“They felt it in their heart to support. My family helped with supervision and coordination, the village church community with sand and water, so I did not pay for these. I am truly grateful for their support,” says Banda, who learnt from her parents the importance of putting God first, gratefulness, hardwork, integrity, cleanliness, orderliness, and giving.

In class of 1988 at Chancellor College, she was voted the most sincere, she says looking back on how she has built her life.

One achievement she is yet to celebrate is the completion of her book titled: Kamuzu: In His Own Words.

“It’s all done just waiting to be published. I basically capitalised on my profession as a journalist and collected more than 300 quotes from Kamuzu’s speeches from the 1960s to his last one conceding defeat at the 1994 elections.”

She says colleagues who have read the script say it’s an amazing piece of work- learning about Kamuzu from what he said.

The whole book does not contain a word from any other person – it’s simply in his own words.

Though her contributions speak of beauty, Banda say she has faced many challenges in her life but has been able to ride over that which could potentially pull her off-course.

“In the midst of all hell seemingly breaking loose, I’ve been able to make decisions and implement them,” she says.

“One major development that truly challenged me was losing two brothers and my father in the same year 2005.

“I resolved to step into their shoes and be the father, brother, uncle to their children, siblings, and the widows. Standing-up for my family in this way has not been easy over the years, but with God’s grace and determination, it’s been doable,”says Banda.

One way of overcoming was to accept the challenge, “I could not be continually in a mode of feeling sorry for myself with arms folded – that could not rescue the family from that difficult situation,” says Banda.

Banda has continuously ridden the path to bettering the people around her, her village and her family, proving to herself that she can and she will do it, she says,

“Empowering myself for the common good drives me. In my life I don’t just aspire, I go ahead and level the playing field in my mind, tell myself that I will do it, then deliver.”

“As girls and women, we ought to have that mindset that we are equally important to the development of our families and country, and we ought to play our part in all aspects by being decisive people with integrity, and a spine to take positive action,” she advises.

They say everyone has the strength, the patience and passion to reach for the moon and that if you fall, you will land on the stars. Such an inspiration quote is worth sharing.

This is the story of Zaithwa Fabiano, a research scientist who is leading on creating a cervical cancer telemedicine system.

Telemedicine is the diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology and in this innovation, patients will be accessing doctors or any help through text messaging use of phones.

The innovation, which is a personal project, uses telemedicine in the health system to reduce the time between a cervical cancer suspect presenting to their rural health facility and their review and management by skilled health workers.

According to Fabiano, who is the last born in a family of five children, she says her passion has always been in science, basically, to answer questions and solve problems with logic.

“I enrolled at Chancellor College, University of Malawi (Unima), where I studied Bachelor of Science and started majoring on organic chemistry.

“In my third year, I transferred to College of Medicine (CoM), where I studied Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and graduated in June 2016 with flying colours,” says Fabiano in an interview with Every Woman.

Born and raised in Zomba, Fabiano attended her primary school at Zomba Private Primary before proceeding to Marymount Secondary School.

On her technological innovation-Telehealth, Ehealth and Mhealth-Fabiano says the country stands to benefit in terms of improving access to health services particularly those who cannot reach health facilities particularly useful for vulnerable populations and those in hard to reach areas.

She also says the innovation will reduce the workload on health workers by automating some activities which would have; otherwise, been done by the human resource.

She says: “It allows for connectivity and ease of consultation among health workers through quick, easy and safe communication channels with opportunities to review patients, patient records, investigative images and laboratory results in real time.

“Besides, it offers safe and reliable data storage provision for patient records.”

Fabiano says her inspiration in the health profession arose from her desire to solve problems and taking care of the people around her.

She says she has always felt an urge to help when she saw ill people hence her developing a desire to understand what was wrong and how she could help.

“As I grew up, my love for science and desire to ease suffering of others developed into a dream to become a medical doctor. Medicine was the perfect way for me to combine my two passions, science and working with people,” she further explains.

Currently, Fabiano is working at the school of Public Health and Family Medicine at CoM where her duties involve health education and awareness of health issues, healthcare options and research that the college and the healthcare system offer the Malawian and global populations.

Based on her experience in the health field, Fabiano says a lot of the health related problems stem from lack of knowledge, lack of awareness of the conditions, when and where to seek assistance and care for those with particular health conditions.

In 2015, she volunteered as a medical student at Lisungwi Health Centre in Neno District, where she realised the need for improvement in the health system; hence, wanted to understand why some health problems exist in the context she experienced and how best to address them.

She says her interest in cervical cancer grew because it is preventable and curable but yet Malawi has the highest number of new cases of cervical cancer in the world.

Studies on the other hand have shown that it takes very long periods of time for women suspected of having cervical cancer to obtain the health services they require.

Basically, this is due to many reasons but the two that stand out are limited skilled human resource and difficult access to the tertiary health facilities due to many reasons, some of which are poor roads and long distances.

Fabiano thus says in her volunteer work in various rural health facilities, she thought of ways to reduce the challenges women face in obtaining the care they need.

She says reducing this time should reduce the morbidity and mortality of these patients and ease the process of screening and treatment.

Currently, Fabiano is also assisting on the creation of a cholera tracking telemedicine systemt through the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, CoM, Ministry of Health in partnership with Unicef and a group of Brazilian Epidemiologist from LIKA-EPITRACK to use various forms of technology to detect cholera outbreaks and predict the spread.

The Malawian population has suffered severe morbidity and mortality over the years due to the multiple cholera outbreaks we have had, with an increase in the frequency of the outbreaks due to the floods.

The health systems have suffered the financial burden and workload on health workers in health service provision for patients and also in ensuring the control of these outbreaks.

“With this technology we should be able to intervene at an earlier stage to reduce the human suffering and loss of life, and also financial and work burden on the health sector,” she further adds.

She says the Malawian health system has many areas which are doing very well and also many other areas with challenges.

Fabiano says the health systems put in place have been designed to achieve equity for all: both rural and urban health service users.

However, implementation on the ground is not always reflective of the strategic plans designed for the target beneficiaries and says this is a multifactorial challenge which can be further discussed in another forum.

She further states that handsets and internet services in health care provision are also being used in rural areas to address the problem of access.

The use of handsets and internet in health is called m-health and e-health.

These projects are actually doing exceptionally well and benefiting the rural populations greatly.

Some of these projects are so outstanding and have surpassed targets, and have since been recommended for implementation in other African countries due to the efficiency and effectiveness of the project results.

These types of projects are being implemented using health workers and volunteers in both urban and rural areas who may be using personal handsets or have been empowered with these resources. This is the direction health service provision is going globally.

Her advice to young people is to always look forward, emphasising that what they do today determines what kind of future they will have.

“If you invest little time, energy and effort in your education, that is what you will reap, nothing more.

“If you invest time, hard work, dedication and a true and deep desire to acquire knowledge and skills, you will harness your full potential and reap endless possibilities in your life,” she says.

At the age of 11, Chrissy Duma-Duma Zimba, now aged 30, fell from a mango tree at her home village in Mzimba, breaking her spine; she was never to walk again.

That incident changed her life expectations. She had always wanted to be a nurse, but how could she become one in a wheelchair?

Growing up in her maternal grandparents’ household at Nyakasalu Village in Euthini, Mzimba, following the loss of her father, she recalls that every day, her grandfather would wake them up between three and four in the morning to help with some farm work before going to school.

One weekend after waking up around four in the morning as usual, they completed the farm work at around 10 am and they decided to go and pick some mangoes from trees around the farm with her siblings.

“As I was up in the tree, the branch that I stepped on broke and I fell on my back. I was carried by my cousins and uncles in a wheelbarrow to the hospital about two and a half hours away,” explains the young woman.

Chrissy stayed at the health centre for about three days before an ambulance took her to Mzimba District Hospital following her doctor’s reference.

“At the district hospital, I learned that the injury was a major one. An x-ray revealed that my spine was severely injured and that my chances of ever walking again were slim,” she explains.

She stayed at Mzimba District Hospital for three months from where she was referred to Mzuzu Central Hospital, a tertiary referral in the Northern Region.

It was there that she met an English physiotherapist Sheila Lawrence who reiterated that she would not be able to walk again.

“I cried when she told me. She asked me why I was crying and I told her I was a day scholar, and that not being able to walk again would mean the end of my education. On the other hand, I grew up seeing people with disabilities begging on the streets and I thought I would join them as a beggar,” she recalls.

Her love for school encouraged Lawrence to assist. She was going to do whatever she could to see Chrissy carry on with her studies. She got her an English book and gave her assignments every night and marked them the next day.

After getting discharged, Chrissy was home-schooled through her junior level education with the help of Lawrence. Her teachers came twice a week.

She passed her junior certificate examinations (JCE) with flying colours.

“I was the second-best student in the whole zone and my physiotherapist was pleased. With the help of Malawi against Physical Disabilities (MAP) in Rumphi, I then went to Our Future Private School where I pursued my senior secondary school studies.

In 2005, I attained my Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE),” she explains.

Life in school was not easy for her. She had trouble accessing the library and the science laboratory for instance.

“Sometimes my friends had to lift me on a wheelchair to access some classrooms. My classmates were very welcoming and were willing to help me when I need to access some facilities,” she says.

Nonetheless, her determination saw her selected to Mzuzu University (Mzuni) to pursue a Bachelor of Science in information and communication technology degree.

She became the first person in a wheelchair to study at Mzuni where management was very willing to make reasonable adjustments so that she could complete her studies.

“They even made some modifications in the hostel where I was staying so that I could easily get inside. Some ramps were also installed in some of the lecture rooms that my class was using,” says Zimba.

After her graduation in 2012, she worked in the monitoring and evaluation department at the Mzuni Centre of Excellence in Water and Sanitation for close to three years.

As luck would have it, she got a scholarship for a master’s degree in public policy and governance at Africa University in Zimbabwe and graduated in June 2017.

After a year’s work with Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), she applied for the African Union (AU) youth volunteer corps in 2017 and works with the African Union Commission in Ethiopia since 2018.

Before joining the AU Commission, Chrissy shares that she applied for three other jobs from international organisations and was lucky enough to be invited for interviews.

“I did not indicate in my application that I was living with a disability. I went for the interviews at the first organisation to find that the interviews were taking place on the third floor. They had to ask watchmen to lift me there.

“In the second organisation, they interviewed me in the reception area. So when I was invited for interviews at the third organisation I did not even attempt to go because of the two bad experiences,” she explains.

She confesses that at times she feels it would have been easier to be picked for one of the jobs if the organisations were accessible to her.

She wondered how many other youth with employability skills cannot be employed because the workplaces are creating barriers to their participation.

And as she pursued her master’s degree, her thesis led her to a deeper research around the area and she found out that unemployment levels among Malawian youth with disabilities are very high.

She regrets that a lot of things outlined in the disability policy are taking longer to be implemented.

“For government to provide equal opportunities, it has to ensure that workplaces are accessible for people with disabilities. The Disability Act also outlines the same but most workplaces are still inaccessible,” she explains.

This prompted her to start advocating employment of young people with disabilities who have skills.

Her advocacy has led the human resource, science and technology department in the African Union (AU) youth division to make a special call for young people with disabilities to apply for volunteerism and gain international work experience with the AU.

She has a number of propositions up her sleeves that could help the youth that have disabilities to find employment.

Among other things, the young advocate proposes that government should fully operationalise the Disability Act, and also provide employment quotas for people with disabilities.

She also stresses that when coming up with strategies for reducing unemployment among the youth, government should also consider youth with disabilities.

Access to loans is another area which she believes would help people with disabilities who do not have employability skills to start businesses improve their livelihoods.

Additionally, she believes that an incentive policy for organisations that are employing people with disabilities would also go a long way in encouraging employers to hire people with disabilities.

Not only that, she points out that public transport needs to be accessible to people with disabilities because as things are now, the dignity of people with disabilities is often compromised when boarding public transport.

However, she is pleased that organisations are progressively making efforts to accommodate people with disabilities in Malawi.

The name Professor Address Malata is no ordinary name, especially when we talk of women who are making great achievements in the country.

She is known as the first female Vice Chancellor of the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must)—the fourth public university in the country.

But that is not all to her success story. It seems the road to achievements did not end with her appointment to the position of Vice-Chancellor, the highest position in a public university.

In February this year, Professor Malata received a Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of the work in the fields of health care and education in the country and globally.

The award was inaugural and given for the first time at the Edith Cowan University in Australia where she studied for both her Masters and PhD programmes.

“It was after the award ceremony and upon hearing the achievements that the council of the Edith Cowan University decided to further award a Doctor of Honaris Causa, an honour given to global citizens that selflessly make a difference in their countries and globally,” she says.

She expresses delight over being given such an accolade, an honorary doctorate, describing it as quite an achievement more especially that the university gave the award for the first time to an African.

The event took place on September 9 in Perth, Australia.

She says: “All I can say is Ebenezer. It can only be God. I received both awards with humility and give all the glory and honour. God has been my pillar and stronghold.”

She also salutes her husband Stewart, her daughters Esther and Angella, her father Reverend Killion, her late mother Victoria Mgawi, all family and friends for supporting her throughout her incredible journey.

“I thank the Almighty God indeed for each one of them,” she says.

But who is Professor Address Malata?

She was born on March 24 1964 and went to Nkhoma Primary School in Lilongwe and later proceeded to Lilongwe Girls Secondary School from 1980 to 1983.

She attained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing with distinction from the University of Malawi in 1995 before she went for her Master of Science and PhD at the Edith Cowan University in Australia.

She is the past president of Africa Honour Society of Nursing of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) and is also a Virginia Henderson Fellow of STTI and an Adjunct Professor for Michigan State University.

She received a Doctor Honaris Cuasa by University of Oslo in Norway and an Award of Excellence in Nursing and Midwifery by the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi.

The academician has also been a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing since 2014 and was awarded a Medal of Distinction by the University of Malawi for being one of the first female professors.

Professor Malata has been Principal Investigator/Co-Principal Investigator for research projects focusing on Sexual and Reproductive Health and has published in numerous International Peer Reviewed Journals.

As someone who has been successful in life, she has also strived to be a role model for young girls, especifically in her village, to pursue secondary and university education in different institutions.

Apart from her position as Must Vice-Chancellor, Malata is former vice-president of International Confederation of Midwives and she said she did it for African women.

She joined Must as Deputy Vice-Chancellor in early 2016 and was appointed to her current position in August 2016.

A trained nurse and midwife as well as career academic, Malata previously served as principal of Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN)—between 2008 and February 2016—when she spearheaded the development and implementation of six master’s programmes and three PhD programmes.

She also led in the diversification of undergraduate programmes and the upgrading of Bachelor of Science programmes from six in 2008 to 19 in 2015.

Furthermore, she promoted faculty capacity building, increasing the number of KCN faculties with PhDs from five to 30.

Professor Malata has also supported nursing and midwifery students in Malawi and the Africa region to pursue postgraduate studies globally.

Malata has been actively involved in resource mobilisation, which saw KCN students receive scholarships for both undergraduate and postgraduate training, as well as infrastructure development at the Lilongwe campus and the new Blantyre campus at Kameza.

The academician has also been a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing since 2014 and was awarded a Medal of Distinction by the University of Malawi for being one of the first female professors.

Besides, she was also appointed as Lancet Global Commissioner on Quality of Maternal and New Born and child Health.

She notes that leadership is not always about being happy as there are times when you face challenges, calling for the need to hold on to something.

“Being a Christian, I hold on to my faith, because there are certain points when your colleagues may not be there for you but i have faith and that gets me through,” she says.

She did not get to where she is easy; she had to work hard to get there.

No one in her village went to secondary school, except her and her siblings. She says: “I come from a humble background, growing up in a mission station. At some point, I even went to school without shoes. But I defied all the odds, worked hard and attained education even at this level.”

Beyond that, she stresses on the importance of having people that can inspire you in your life.

“If you do not have role models or people you look up to in life, you just think that everything is alright. Actually at every point in my life, even now, there are people that I admire …people outside my institution that I know are doing well in leadership and making a difference. I always look at who can inspire me,” she said.

Fact File

• 1980-1983 : Attended secondary school education.
• 1995 : Attained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and proceeded for an MA and PhD.
• 2014 : Awarded medal of distinction at Unima.
• 2008-2016 : Served as Principal of KCN.
• 2016 : Joined Must as deputy Vice-Chancellor and later appointed as Vice-Chancellor.
• 2019 : Received a Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of the work done in the fields of health care and education

Loss of interest in daily activities, sadness and feeling down are some of the symptoms familiar to many people.

 If these symptoms persist and affect one’s life substantially, they may signal depression.

Asumanie Chirambo, 39, first experienced depression about six years ago. She explains how worthless she felt at the time and could not find true joy in anything anymore.

She pretended to be happy for the sake of her family, but as years went by, things worsened.

“I started having suicidal thoughts, but I would not go through with it because I thought my family would not survive without me. I don’t know if that’s what I made myself believe as a defense mechanism or not, but I do know that it would have been very hard for my family had I committed suicide.

“I heard and read about depression, watched shows that may have referred to it, but I didn’t associate what I was feeling with depression,” explains the mother of 20-year-old Stuart.

Even though she likes to read, cook and swim, Asumanie says she struggled to do all the things she previously loved.

“I wanted to stay in bed all day. I avoided meeting people, even my own family because I just wanted to be alone. I avoided phone calls or messages. I had problems sleeping and would stay awake all night. I lost weight. Then one day, I took sleeping pills to commit suicide. I showered and went to sleep thinking this is it,” she recalls.

When she awoke the next morning, Chirambo says she was angry. So she took more pills and slept only to wake up again.  Fortunately, that also served as the breaking point and she decided to go to the hospital.

“I told the doctor what I tried to do. I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety and was admitted for two days. I started therapy after that,” she says.

In December 2018, she became a mental health advocate after a lengthy conversation with Fai Cheleuka who runs a clinic called Friends of Hope International in Lilongwe.

Cheleuka became one of her biggest hope givers, encouraging her to share her story.

“She had so much faith in me and eventually I started believing in myself. In the same month, she organised an event for mental health awareness at her clinic and I had an opportunity to speak for the first time to an audience. The response I got was so overwhelming and I knew I was doing the right thing,” she explains.

She stayed in touch with Cheleuka, who continuously encouraged her to carry on with what she was doing.

In July 2019, she had the opportunity to speak at a luncheon for ambassadors’ personal assistants in Lilongwe at the Norwegian Ambassador’s residence.

Just before that, she spoke at one of Old Mutual’s health days in Lilongwe.

On Mother’s Day, she is scheduled to speak on mental health at a high tea to be held at Sunbird Mount Soche.

Born in July 1980 in Blantyre in a family of four girls, Asumanie adds she decided to open up about her struggles with severe depression and anxiety because of her experience.

She did not know who to go to or how to help herself.  Her aim is to do all she can to let people know that it is alright to ask for help.

Asumanie explains that mental illness is as deadly as any other terminal disease.

She further notes that since the struggles of people with mental illnesses are often invisible does not make the condition inexistent.

So far, she has both men and women reaching out to her. Some have brought family members they were worried about and she commends them for aiding them to get help.

For her, it is heartbreaking to see suicide rates going up in the country. She believes that with awareness, a lot of such deaths could be avoided.

Asumanie observes that the fear of being considered as attention seekers or being considered as weak often discourages people from speaking up when in depression or heading towards nervous break-down.

“Unfortunately, we live in a society that encourages this perception. So, people just struggle until they cannot struggle anymore.

“Mental illness does not define a person and I believe if we all work together, we can bring awareness and mental health will be something people openly talk about,” notes Asumanie.

She is currently studying online for a certificate in mental health awareness with a United Kingdom based New Skills Academy.

She cites money as one of the common causes of depression, with most people getting mounting pressure from society to be at a certain level of prestige.

“People end up borrowing money they cannot afford to pay back. When they can’t repay, the only solution they see is suicide. Then there is pressure from work and marriages and other life challenges,” explains Chirambo, the third born of four.

She plans to establish a non-governmental organisation to focus on creating awareness so that she can reach more people who are not on social media considering that this is the platform she uses to reach out.

“I would like to reach even those in villages because in most cases people are labelled olodzedwa (bewitched) if they have a mental condition in the villages,” she notes.

Asumanie calls on organisations and individuals to join her in raising awareness on mental health issues.

“I do not get any funding at the moment, but I believe that with a bit of funding and organisation we can reach a lot more people in Malawi,” she says.

She grew up in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Malawi.  Asumanie did my secondary school at Phwezi and Kaphuka.

Prisca Chipao from Traditional Authority (T/A) Chikowi in Zomba wears different hats.

She is not just a lawyer, but an entrepreneur, a law lecturer and a women and youth economic empowerment advocate.

A law school graduate from Africa Nazarene University (ANU) in Kenya, Prisca is the first born of two children in her family.

She is managing partner of a legal consultancy firm— Chipao and Associates, managing director of Freeway Car Hire, owner of Sass and Pazazz Fashion Store and also the founder of Empower Initiative.

Prisca notes that issues of gender-based-violence (GBV) are still very high in society, cannot be mentioned in depth without talking about economic empowerment of women.

Lack of economic empowerment, in her view, contributes largely to women being considered subjects of abuse and citizens of lesser value.

“The value of women is reduced to child-bearing and taking care of domestic chores. Women are worth more and can achieve far more if given the opportunity. Studies show that women score higher compared to men in leadership skills. So, every time we fail to empower a woman, we lose out on a great leader,” she observes.

Empower Initiative seeks to financially empower young women under the age of 35, by creating support groups across the nation for them.

Among other things, the support groups offer vocational skills; leadership and entrepreneurship trainings, access to loans and a countrywide business network.

It also runs a joint business to build practical experience as well as realise profits for the women participants.

Being someone who started her first business at the age of 15 out of need to support herself financially, Prisca acknowledges how much women economic empowerment is central to realising their rights and gender equality.

“Being a woman is demanding and there are many basic things we need to be comfortable with. I have seen the lack of these basic needs pushing young girls to men for handouts with strings attached.

“A financially starved woman is likely to have low self-confidence. Financial independence comes with self-worth for most women and self-worth is very important,” she adds.

To her, an ideal world is one where both women and men enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights; and are empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families and communities.

For the youthful lawyer, passion for women and girls’ empowerment comes from the belief that giving women a voice in society contributes towards upholding several human rights they are often unable to enjoy.

“If we must end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic communities in Malawi, women and girls must be economically empowered,” she notes.

As such, Empower, with the goal of qualitatively impacting every woman that is part of the initiative, has reached over 200 women.

The founder believes that the impacted women will then help them reach out to more women until they have a nationwide network of women that can adequately support each other, provide for themselves, their families and communities.

Several groups of women are currently raising funds among themselves to start joint businesses while others are already generating income from their businesses.

At the moment, Empower is majorly in Lilongwe urban and rural areas, but they also have support groups in Blantyre, Zomba, Mangochi, Mchinji and Kasungu.

The businesses that some of the support groups engage in include kabaza transport, maize farming, mushroom farming, Irish Potato marketing, large-scale chicken and egg trade.

“I always wanted to be a lawyer. Throughout high school, I could not picture myself doing anything else. I always pictured myself wearing the court regalia and walking into a court room. This made me love subjects such as History and Social Studies as I believed they were key into law school. I later discovered that may not have been the whole truth,” she explains.

However, not every dream is realised easily. The first time she sat the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations in 2009, she did not get the best grades to warrant her entry into Chancellor College.

As such, in 2010, she re-sat MSCE and got better grades. However, the quota system of education had just been re-introduced at the time and she knew that getting enrolled into the University of Malawi (Unima) was not certain.

“At this point my parents and friends began telling me to drop my law dream and go for other courses. I stubbornly refused and enrolled into a coaching course and applied into Unima while also looking at other options. I also began looking at other colleges outside of Malawi that offered law,” explains Prisca.

In the end, she received an acceptance letter into ANU and was enrolled into law school, attaining her degree in 2015.

Now, she is on a mission to pursue other dreams and be a role model to girls and young women.

“Making even one girl believe in herself and her dreams; and seeing her living her full potential is my greatest satisfaction. I have failed, have doubted myself, have achieved and I would want girls to know that failing once does not make one a failure.

“Failing only proves that we are human. The attitude that one carries through life is key and a determined, winning attitude opens doors that may not have otherwise opened for us,” she advises.

However, she outlines that among her major setbacks is the pressure to live out other people’s expectations.

But she says she has learnt that loving herself means doing things at her own pace and time.

“People will always have expectations and these days, almost everyone feels entitled to have and give an opinion about other people’s lives and that is okay. But I chose to make decisions based on what I believe to be best for me first and foremost.

“I have to take good care of myself physically as well as emotionally if I must reach out to other young women. I am an introvert that loves to mind my business and my dreams,” she says.

Born on March 9 1991 in Dothi Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Chitukula in rural Lilongwe, Jessie Jeke is the eighth born of nine children born to Browen and Mellina Jeke.

Her father was a farmer, cultivating maize, sugarcane and vegetables, which were used both for household consumption and for sale to provide the family with its basic needs.

Jessie confesses that growing up in the village was very hard.

“Every challenge one can talk of, I have encountered it. My parents struggled a lot. We lived in a small grass-thatched house which leaked in the rainy season. It was no different from being outside. My whole village had such challenges and sometimes I asked myself why I was even part of that society,” she explains.

Looking back, she says there was never a time when she had everything she needed for her education.

Apart from that, Jessie says her community did not support her dreams as a girl, but went on to become the first person from her community to ever graduate from college

“I had peer pressure from friends, low self esteem and no role models. I didn’t see myself achieving anything in life. Becoming who I am today is not just God working, but the undeserving grace He has given to me and my family,” she says.

But Jessie could not change her identity. All she could do was take a step forward to better her life and for her, education was that step.

“I wanted a different life and the only way to turn things around was to get education,” she says.

In 2004, she sat her Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education (PSLCE) at Chatata Full Primary School and was selected to Kabwabwa Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) where four years later, she had her first attempt at the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) in 2008.

Realising that she would not make it to college with the grades she got, she decided to re-sit the MSCE in 2009 at Mlodza CDSS as an external candidate and she lowered her grades.

On August 23 2011, with financial assistance from Mercy Cares Malawi (previously Christ Cares Ministries); she pursued higher education at the African Bible College.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass communication.

But for the 28-year-old, it was really hard to grow up without anyone to talk to about life and all the things she was facing as a girl.

As an adult, that is what also encouraged her to explore the challenges girls face in rural areas for her college thesis.

“My research paper was titled, Girls Empowerment Programme: A Tool for Higher Education. I heard from various people and I also related my own examples of the things I went through when I was younger. After graduating, no other job was more satisfying than going back to my community to give back what God had given me,” she explains.

She started teaching at Mercy High School in the rural part of Lilongwe where she is also implementing a girls’ empowerment programme aimed at addressing issues of teenage pregnancies, child marriages, domestic abuse and issues of menstrual health among others.

“I want to be a solution and provide answers for the younger girls to some of the questions I had when I was growing up,” she says.

Jessie has run the programme from the time she was in college and has been doing it for nine years.

“A lot of people, not just girls are benefiting from the programme. Issues of teenage pregnancies, early and forced marriages; and poor cultural practices have been addressed.

“The society has more secondary school girls now and there are some who are in college while others graduated. This was not the case before. Families have been transformed and lives have been rescued from retrogressive cultural practices,” she says.

However, all this service comes with some challenges. Despite the fact that serving girls through the empowerment initiative is a blessing to many, some people are resisting it.

Apart from that, she needs the support of other stakeholders to achieve her objectives.

As if that is not enough, HIV and Aids— which has led to the death of parents— leaves children, especially girls prone to abuse and lacking basic things which makes it hard to convince them to carry on with studies.

Looking ahead of her professional life, she sees herself continuing with her passion to serve through teaching and reaching out to young people as well as learning from others and herself.

On her personal side, she plans to get married to the love of her life and grow old together.

Today, she owes it to her mother, who she says had her back.

“She saw potential in me and she pushed so hard and my father supported her. At first, my father thought that girls were not worth educating, but when I reached Form Four, he was very proud and would even boast about it. So, my mother played a greater role fighting for me and she’s a hero who was selling vegetables just to support us,” Jessie says.

She advises girls to stay away from men.

“Girls need to stay away from men and resist when they offer favours. Often, men want something in return whenever they give a girl a favour or a gift,” she warns.

She also calls on girls to have goals and strive to achieve them.

Her name Ngale, is a Chewa name that means pearl and she is the first born in a family of three children.

It would make sense, therefore, that her father wanted a beautiful name for her in celebration of his first fatherhood experience.

Full name Ngale ya Chikondi (Pearl of Love) Massa, she currently works as a programmes officer at Facilitators of Community Transformation (Fact), providing psychosocial counselling and assisting in issues of sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) to adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).

Although she always dreamed of becoming a journalist or a lawyer, things did not turn out as she wished.

She became a counsellor instead after realising the value of counselling.

This followed a heartbreak after her former fiancé ditched her four months before their wedding.

“We broke up after eight years of dating and everything about me changed. I felt like I had nothing left. But after counselling, I realised I was not the only one who needed (or needs) an ear when things go wrong,” Ngale explains.

She is now married with two daughters.

Ultimately, she became a psychosocial counsellor to be an ear for girls, as many of them find themselves in trouble and lose their dreams.

Fact empowers and engages adolescent girls and young women on issues of sexual and reproductive health rights, an area that needs so much focus since a lot of girls have fallen victim to either consented or un-consented sex— leading to early pregnancies and marriages.

In the end, Ngale says, such things leave girls feeling unworthy, unvalued and hopeless.

“As a counsellor, these are some of the issues I look at. I also deal with issues of personal development and encourage the girls to go for their dreams regardless of circumstances around them. We also assist them to make effective decisions concerning their life,” says the young woman who has reached to over 500 girls in the past eight years.

Four girls clubs have also been established, with girls engaging in active discussions about their future and the decisions they make.

Some of these girls have gone back to school while others have become peer counsellors.

Besides finding herself in a situation which required counselling, Ngale counselled people on different issues before.

“I worked with an international organisation called Chance for Change, counselling young people in conflict with the law. That is where I was first trained as a counsellor. I was also trained by Medecins San Frontieres on mental health. Since then, it has been a journey of self-discovery and working on some psychosocial counselling theories,” says Ngale.

She notes that Malawi still has depression listed among killer diseases, with the country still registering incidents of suicide, drug addiction, crime and mental illness.

The counsellor further observes that a larger percentage of people in conflict with the law would register a depression of some sort at some point in their life.

Ngale also notes that depression is common in Malawi and other parts of the world.

She stresses that it is high time everyone took it as a disease and not a weakness because at times, people fail to express their fears and problems for fear of being labeled as weak; they even end up committing suicide instead of getting help.

“Families and society also need to create a strong support system built on trust. This will not only create a haven for individuals, but encourage the flow of information,” she says.

The youthful counsellor dreams of reaching out to as many girls and young women as possible through chat rooms, netball and role modeling.

“I would like to have a platform where people of all age groups will acquire information to make them believe in themselves and utilise their uniqueness as an asset in society,” she adds.

Challenges are part of every journey and for Ngale, one such challenge is whereby she has to counsel people when she too needs counselling at times.

“We all need someone to talk to and as counselor, I sometimes deny myself time for my family and nurturing. People think a counsellor has answers to all the problems yet they too when things get tough,” she says.

Additionally, she notes that people fail to open up to counsellors.

Ngale urges girls and young women to open up when things happen to them to get the right help.

She says: “If one does not open up, it delays the counselling process and distorts the whole aspect of counselling. But we are in a society where meeting a therapist is considered a weakness or something western.”

Apart from that, Ngale says relapse of behaviour also hinders the impact of counselling.

“People behave in certain ways to satisfy some particular needs and counseling is mostly a suggestive process. It is up to the individual to take it or leave it. So, you find people going back to their behaviour because they are trying to meet some needs. This means that one is not being honest with themselves,” she says.

Ngale who comes from Mbelekete Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Chakhaza in Dowa, was born on December 11 1986 to Cecilia Sibande and Grieve-Not Massa.

Even though she could not make it to university upon completing secondary school at Chipoka, she had a chance to pursue a diploma in food nutrition and livelihood security at the Natural Resources College (now under the University of Agriculture and Natural Resources).

In her concluding remarks, she observes that counselling is not only about suggesting remedies to people who have messed up.

She says everyone needs counselling at one point in time, sometimes for encouragement as well as support.

For almost two decades now, CEO Global and Titans: Building Nations, have hosted the annual Pan Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government Awards, recognising African leaders over different economic sectors.

From its commencement 19 years ago, Pan Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government Awards has grown to capture many sectors and regions.

During this year’s awards ceremony held in Lusaka, Zambia, last month, Bertha Chiudza bagged two awards in the categories of welfare and civil society for her efforts in pushing the gender and social justice agenda both on the national level and the regional (Southern African Development Community— North).

“I thank God for this recognition and this is surely a motivation for me to keep pushing for the gender and social justice cases in my lovely country Malawi, the African continent and globally.

“I am a global citizen and support various countries across the globe in gender mainstreaming work in my current role with Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI),” she explains.

The CEO Global’s Pan African Awards for Most Influential Women in Business and Government recognises the work women leaders are playing in various development and economic spaces as well as women who occupy various top managerial positions in private and public sectors.

CEO Global looks at various categories in awarding the women, including those playing leadership roles in sectors such as agriculture, arts and culture; building and construction; education and training, financial services, welfare and civil society (including non-profit organisations), manufacturing and engineering; small and medium enterprises and media.

This programme has been running annually for over nine years on the African continent and 19 years in South Africa alone.

Bertha feels it was her passion in the gender and social justice area that earned her the two awards.

“It is my passion and purpose in life working with the most marginalised groups and uplifting the lives of the most vulnerable and poor people. That’s what makes me wake up every morning with hope and courage to do even more,” she says.

Bertha has also done voluntary work with numerous non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) in rural parts of the country.

When she was off mainstream employment, Bertha also helped women from Senti Village with literacy skills and start-up capital to venture into small and medium enterprises.

The six of them were later linked to the government’s adult literacy centres.

Apart from that, she has also mentored and coached over 25 women and girls from across the country— supporting some with educational opportunities at degree or postgraduate levels.

She has supported others with tuition at secondary school level, provided learning materials for pupils at primary school levels, offered career advancement/development and coaching for interviews, curriculum Vitae (CVs) and proposal writing skills.

Her journey into women’s rights advocacy dates back to 2007 after graduating from the African Bible College (ABC) when she went to work with Society for the Advancement of Women (SAW) as a counselling officer.

“That was the time when I got hands-on experience in the agenda, providing psychosocial and legal counsel to survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), especially to women and children. That was more of a turning point for me having seen how this issue cuts across our society, the silence and normalisation of the same,” she explains.

Upon completing her assignment with SAW, the mother of two joined the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) as a project officer for civic education.

During that time, she also had an opportunity to do some capacity building and trainings for female aspirants in politics during the 2009 general elections.

Bertha did advocacy work with political parties and traditional leaders.

After working with Plan International, World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Oxfam Malawi, she worked with United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Copenhagen.

She later moved to Seoul in South Korea mid 2019 where she is currently working with GGGI as a senior officer for gender and social development.

In March this year, the 36-year-old was appointed as senior adviser to the International Women’s Network of the Five Continents and is the only Malawian serving at that platform.

She was also awarded the Global Goodwill Ambassador (Humanitarian) in April this year by the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Fellowship of the United States of America.

Describing herself as someone who likes being herself and someone who follows what has been laid in her heart, Bertha was born in Lilongwe in a family of eight children.

She was born to the Simbeye’s of Ifumbo Village in Chitipa who have since retired as civil servants in the education sector.

“Growing up in a family of eight children, our parents did not have much, but they did their best and I am forever indebted to God and them for their selfless acts throughout the time I was under their care,” she says.

After obtaining her first degree in Biblical Studies and Education from ABC in Lilongwe in 2007, she went on to study for a master in Education, Gender and International Development at the University College of London’s (UCL), Institute of Education (IOE), which she attained in 2011.

She was also the only Malawian for 2010/2011 intake to get this scholarship out of five awardees from Africa, Asia and Middle East.

Bertha claims she has been rebuked many times for being outspoken and criticising things and situations, as she looks at pretty much everything with her gender lenses.

But she says that does not stop her from being who she is and fighting for gender justice, highlighting that she will only stop doing gender and social justice work when God tells her to do so or calls her to His glory.

She now has a family of her own married to Harold Chiudza with two daughters six-year-old Hannah and three-year-old Hellen.

Dear BMW,

My wife of five years is ‘head over heels’ with a politician she has never met in fresh and blood. I understand this politician is young, hot and trends whenever he has done something silly on the podium (I do not have a slight idea what the clown does that makes women warm up to him).

But what has angered me BMW is that last week; my wife confessed that the politician is her true love and the kind of man she would have loved to marry not me. She said she loves him more than she loves me.

Biggie, she adores the fool as if he pays her rent, feeds her mouth and pays for our children’s education. To be raw, my wife adores the idiot as if he died on the cross for our family!

To make matters worse, two nights ago, before the rooster crowed, she woke me up to tell me that the politician was trending on WhatsApp. I was shocked to find her glued to her smartphone and giggling, with tears in her eyes. “Presidential material iyi, osati zinazi,” she said, as she rolled her eyes.

Biggie, I was so livid that she woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me such nonsense. I have been patient with her, but after this incident I can’t have sex with her. In my mind she is cheating on me.

Should I leave her?

BB, via WhatsApp, Likuni

BB,

I am not that privy as to what is presidential material and what is not. So, I was all along trying to decipher who your politician-dating-wife is.

Which is why, I find your problem very much misplaced. You, as it appears, have no clout to make what we should call a man. Hey, you! Wake up please, and spare us the groping in your senseless nightmarish darkness.

For that matter, what man can allow their wife, for a moment, at a politicalrally to sing and dance for the politicians? It is very clear your wife dances for the politicians, whether you love them or not.

To say the truth, you are just a signpost of a husband. No, you are not even a husband because if you were one, how could you tolerate being used and abused in this way? Your wife is not yours.

In the old days, you could have been the kind of men whose wives would report to the youth leaguer that you were not performing in bed. And the party functionary would have you locked up in a police cell.

Please, spare us the rot! I, as BMW, am always laden with flowery language, but I spare it very much for your likes. All indications are that your wife has nothing to do with you. And you stick to her? And you have the nerve to ask me what your next step should be? Please, go and knock at the nearest lunatic asylum and get a really good dose of CPZ.

NOTE: You can now send your problems to BMW via WhatsApp number: +265 998-110-975. No calls please!

President Peter Mutharika is an angry and very troubled man. His speech in Mulanje when he presided over the tree planting season, was a clear sign of a man who is slowly losing hold of himself and this country. As he delivered the tirade which he disguised as a speech, one could hear his voice crack. He banged the podium with all his might as he promised to deal with all those breaking the law—especially those damaging public property.

Mutharika is known for his indifference when faced with crises such as the one that has rocked the country. He has a tendency to wish away problems by being mute.

The tree planting ceremony in Mulanje came barely a day after the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) released a report that narrated how women and girls in Msundwe were raped and assaulted by some Malawi Police Officer in Msundwe in Lilongwe.

Since the incident happened, I hardly remember any day that Mutharika, the HeforShe Champion said a word to condemn and perhaps act on the reports. He has been the usual Mutharika—uninterested and in some cases clueless.

The event also came after calls by organisations such as Public Affairs Committee’s (PAC) for political party leaders to sit and down and talk in order for peace and unity to reign in the country.

I had hoped that the president would seize the opportunity in Mulanje to unite a country that has become so divided and is almost ungovernable. I had hoped that Mutharika would extend an olive branch to the opposition and all those that feel short-changed by the May 21 elections outcomes.

But, for once, I forgot this is Peter Mutharika, a man who probably only loves to hear the sound of his voice and not that of others. As he banged the podium, he did not sound like a man who is ready to be in the same room as those with dissenting views and have a sober discussion.

His tone, the jokes and jibes were not reconciliatory at all.

Each time Mutharika is expected to show leadership and step up, he has failed to live up to the billing.

This country needs someone who can step up to the leadership plate and lead the people out of this mess. This is not the time for a president to be throwing babyish tantrums that only serve to make things worse than correct the mess.

For starters, Mutharika should have at least shown Malawians that he is concerned about what is going on in the country and is ready for dialogue.

The problems rocking the country at the moment will not be solved by either side flexing their political muscles. These problems will only be solved if either side sobers up and dialogue. Malawians can’t continue to live in a state of uncertainty because of incapable leaders who fail to step up to the leadership plate.

Political jibes at each other only help in fanning the frames. This can be avoided if our leaders, especially the president was level headed.

From her humble background in Lilongwe Rural West’s Nsalu area where she grew up, Esnart Mwale-Khasu became the first person to ever go to college from Kabuthu Community Day Secondary School (CDSS).

Although this was her closest school, she, just like many others in rural Malawi had to walk for over an hour to get to school, often attending classes while tired.

Despite all this, Esnart worked hard and was always among the top 10 in class.

It was of no surprise, therefore, that out of all the candidates who sat for Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) at the school in 2003, she was the only one with good grades, with an aggregate of 19 points. However, she failed English.

And so in 2004, she decided to re-sit English as an external candidate at the same school. She passed and qualified for the university entrance examinations.

“It was the first time in the history of the school to produce a student qualified for university entrance examinations that year. People do pass but not with grades that can take them to university,” explains Esnart.

But when she finally sat for university entrance examinations, she did not make the selection into University of Malawi.

Her only other option was to try her luck at Domasi College of Education in Zomba.

So in the same year, she sat for Domasi College of Education entrance examinations and was lucky to be shortlisted.

Esnart later started her diploma studies in education in 2006 and graduated in March 2009.

Being the first child from her family and her village to go to college served as a great motivation to her siblings and other family members.

“They came to believe that success comes through hard work and they saw it worth emulating and began to work hard. Some of them have achieved academic success as well,” she explains.

Upon graduating, Esnart went into teaching the same year at Zomba Catholic Secondary School, becoming an inspiration for many girls in her home area.

“They were impressed that one can make it regardless of circumstances and got encouraged. Some even began working hard in their academic studies. I became their role model,” she says.

In 2017, the teacher who in her free time likes to listen to music and take her two children out for walks, decided to upgrade and pursue bachelors studies.

She enrolled with the Catholic University of Malawi (Cunima) from where she graduated in September 2019 with distinction.

One would wonder what inspired her to work so hard when she could well have just found a man and got married just like all her friends in the neighbourhood did.

But the mother of two says the hard life she experienced as a young girl compelled her to wake up and define her destiny.

“I came to believe that only education could help me get out of the challenges I was facing. My father, too, wanted us to be educated and he kept on encouraging us to work hard in school. He often told us that it was only education that could get us out of poverty and I believed that,” the history teacher says.

But coming this far has been a journey of perseverance as she had to overcome so many challenges.

Esnart cites society demands as one of such challenges as she grew up in a society where Nyau culture was deep rooted and issues of early marriages were the order of the day.

“By the time I reached Form One in secondary school, many peers in my village were already out of school. Society expected me to follow suit, but I pressed on with my studies,” she says.

Apart from that, being supported through school by farming parents was also a challenge as they could not get much from farming to support all their schooling requirements.

“Our family was big and it was not easy to support us all. My father had to work extra hard to make ends meet. We spent most of our time on the farm assisting our parents with garden work,” she explains.

Looking to her future, the 35-year-old says she believes professional growth and development to be very crucial in one’s career path.

“As a teacher, I still see it necessary to acquire new concepts, skills, methodologies and theories in the teaching profession that are crucial for the learners’ academic success. I would, therefore, like to pursue my studies in the field of education for masters and Doctor of Philosophy programmes in the near future,” she says.

Esnart, the second born in a family of eight children, also plans to engage in motivational talks and mentorship programmes as a way of encouraging boys and girls to realise their potential and work hard in their studies.

Furthermore, she says she will start a merit-based reward programme where outstanding students from her village will be identified and given some rewards to encourage them to work harder at school as well as stay in school and reduce school dropouts.

She encourages younger girls across the country to always have clearly defined goals in life and strive to achieve them.

Esnart adds that girls need to be focused and never give up on their dreams.

“There are many girls out there who are facing challenges. The advice I can give them is that they should take those challenges as an opportunity to achieve what they want in life. Hardships are part of life; they are not barriers to one’s dreams,” she says.

Married to Wenceslaus Khasu, a teacher at Sadzi CDSS, she is a mother of two children, Kelvin and Madalo.