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.

 Towera Moyo, 22, from Moffat Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Kaluluma in Kasungu, is a young computer engineer who has won the 2020 Rhodes Trust Scholarship to study at Oxford University.

The young woman, a systems and software engineer at Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), will study for a Masters and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at Oxford University, the top most university in the United Kingdom (UK).

Upon return after her social data science studies, she says she would like to work in the public sector, closely with government in implementing data driven technology solutions that solve some of the challenges the country is facing in areas such as the health and agriculture sectors.

Aside from working in the public sector, Towera says she would also like to share the knowledge she will gain from the university by conducting lectures, trainings and conferences in some of the universities around the country.

“Such trainings can be very important for people wishing to pursue data science careers,” she explains.

Towera also plans to work with organisations such as mHub and TechPearl where they can set up mentorship and training programmes for girls who want to pursue science related courses.

But one would wonder how she took the news of her scholarship, considering that many would only dream of schooling at Oxford University.

She says the news felt so surreal.

“There were eight other highly qualified candidates at the interviews and I could not believe that I was the winner of the scholarship. It took a considerable amount of time before it sank in that I had actually won the scholarship. It was a dream come true; it was always my plan to pursue post graduate studies after a year or two of working so that I could specialise in one area,” she explains.

She adds that it has always been her dream to study at Oxford University and that winning the scholarship to study there is an indescribable feeling.

However, she was quick to say that it was also a bitter sweet moment for her.

“I would have loved my father to witness the moment I won the scholarship because he encouraged me to apply for it and also helped with the application process in the weeks before his death,” she says.

In 2004 at just seven, she lost her mother. She and her elder brother Khumbo were then raised by her father, the late Humpreys Moyo who passed away in August 2019.

Towera graduated from University of Malawi, The Polytechnic, in March 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems with a distinction.

However, becoming a computer scientist or engineer was not something she always wanted while growing up as her dream was to become a lawyer or an accountant.

But her family has a couple of computer engineers who inspired her to study a computer related course in college.

“I saw the kind of technology solutions such as software systems that they were working on and was very interested. So I made Management Information Systems my second option when applying for university entrance,” she explains.

Towera says she got fascinated with the many innovations one could implement with computer skills and also realised her skills for programming while at school and during her internship at mHub after her first-year of college studies.

“I developed websites and software systems while working at mHub and this is what increased my passion for building innovations through technology solutions,” says the young woman.

Born on March 2 1997 at St. Luke’s Mission Hospital in Zomba, Towera spent her childhood in the old capital before moving to Lilongwe in 2004.

She attained her Primary School Leaving Certificate (PSLC) from Cherub Private School in Lilongwe

and the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) at Marymount Girls Catholic Secondary School in Mzuzu.

The major challenge she had while growing up she says, was life without her mother.

“It was very hard being in school with a lot of children talking about their mothers. It used to be a very hard topic growing up, but thankfully I had a supportive father who was always there for me in ways a mother should be.

“I recently also lost my father three months ago. He was my inspiration and continues to be. I was shortlisted for the interviews for the scholarship two months after he passed away and I saw it as an opportunity to make him proud,” says Towera.

Work-wise, she says her biggest challenge has been working in a male dominated field with most people assuming that men are better than women.

“This just made me work harder and prove myself capable,” she says.

She encourages the youth, especially girls, to work hard and believe in their dreams.

“One can pursue any career they want and achieve great things regardless of their gender or background. Having clearly set goals and plans, working hard and consistently towards them will enable you to achieve your dreams,” she advises.

She adds that it is also important to always put God first when pursuing goals in life and trust Him as they go along the journey of life.

Towera also highlights the significance of having mentors to help with guidance in different areas of life and help in achieving goals.

“Many successful people have mentors because they see the many benefits that come with having someone who guides and holds them accountable to their plans,” says the second born of three children.

Lexah Harrison is the founder and coordinator of Kurya Ndiko Uku Community Based Organisation (CBO) and Karisa Baking Training Centre.

Located in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mzikubola in Mzimba, Kurya Ndiko Uku (This is the way to eat), the CBO is giving a new meaning to community-led interventions.

Concerned with low economic status most women in her area were enduring, Harrison, 65, decided to establish the organisation in 2005 that branches to Karisa Bakery Training Centre.

The bakery may sound small, but means a lot to many communities.

Harrison started the CBO with a small group of five members who could make bread using locally available resources which they were selling and helping HIV and Aids affected widows in the community.

The hallmark of this CBO has been unity and hard work. The membership has grown from six to 40, with 32 very active members associated with the organisation.

“At that time, we were also involved in making seedlings nursery and we later fully ventured into nutrition because the communities around had a lot of malnourished children and adults as well,” explained Harrison.

To date, over 700 women, girls and boys have undergone intensive vocational and technical skills training at the place.

This has also contributed to the fight against under-nutrition through baking, leading to economic capabilities and potential as well.

They got a place within the village and are training girls and women from within the area and across on baking as business and entrepreneurship using locally available foods through Karisa Bakery Training Centre.

Harrison got her education at Mzimba Local Education Authority (LEA) before being selected to Likuni Girls Secondary School.

After completing her secondary school education Harrison left Malawi for the United Kingdom (UK) in 1973 and returned in 2002. She holds Diploma in customer care.

Upon return to Malawi, she observed that women in her village were not working together and were unproductive; hence, low economic status.

Lack of economic empowerment, in her view, contributes largely to women being considered subjects to 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. I find it worth spending my life empowering women so that they should realise their potential,” she said.

As she continued with her voluntary work of uplifting the underprivileged with the little they were generating from the bakery Japanese nutritionist Akali Shibuya passed by the CBO and was impressed with what they were doing.

She introduced more food groups and provided free lessons to the CBO members on nutrition.

The light came in 2007 for the group when they participated at an Agriculture fair in Rumphi where their stand received more attention and got an award.

The award was a big motivation to members of the CBO and led to much recognition.

United States Ambassador’s Self-Help Fund, in conjunction with the US African Development Foundation, supported the group with K1.1 million to start engaging in pitch work production in November 2012. From that time, the group has never looked back.

Kurya Ndiko Uku women have been trained and produce 30 to 40 bags per month with average price of K 3000 per bag. The group generated approximately K330 000 profits.

One bag even went for K31 000 in USA, showing that the group is also eyeing international markets for selling its homemade patchwork products.

The group has a hybrid revenue sharing model where 40 percent of the profit from a bag goes to the CBO and the balance to the community member that designed it.

This means that the 32 members have a steady source of income for their families. In addition, the CBO has already paid school fees for four secondary school girls and plans to reach out to more girls in many secondary schools.

Their successes attracted a number of partners. National Aids Commission (NAC) through Global Fund grants sent 30 girls to be drilled on nutrition at Kurya Ndiko Uku.

The course took three months on residential basis. The second cohort was a group of 60 women under the Ambassadors help fund.

Harrison said she later met Teveta accidentally in the year 2009.

“Actually, Teveta had a meeting at Mzimba Boma and my friends who were selling some of our produce invited me to escort them to the meeting. I talked to them on purchasing locally made nutritious foods. I also talked to them on empowering rural communities that have skills in baking and later my products were served in that meeting. This is how it started to partner with Teveta,” says Harrison.

Later, officials from Teveta traced her and months later, she was picked and trained in Nkhotakota and was given some modules at the end of her course.

Teveta also asked her to drill 30 youths across the northern region, but at that time, she had no building to accommodate the trainers.

Instead, she vacated her house at her Daniel Gausi village and accommodate the learners.

And so, this is how the idea of constructing a boarding girl’s hostels started. To date, they have a fully-fledged boarding school in baking.

“I have trained over 700 individuals. Although, I have interacted with people of various languages, but the language in baking and communication is so easy regardless of the level of education,” says Harrison.

Through partnership with Teveta, they have constructed Karisa Bakery valued at K11 million of which K3.5 million was a donation from Teveta and they also outsourced from United Arab Emirates.

At Karisa Bakery – they have drilled many women, farmers and youths in communities of Chitipa, Karonga, Rumphi, Mzimba, Nkhata-bay, Likoma, Machinga, Luchenza, Mtambanyama, Lilongwe city Area 36 and Njewa in Lilongwe rural.

Most of the trainings have been funded through Millennium Challenge Account, Mzuzu SOS, Plan International, STEP, European Union, Cadecom Mzuzu, CCAP Livingstonia Synod, Plan Malawi among others.

The bakery has also received top dignitaries such as Jean Jackson and several Ambassadors of Japan and the United States of America, including several local Cabinet Ministers.

Harrison said they have also trained farmers in value addition to their products. Most of the time they are invited to train people in their localities.

Normally, the students spend two-months of exclusive learning with weekly assessment at Karisa and later spent a month of attachments outside the learning centre. In order to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in various informal skills development initiatives, the students are being monitored and certified by Tevet.

“On baking as business, we offer the following; baking different products such as bread, cupcakes, birthday cakes, buns, biscuits, jams, cake decorating cakes and packaging. Business plans, marketing, customer care, bookkeeping, team work and storage.

One of the learners at the centre, Fatima Msoma, who was brought to the centre by Plan Malawi from Machinga District said the bakery training which she undertaken has provided her with skills which would give her access to reasonably paid work.

“If I had not gone to Karisa Bakery, I would be living a shameful life and continually dependent on other people to survive. I am a teen mother and depended on begging but through Kurya Ndiko Uku CBO, it has made me to be an entrepreneur,” she said.

She is very thankful to both Plan and the training centre saying before enrolment at Karisa, she used to bake mandasi in order to support her 3 year-old child Mederina Kamanga but she was not selling much.

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.

Women must be at the table when climate change issues come to the table.

This is the view of the director of forestry Stella Gama, the country’s only active female negotiator in the global climate change talks held every December.

“Women bear the brunt of extreme climate-related weather shocks, but they lack the economic muscle and voice men have,” she said in an interview at the United Nations (UN) climate conference in Madrid, Spain, last month.

Thanks to her passion for science, she is the rapporteur for COP’s subsidiary body for scientific and technological advice and vice-chairperson of the Technology Executive Committee.

She is also the least developed countries (LCDs) lead coordinator for gender, technology and facilitates subsidiary agenda items as co-chair.

“I believe in equal opportunities for both men and women, but climate negotiations remain a male-dominated field. We need more female voices at the negotiating table and in leadership roles,” says the former teacher.

State business

Since 2014, Gama has been working closely with long-time negotiator Evans Njewa and Care International’s Vitumbiko Chinoko to make Malawi’s voice count in the annual conference of parties (CoP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In the Spanish capital, the trio carried the hopes of the nation which requires K375 billion to recover from the devastation caused by flooding last year.

“Climate change has become the most catastrophic tragedy of our time as it claims innocent lives, frustrates national economies and inflicts suffering on many people everywhere,” said President Peter Mutharika during the opening of CoP25.

He asked wealth nations—the largest emitters of gasses that fuel climate change—to invest more in helping the LCDs withstand and tackle the climate emergency.

This was the position of Malawi as an ally of the African and LCDs groups.

The pay-as-you-emit policy was a sticky issue in Madrid, with no consensus reached.

The topic was postponed from COP24 in Katowice, Poland and this time, it was further pushed to Glasgow, Scotland, in December.

Throughout the crunch talks, the negotiators insist on the good of their countries and the shared planet.

For the LCDs voices, this is not easy. In the negotiations’ halls, they are few and far apart while developed countries deploy busloads of experts taking turns day and night.

Gama states: “As negotiators, we advance the interests of our countries and like-minded groups depending on the agenda.

“So, we have to be patient, resilient and committed. We have to be in the room and awake during discussions. If you move out or doze off, your country’s agenda suffers.”

The UN conference entails several negotiations—on adaptation, mitigation, finance, technology development and capacity building— happening concurrently.

They discuss climate issues throughout, with constant reviews.

However, Gama—who obtained Bachelor of Science, majoring in Biology and Home Economics, from the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College—belongs to the technology development and transfer stream as well as gender and climate change.

In 2018, Gama was named the director of the Department of Forestry, up from the regional forestry officer in the centre.

She joined the department as an officer in 1997, ending a half-decade teaching career which took her to Mchinji, Phalombe, Masongola and Chipasula secondary schools.

Giving a hand up

Her first encounter with climate change negotiations was CoP17 in Durban in 2011. She represented Malawi during the creation of Redd+, a global forest restoration initiative to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

She first worked as a climate change negotiator in 2014 at CoP20 in Lima, Peru, where she tirelessly led the LDC Group negotiating the first ever Lima work programme on gender.

She says the journey has been thrilling as well as draining.

Every year, she dedicates at least three weeks to the conference so far hosted by only three African countries—Kenya, South Africa and Morocco. She sounds unfazed by those who think climate change is a hoax.

She reckons Malawians looking for evidence need not gaze further than science and experience as weather shocks associated with climate variability have become more devastating and frequent lately.

But what does it take for one to become a climate change negotiator in the halls of heated debates?

“It takes a personal interest, the support from the country focal point and the rest of the team; knowledge of the agenda and burning issues you follow,” she says.

Gama underwent an online training offered by the UN Institute for Training and Research (Unitar) in Geneva, Switzerland.

She represents LCDs’ special circumstances and needs which poor countries feel are not getting adequate attention and funding.

The SBSTA rapporteur who is also one of the champions of Women Leaders in the Climate Change Action mentors emerging female voices in the Green Women Leaders movement in the UNFCCC process.

During a side-event at COP25, she asked young women to always support each other to become effective and impactful.

“We need to give each other a hand up to inspire future leaders and climate negotiators. If we speak with one strong voice, our demands carry weight,” she says.

Looking forward, the mother-of-two is excited with new negotiators embracing climate change negotiations.

They include deputy director of energy affairs Joseph Kalowekamo, deputy director of environmental affairs Shamiso Najira and junior climate change negotiator Yamikani Idriss.

Wordplay

The negotiations involve lengthy debates and parties sometimes spend days discussing terms as mundane as ‘will’ and ‘shall’.

In Poland, they spent days debating whether ‘to welcome’ or ‘just take note of’ of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPC) scientific findings that global warming of over 1.5 degrees celsius will be catastrophic for the planet, especially sub-Saharan Africa.

In Madrid, the longest CoP since UNFCCC took effect failed to resolve sticky issues carried forward from Poland.

“Words have different meanings, weight and legal implications, so the parties always select their words carefully,” she explains.

When the talks are over, Gama heads home to reunite with her family and clear the in-tray in time for Christmas.

She was once a child, a pupil at Mpemba and Dharap primary schools, from where she was selected to Chichiri Secondary School in Blantyre. She made it to Chanco from Ludzi Secondary School in Mchinji.

“As a negotiator,” the country’s forester-in-chief says: “At the end, what makes me happy is to see Malawi’s voice incorporated in the global agenda and the decisions influencing policy change and action to make life better for Malawians hit hard by climate change,” she explains.

Nancy Bilima-Sakala, 39, a Ngoni from Mbulawa Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Khosolo-Jere in Mzimba broke all the barriers to become an orthopedic surgeon after years of working as a guard.

After completing her primary school studies in 1993, she was selected to Likuni Girls Secondary School where unfortunately she did not do too well in her MSCE having scored 7’s in English and Mathematics.

“My father wanted me to repeat, but I refused. By then, I was so stubborn and could not listen to him. I felt old enough to take care of myself and get married, which I eventually did against his wishes,” she says.

Life was normal for her and her three siblings, until it took a sour turn after July of 2000 when their father passed away.

The reality of life started to bite hard, with all kinds of pains and hardship in the family and nobody to hold their hand.

“As time went by, life became so tough for my mother and my siblings as I could not provide for them. It was so bad that the hunger that struck Malawi in 2001 really tormented us to the extent that my younger sister who is our last born became malnourished,” Nancy recalls.

She then landed a job as a premier guard at G4S (then Securicor) in 2002 and she worked with the company for two and a half years.

“I was using the little I was getting from there to take care of my mother and pay my brothers’ school fees because they were in secondary school. We toiled so much,” she explains.

In 2004, she saw an advert for studies at the Malawi College of Health Sciences (MCHS) in the news paper.

Nancy applied and was called for interview.

However, that was the beginning of conflicts in her marriage because her husband could not allow her to go for further studies.

“I secretly went to write the entrance examinations at the College of Health Sciences; unfortunately we were there until late and when I got home that night, my husband beat me up, accusing me of infidelity,” she recalls.

Luckily, she was shortlisted to attend oral interviews and this time around she thought of informing her husband beforehand to avert another beating in case she came late again.

As fate would have it, he allegedly beat her again, this time aiming for her face, so that she could not go for the interview.

But that did not stop her; with her swollen face she still attended the interview as she pondered that getting that education would be the only solution to her problems and earning a brighter future.

“At the interview, everybody wondered what happened and why I did not just miss the interview. I understood their position, but I had no choice. When I was asked by the panel to introduce myself, I did without leaving anything out, including my marital life and why my face was looking like that. I got home later that day to another beating because I defied the order and attended the interview,” claims the mother of two.

Once the results were out, she was among the candidates selected to pursue a certificate in clinical medicine at the MCHS Lilongwe Campus.

That was the beginning of another battle in her marriage as she was then faced with having to choose between school and marriage.

Nancy had no choice, but to do the two together. She resigned from G4S and joined MCHS to be trained as a medical assistant.

“I sent my son and my younger sister to the village and I packed up to go to school. I would come home every Friday evening and leave again for school every Monday morning so that I could take care of my husband.

“I did that for a few months and one weekend when I came home, I found a woman in the house. Fortunately, he wasn’t around, and I just went in the house to collect my things and left,” says the former guard.

Upon completion of her studies, she was posted to Nathenje Health Centre as a medical assistant in 2006 where she worked for four years before she was transferred to Chitedze Health Centre in Lilongwe.

After working for a year, she was selected to pursue a Diploma in Orthopaedics at MCHS Blantyre Campus in 2011.

She completed her studies in 2013 and was posted to Monkey-Bay Community Hospital in Mangochi to work as an orthopaedic technician.

In 2014, Nancy decided to re-sit her Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) and reduce her points and she scored 19 points.

She went on to apply for another upgrade at the College of Medicine.

She was selected in 2015 to pursue her Bachelor of Science in Trauma and Orthopaedics, which she completed in 2017.

After graduating from the College of Medicine, she was transferred to Kamuzu Central Hospital where she now works as associate trauma and orthopaedic surgeon.

Advising younger girls, Nancy says: “Have your own goals in life, instead of just complaining about how unfair life is. Submit yourself to God Almighty; He is faithful to help you. Be strong and determined.”

Nancy became Mrs. Sakala after her divorce.

Malawi has been facing a lot of cases of women abuse as evidenced by videos and photographs that make rounds on social media. The pictures depict women as object that men and women are free to do with as they please.

Many more cases go unreported because of ignorance by victims and communities.

Thank God for law enforcers who rise to the occasion to arrest perpetrators. Thank God also for women and human right activists that speak out against such attacks to aid justice.

Ulemu Kanyogolo is founder and president of the Young Feminists Network (YFN), one of the organisations that looks out for the plight of the Malawian woman and girl.

Through her work and effort, she earned the recognition of UN Women as one of the young emerging activists for her work in the advancement of gender justice.

She is also a member of the Youth Task Force for Amnesty International’s Global Strategy and was a youth representative at Oxfam’s Global Strategy Forum in September 2019.

Her network has 44 members with chapters in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Zomba.

The 22-year-old founded the network on the premise of advocating for gender justice, raising awareness on human rights, strengthening policy implementation on women’s rights and empowering Malawian youth to speak out on social injustices.

It was on these principles that the she, alongside other organisations and activists held protests in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu against the latest video recorded abuse on a woman in Blantyre seen beaten and undressed by a gang.

The protests included speaking against the sexually assault of girls and women in Msundwe to raise awareness and call for action to ensure justice is served.

Says Ulemu: “I am passionate about young Africans harnessing their power and bringing about transformational change in their communities in whatever way they can. I was concerned by the lack of a young feminist movement in Malawi and believe I should create the change I want to see as opposed to waiting for someone to do it on my behalf.

“I was raised by my parents to unapologetically speak my mind and to use my voice to fight injustice and I came to the realisation that it was time for me to walk the talk.”

This, she says, drove her to mobilise like-minded youth passionate about social justice and feminism to create change and contribute towards the fight for gender equality and human rights in our country.

Her network was established in November 2018 and is just over a year old.

“But so far, we have engaged in two 16 Days of Activism campaigns (2018 and 2019) and acted as a link between victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and various channels such as the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC), the police and legal practitioners.

She prides in linking 246 girls with the necessary channels and demanded for justice after their private contact details were shared without their consent in December 2018.

In March last year, Ulemu says participating in the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) march against the killings of persons with albinism and advocacy regarding the same as part of the network’s further achievement.

“We have worked with fellow student-led organisations to raise awareness on sexual harassment in tertiary institutions,” she says.

Their other achievements include working in secondary schools to facilitate dialogue on gender issues and positive masculinities, social media advocacy on human rights and gender issues

Ulemu is in her final year of law school at Chancellor College. She was born in Norwich, England on May 30 1997 to Fidelis and Ngeyi Ruth Kanyongolo.

She attended primary school at All Souls Primary School in England and Zomba Private Primary School and completed her IGCSEs at Kamuzu Academy.

From 2016 to 2018, she was chairperson of the Gender Justice Clinic at Chancellor College.

In view of women’s rights, Ulemu says as a country, we have succeeded firstly in enacting laws which uphold and promote women’s rights.

“The Bill of Rights in the Constitution has a specific section on women’s rights and the Constitution provides for gender equality as one of the principles of national policy.

“Furthermore, there has been the enactment of the Gender Equality Act. The Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act, although not making specific mention of women’s rights, provides for data protection and the prohibition of cyber harassment,” she adds.

She observes that women are often susceptible to such violations; therefore, the enactment of this law is also a step forward in the fight for women’s rights.

However, Ulemu notes that effective implementation of these laws and policies has hindered the progress of women’s rights in Malawi.

Inspite of strides made both locally and internationally she says the realisation of women’s rights in this country has been far from satisfactory.

Commenting on continued harassments and abuses of women, the activist says the State needs to recognise the urgency and severity of violence against women and girls and channel necessary efforts in protecting them.

“The state is the primary duty-bearer regarding human rights and it has a duty to protect all its citizens. It is evident that not enough is being done and the State needs to strengthen its efforts and engage more stakeholders to bring perpetrators to book,” says Ulemu.

She adds: “Causes of violence amongst women, just as is the case of violence amongst men, differ according to circumstances and there can be no single, exhaustive list. However, the ways of dealing with violence amongst women are the same as those where the perpetrator is male. There has to be swift access to justice and such matters must not be trivialised merely because the perpetrator is female.”

Ulemu says violence against women should not be assumed as some perpetual curse that will never be done away with.

She adds that the patriarchy and its institutions will exist for as long as we let them exist.

“We must rise up, speak out and be ready to dismantle the status quo and societal norms if we are to smash the patriarchy. Change never came about through silence or compliance with the very institutions which oppress us. Radical change requires radical action,” says the activist.

Health service delivery has been facing a lot of challenges in Malawi ranging from inadequate facilities, inappropriate infrastructure, shortage of medicine, equipment and staff to actually do the work.

While some lives have been spared, some have been lost due to the distances the sick are subjected to when they want to get medical attention.

In some cases, nurses and doctors’ negligence and rude attitude towards patients have pushed some of sick relatives to an early grave.

But the question of what it can take to make the health sector reliable again lingers in the hearts of many who have had to withstand the uncalled for treatment from some health workers.

Pamela Masoka, 29, is one of the noble women in the country who keeps the interests of people at heart.

With her career in nursing and midwifery, she is geared up to support those in need of health services through her newly opened Nthambi Private Clinic in Area 43, Lilongwe which among others is offering maternal and child health services.

She says: “I have had the passion to help those in need whilst I was little and opening up a clinic has always been one of my dreams. Today, I sing a new song knowing I have managed to fulfill it.”

After completing her secondary school education from Bambino Private Schools, Pamela decided to study accounting at the Malawi College of Accountancy while waiting for her University of Malawi entrance examinations results in 2007.

After a long wait and at the same time becoming a woman of numbers, she was selected to study Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Midwifery at Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN).

“After graduating, I had the privilege to work with the Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) for a while before attaining a Master of Science in Public Health scholarship in China. While serving as a nurse, I observed a lot of things from my colleagues.

“Some of them were harsh and rude towards patients and this really hurt me. Sometimes I had to report to officials to talk to them, but nothing was happening and I must say I didn’t enjoy my job knowing that some fellow nurses were abusing patients,” says Pamela.

She adds that the motivation to become her own boss and possibly turn things around in the health sector came from the experience and observation she had witnessed from other nurses at her work place and other hospitals.

After returning from her master’s programme, Pamela joined the shipping business where she among other things thought about bringing in medical equipment for her future clinic.

“I started procuring medical equipment little by little because I really wanted to own a clinic. So I opened two clinics in Areas 25 and 49, but they were based on partnerships.

“Unfortunately for us, things did not work and we ended up going our separate ways. but this did not demotivate me. I had to fight and stay on my feet.”

Her every day words are that “for one to enjoy doing something, it should come from deep down their hearts.”

Pamela knew she needed a medical background if she were to complete her mission and live in her vision.

She says a lot of young people still stick to white collar jobs when they have the capacity and capability to turn things around for others.

“It begins with us and one great move by one individual can bring change to the whole community. At Nthambi, there will be services that will be offered for free and some at a very fair price because I know that not everyone can afford to pay for health services,” says Pamela.

Commenting on issues of child and maternal health, Pamela says it has been a great challenge for Malawi despite making strides most especially in reducing maternal and neonatal deaths.

Says Pamela: “We need to do something as health personnel. Let us strive to save a woman’s life and it should not be a daily talk that hospitals are losing women during child birth.”

Pamela elaborates that if hospital staff are friendly and treat people with respect, it could be a first step to making the health care system in Malawi better again.

“Nthambi will offer the best services and it is our motto that our services speak for us. We would like to make people know that health service providers are still good.

“We have employed professionals and we believe in them that they will do their best in serving the people with zeal and integrity. Quality health services are what we aim to achieve and we will achieve what we desire,” adds Pamela.

Speaking of aspiration and inspiration, Pamela has always looked up to her mother as her biggest motivator saying she is one woman who has always encouraged her to push harder and fulfill her dreams.

She adds: “My mother is my best friend. Whenever I felt down, she always pushed me and told me I can achieve anything in life. This clinic is my dedication to her as she is the pillar of my life.”

From the proceeds of her shipping business, Pamela was able to start procuring materials for her clinic, her long time desire and her mission.

This is an indication that whatever challenges the youth might be facing, there is light at the end of the tunnel and with hard work, everything is possible.

“One can be a vendor, but have the passion to bring change in the health sector which for long has been facing hiccups and only if more people are to engage themselves in providing the services maybe some of the challenges can be eradicated.

“We need to join forces and if partnerships do not work, let us not fold our hands and let the dream slide, let it be the beginning of a new chapter and try to do things alone and help change our nation’s face when it comes to health service delivery,” she says.

“I don’t want to inspire people. ‘Inspiration’ is a word that disabled people hear a lot. And it’s a positive word to you. But to us, it’s patronising,” American disability activist Ming Canaday was quoted as having said in an interview by Human’s of New York.

“I am not living a wonderful life for a disabled person. I am living a wonderful life, period.”

Ming is not only an extra-ordinary woman that overcame all sorts of discrimination as a person with disability, but also a strong human being that advocates for equity and justice for people with various disabilities.

Through Traipsin’ Global on Wheels (TGOW), an organisation she established in August 2018, she also helps individuals with disabilities know how to access information and inquire about fitness.

And her Malawi visit recently when she engaged with other people with physical disabilities, especially young people, proved worthwhile and by sharing her own story of overcoming disability and fighting for equality, she encouraged them to fight their own battles and make good use of every opportunity at their disposal to succeed in life.

Ming also held meetings with the Malawi Council for the Handicapped (Macoha), Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (Fedoma), Malawi National Association of the Deaf (Manad) and other groups, discussing policy issues that can help improve lives of people with physical disabilities in the country.

But the 30-year-old was not tackling these issues out of the blues; her real life experience as a child at an orphanage in her land of birth China taught her big lessons on the challenges that people with disabilities face.

She was abandoned on the streets of Chenzhou by her biological parents when she was just four years old due to her polio and scoliosis that made her unable to walk before being picked by the Chinese city’s welfare centre after two days of homelessness.

The next eight years she lived at an orphanage in a section specifically set aside for children with disabilities.

At the facility, such children did not go to school, but helped with chores and “sitting around in dreary boredom”.

Caretakers at the orphanage ignored the children as they fought with each other and Ming was once hit with a chair after stealing meat from a cupboard.

The time she got an opportunity to go to school was only after an American family (Pamela and Clifton Canaday) adopted and moved her to Oregon, USA at the age of 11 in 2001.

The American couple adopted Ming after reading about her in an article that director of international programmes at an adoption agency Journeys of the Heart David Slansky wrote about what he saw when he visited the Chenzhou Welfare Centre.

She enrolled in school for the first time as a fifth-grader and taught herself to read and write Mandarin while learning English.

Later in 2009, Chinese Flagship Programme awarded her partial scholarship to enroll at Oregon University (OU), where she obtained three degrees—Chinese, Asian Studies, and International Studies.

Ming added a graduate certificate in disability studies from the City University of New York.

“Studying was my priority and everything else came second,” she was quoted as having said on OU alumni website www.uoalumni.com.

Upon graduating at OU in 2013, Canaday worked as a linguist for TransPerfect, as a volunteer recruiter for the Community Service Society and as an intern at Human Rights Watch’s disability rights division, where she attended United Nations (UN) conferences, wrote articles and helped with research.

After that, she enrolled at the London School of Economics to get a master of science degree in the history of international relations. She graduated in 2016.

“While in London, Ming began playing basketball and traveled throughout Europe and even made a trip to South Africa where she studied emerging powers in Africa and conducted interviews for her dissertation on the changing attitudes towards Chinese migrants in South Africa,” the website explained.

Recently, she designed a curriculum for a vocational school in China to teach English and American culture to students with disabilities.

When she met Macoha members at Malawi Sun Hotel in Blantyre, Ming said it is the challenges she faced as a child with disability and her observation of what such people are experiencing around the globe that prompted her to found TGOW in 2018.

“I came to Malawi to contribute to disability advocacy; ensuring knowledge and learning more about the challenges people with disabilities face. I feel there is a lot that needs improvement on disability advocacy development as regards to information exchange,” she said.

Ming said within the few days she spent in Malawi— her second African country she has so far visited after South Africa— she has also observed that disability-friendly infrastructure is hardly available.

“As a person with mobility challenges, I have not seen side-walks, elevators and easily accessible bathrooms. Lack of such basic amenities makes it hard for people with disabilities to conduct their lives in an independent and dignified manner in areas of education, employment and business. This even becomes worse for women,” she said.

“Attitude towards people with physical disabilities also needs to change for the better. It is not on to treat us as people who have committed sins in previous lives to have disability. I have heard about stories of people with albinism being murdered for rituals. This is barbaric because we are all human beings with equal rights.”

In spite of that, the American advised people with disabilities in the country not to look down upon themselves as failures, but work hard in studies, employment and businesses to succeed in life.

“If the whole society decides to move forward by not looking at disability as a curse, the world will be a better place to live in for everybody. People with disabilities should also be courageous enough to chase opportunities no matter how difficult they might be,” she said.

Macoha executive director Georgina Navicha said Ming’s visit helped local organisations that deal with people with disabilities to fight challenges they face with united purpose.

She, however, said financial constraints make it difficult for local organisations to effectively advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.

During her visit, Ming also visited Zomba before meeting government officials in Lilongwe and visiting Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

Born partially deaf, Chimwemwe Kamkwamba only realised at an older age that she was different. Life for her wasn’t easy at home, school or church.

“It took me time to accept myself and I felt sorry for myself because I knew I missed out on so much information. Even, though, I still do, I do not worry much since I came to accept who I am and realised nothing was going to change. And after I accepted myself as I am, life became easier because I wasn’t worried about people talking behind my back. I have a family and friends that accept and understand me. It’s such a blessing, I feel so blessed now,” says the 24-year-old.

And to add icing to the cake of accepting who she is, Chimwemwe is holder of Miss Deaf Africa, an accolade she attained on December 24 2019 in Seychelles.

She admits the title has so much power and she feels honoured to have brought the crown home.

She says with what she has been through as a deaf person, she thought about her friends and the children in deaf schools.

“I just don’t want them to go through the same, so with this title, I am able to voice out my concerns and be listened to. Now, I feel I will be able to change the mindset of many able people on how they think about the deaf community.  It has helped for I have put deaf people on another level.

“To me as a deaf person, it is one of the greatest achievements any girl can dream of in as far as modelling is concerned. It has given me power to voice out my concerns as well as the concerns of my fellow deaf members. It has given me the hope that most deaf people lack and through this crown, they will now have hope that dreams really do come true, no matter how disabled one is. It has encouraged me to motivate others by showing them that I made it, so can they,” says Chimwemwe.

She says being Miss Deaf Africa means you are a celebrated deaf princess, requiring one to be disciplined and exemplary.

According to her, organisers of the pageant do not just seek beauty in the contestants, but attributes such as good manners, culture and intelligence.

The holder, among other duties, should be a spokesperson who can help a community, more of an ambassador who can bring societal change, mainly among the deaf community.

“The title requires dedication and hard work. It is a role which comes with responsibility and expectation. I am expected to attend charity organisations, sponsor events and raise awareness,” she says.

But Chimwemwe doesn’t regret her feat because she believes she won the crown for the deaf—to open doors for them—and is happy and proud.

And how did Chimwemwe become Malawi’s representative at the Seychelles contest?

She explains that because of resource constraints, the Malawi National Association of the Deaf (Manad) could not hold Miss Deaf Malawi.

“Therefore, looking at my potential, I was chosen by the deaf women committee of Manad. They believed in me to bring the crown home. Nevertheless, this year we are planning to hold an event to choose our representative for Miss Deaf Africa 2020,” says Chimwemwe.

She is also a member of the Manad advocacy committee which fights for rights of deaf people.

Chimwemwe observes that deaf people face similar challenges across the world.

She cites lack of acceptance—assumption to be deemed failures or people who can’t do anything just because they are deaf.

“The government does not really support us. In terms of education, schools with intensive learning lack sign language teachers or interpreters to assist teachers and learners. For this reason, most deaf people fail, lose hope and their dreams.

“In hospitals, too, there are no interpreters for us to communicate with doctors. We end up not getting help at all, or even being given medication that does not best suit our illness. The same applies at police stations,” she says.

Chimwemwe says deaf people are also taken advantage of in most companies where the payment is low.

She adds that their access to information is nil because, among other things, some TV stations have no interpreters, making it hard for deaf people to understand what is being said.

The young woman says there are many problems deaf people are facing and a lot needs to be done by different organisations and individuals willing to help.

“Our plans are to reach out to those who have no access to information on what is going on in the country and across the world. We need interpreters at TV stations, hospitals and presidential briefings because we miss out on a lot of information, especially now as the world is plagued by Covic-19. It is, therefore, important that we are considered at this time in such areas so that we don’t feel left out, and understand messages clearly,” says Chimwemwe.

She describes herself as a passionate woman, willing to work towards changing the lives of others and willing to experience new things and places.

She wants to leave a mark that when people feel low and hopeless about their disabilities; it should remind them of her.

“I want to see the deaf community enjoy their lives to the fullest by doing what they love most—having their dream jobs and businesses. I am sure with the help of Manad and the public, all will be possible—one step at a time,” she says.

Chimwemwe is pursuing a degree in supply chain and logistics management at Exploits University, after an IGCSE certificate. She owns a salon.

The third-year student enjoys nsima with khobwe and loves spending time with friends, watching movies and cooking.

Chimwemwe was born at St Luke’s (Malosa) Mission Hospital in Zomba. She was partly raised by her grandmother while her mother was still at nursing school.

She is the third-born, and only girl in the family. While in Zomba, she went to Namikhate Primary School, then moved to Blantyre and started school at Ntonya Primary School.

Later, she moved to Mount View Primary School then to Kamuzu Academy, where she obtained her IGCSE certificate.

From Kamuzu Academy, she went to Management Development Centre (MDC) for a certificate course.

Oftentimes on social media people come and vent their frustrations. One of the issues that have popped up on numerous occasions is the issue of supporting parents.

Many married women go about complaining that their husbands are not being fair. They complain that their husbands are only financially supporting their own parents and not their parents-in-law. The women will go on and on complaining about how men are selfish and how they keep on sending money and groceries to their own parents while completely ignoring apongozi.

Now here is my take: Superficially speaking, the husband is expected to financially support both his parents and his apongozi. But truthfully speaking, supporting apongozi is not really his responsibility.

Women can’t force their husbands on this one. What I have observed is that many women have this deep-rooted expectation that a man will take care of them as well as their family. While it is true that a man must take care of his family, it is also important to note that this does not extend to his wife’s family. That is expecting too much from him.

Women must rise up and be their own funders. Being married is not employment. Yes, as a married woman, it feels good to have your husband take care of you. But this does not mean as a woman you have to sit waiting for a man to do everything for you. Time and time again I have seen women suffering in marriages because they have no source of income. Many stay in marriages like charity cases waiting for hubby dearest to buy them even the smallest of things.

In life we all go through phases. Yes, there will come a time when you will be jobless and have no means of income. But this must be a temporally scenario. Having no source of income permanently brings untold misery to a woman. And then when that woman wants to support her parents back home she wants the same husband who is feeding her, sheltering her and making sure all her needs are met to also take on the responsibility of supporting her parents. That is too much.

That is why we always encourage women to never look at marriage as a career but companionship. The man you married also comes from a family and parents who also look up to him for financial support. You cannot expect him to adopt the whole village just because he married you! When a woman sets her expectations from her husband too high, she sets herself on a path of disappointment. Another person can never fulfil your expectations 100 percent. It’s crucial to rise up as women and start hustling. This ‘thing’ of thinking that having a man is having a source of income and livelihood should be thrown to the gutters. I have oftentimes met women suffering immensely after their marriages fail or after their spouses die. Why? Because apart from being ‘good wives’ there was nothing else that they were doing to sustain their lives.

Yes, we have good men out there who are willing to hussle for their family so that their wives can sit home and relax. But is this sustainable? In the event of life eventualities, what then? That is why when a woman does nothing to sustain herself she becomes her husband’s charity case. Out of love he may do one or two things for her parents, too. But in the long run, even the husband will get tired. Wake up ladies, you are not your husband’s charity cases!

Parenthood can be stressful and frustrating. Several factors trigger certain reactions towards the needs and demands of raising children as parents juggle between responsibilities in the home, at work, church and elsewhere. All these can lead to unprecedented eventualities, including animosity and hostility.

I am referring to those outbursts in the heat of the moment to our children that many of us live to regret once the heat cools down. Words we utter to our innocent children that we apologise for— if at all we do, but keep resurfacing each time we are angry or faced head on with the reality of parenthood.

Many times, we hear angry parents, mostly women taking a bad occurrence way too far with questions that seem to emanate from an unsolved psychological encounter within the parent. They take out their hidden hurts on little and foolish things children do.

Take, for instance, when a child breaks a plate. He/she is bombarded with puzzling inquisitions that baffle onlookers. Questions such as Agogo ako anagula mbale pano. Abambo ako sagula kalikonse pano koma ukufuna kundithela katundu. Iwe nde susatheka ngati amalume ako che Biliati (Did your grand parents buy plates in this home? Your father barely fends for you, but you want to ruin my property. You are as useless as your uncle Biliati).

And children, in their naivety or foolishness will climb unprecedented heights to which some women retort; ukaswa mutu wakowo atakutengele kuchitpatala ndani wakoyo. Ukudziwa busy ili ndi ine iwe? Usazandipatse busy ine ukasanduka cabbage. Umalipila Masm kapena kupanga geni yoti uziwonongela ndalama paza zii? Komatu undisamale iwe wamva. Sindikufuna kukagona ku pulizoni ine chifukwa cha iwe. (If you get hurt, who has the time to take you to the hospital? Do you realise how busy I am, let alone have time to take care of your cabbage state should you hurt yourself? Do you even pay for the medical aid? Don’t make me hurt you to the extent that I face prison sentence).

Maybe even the above instances are mild compared to yet others I have heard. Tamuoneni galuyi zomwe akuchita. Ukungoti makutu kangalakangala ngati mbava bwanji? Si iwe nthakati koma? Wakutumayo akupweteketsa. Kaya ndi malemu agogo, kaya a neba? (Look at what this dog is doing. Are you not a witch/wizard? Whoever has put you up to this, will get you in serious trouble, whether it’s your late grandmother or the neighbour).

All these hurtful words are uttered to our children almost on daily basis so much so that they have become routine. You only have to observe children playing to know the extent of their damaging effected. They practice these sentiments on friends and when the same are thrown back at us, we become angry and punish them for repeating our own lessons.

When we compare the love and kindness that westerners exercise when dealing with their children, even for the worst atrocity, it leaves one wondering where our society derives such hostility. It’s not that the western world does not harbour anger, but I am sure they have learnt to tame those emotions and exercise restraint, lest they allow their damaging effects penetrate innocence. Without even copying any culture, isn’t it expected that we tame our tongues and practice normalcy, not just with our children, but everybody else? Am not suggesting tolerating nonsense or spoiling children. Just mildness.

Lucy Mkandawire Valhmu is a researcher, mentor and award winner whose work leans towards advancing the needs, welfare and health of the African woman.

She mentors doctoral nursing student and doctoral students in other fields at the university where she works—University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) USA.

Currently, she is based in the United States of America (USA) together with her Liberian husband and children. She is an Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the college of nursing.

Lucy also mentors undergraduate nursing students interested in global health and women’s health. This, she says, has been a really rewarding and meaningful experience in her career.

She was awarded for hard work and determination with the Daisy Award for Extraordinary Faculty (2014), Excellence in Education Award Sigma Theta Tau Eta Nu Chapter and New Investigator Award College of Nursing.

Even though she stays in the US, she has not forgotten her roots in Malawi. She builds capacity to retain Malawian and Kenyan girls to school.

“There are a number of girls I mentor in Malawi. Many of them are still in secondary school, but want to go into nursing. Some of them are already in nursing school and I relish the privilege to do that. I lead a study programme to Malawi where I take students from the University of Wisconsin to Malawi. So, sometimes girls in Malawi have an opportunity to interact with our students, which gives everyone a very rounded experience,” Lucy said.

Born on December 20 1975, she is a first-born daughter of three children to Professor Richard and the late Rose Mkandawire. Her dream was to become a journalist because she loved writing and storytelling.

She did her secondary at Likuni Girls Secondary School and later got her Diploma in Nursing at the University of Malawi’s Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) in 1995.

Lucy then did her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing (New York) from Syracuse University in 1998 and 2000 respectively. In 2006, she got her PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

During the time she was graduating from secondary school, she realised that female journalists were not a thing in Malawi and was discouraged by her family.

She confessed that she never thought of becoming a nurse because she grew up with the late Raphael Tenthani [a journalist] in Lilongwe and they used to write poems and short stories as children.

“I always teased him about his success and often tried to make him feel guilty because we started out together and he managed to fulfil what we both always wanted to do.

“I lived vicariously through him. He was a good friend and I miss him a lot. But my career as a nurse has been fulfilling, too, especially because I have the opportunity to write—writing is, in fact, central to my career. So, in reality, I did not lose out on anything,” she said.

Lucy enjoys writing, which she says is useful in enhancing the health and wellbeing of women of African descent, especially the women of Malawi.

“My research is focused on the impact of gender inequalities on women and community health. So, I write a lot about that and provide policy and health recommendations based on my research findings and other scholars’ ideas. So, apart from contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge that would enhance better health outcomes for women and their communities, I enjoy helping students to also forge their own career paths, especially if they share interests similar to mine,” she says.

Her recent study focused on the health and wellbeing of women at end of life in rural central Malawi.

Says Lucy: “We have two publications in press from that study, one in review and two others we are finalising. In this last study, we found that a lot of caregivers for women at end of life were their daughters or granddaughters. This has obvious implications for the health and wellbeing of girls and so we felt it was important to get their perspective, especially on what community supports would be most valuable in enabling them to continue with their education.”

She revealed that her passion on violence in the lives of HIV-infected women is because; in most of her studies she finds that violence is a factor that not only has implications on women’s health and the health of the community, but it also hinders women’s ability to effectively contribute to the national economy.

“My goal is to contribute, through my research and informing policy and health and community level interventions that address problems such as violence, which adversely affect women’s health outcomes and ultimately affect every one of us in society,” she adds.

Lucy teaches qualitative health research to doctoral students and some of her students nominated her for the Daisy Award a few years ago.

Her passion for writing gives her an opportunity to share findings with other scholars, policy-makers and healthcare providers in practice.

“In so doing, my hope is that my work somehow contributes to informing healthcare practice and policy that would be beneficial for women and communities. Through my teaching, I am able to share my experiences with my students and hopefully contribute to helping prepare them for a successful career ahead,” says Lucy.

She says her family is the biggest factor that helped her to be successful in life.

“My father once told me that if something ever happened where for some reason, I did not make it in my career, I should remember that I could always come home. That has really helped me because academic life can be stressful at times, but I know it does not define me. So, when my manuscript is rejected or I apply for funding and I don’t get it, I’m quickly able to move on to the next item on my agenda knowing that there will always be other opportunities for me. And if all else fails, I can always go home,” she says.

The nurse observes that as a Christian, her faith is the foundation for her life.

She also acknowledges her professional relationships as equally important.

Lucy says being a career woman is not easy, but she tries to spend as much time with her children as she can because she knows they will not be always be with her.

“My husband and I are active members of our church here in Madison and so we enjoy serving at church together. A lot of what I do at church is actually closely related to my professional work—connecting people with resources in the community, bringing people together around a common cause, serving people to ensure that their wellbeing is enhanced. So, that’s how I’m able to balance work and family. A lot of my professional work is related to what I enjoy doing in my personal,” she concludes.

Tendai Muneno-Manyozo has always viewed success to be measured by the number of young people she has impacted with through her life directly and indirectly.

She is a co-founder of Maphunziro265, a registered youth organisation that provides underprivileged youths with access to mentorship, career counselling and coaching; job readiness skills, academic scholarships, personal branding and training.

The 28-year-old co-founded Maphunziro265 in 2016 in partnership with her now husband, Chimwemwe Manyozo.

To date, the organisation has a network of over 150 volunteers who are spread out across different districts in the country.

It has over the years raised over $3 000 in scholarships which are supporting over 30 different needy students in government secondary schools.

“Youth and women development is my life-long passion. I would like to see all young people, especially girls in Malawi and beyond get support and access to the required knowledge and resources to enable them translate their education into viable livelihoods, reaching their fullest potential in the process and contributing to the development of the country,” Tendai says.

Since its establishment, Maphunziro 265 has reached to over 7 000 youths across Malawi through mentorship programmes, motivational talks, workshops and trainings. 

In Lilongwe, the organisation has adopted three schools—Chinsapo CDSS, Kabwabwa CDSS and Nkomachi CDSS where they run their mentorship programme.

This is a year-long programme where students are provided with a safe space and are taken through life skills, career guidance, coaching and health education using methods that are participative and interactive.

The mentorship sessions are conducted once every two weeks for the entire duration of the school calendar.

Tendai prides herself with the establishment of Kabwabwa Mentorship Club, which is in its second year.

Some of her graduates include students who, with support from the club, have gone on to open their own business enterprises in cities such as Lilongwe.

“The sessions are usually facilitated by Maphunziro265 volunteers and once in a while, external facilitators are invited according to their topics of expertise,” Tendai explains.

She developed a passion for youth development following a motivational talk while in Form Two.

“We had Elizabeth Pullu, [former miss Malawi] who shared with us her journey from secondary school through university and how she got the crown. She went to Bunda College. I remember from then on, something shifted within me and I told myself that I, too, would work hard and go to university. And, eventually, I went to Chancellor College. I told myself that I, too, would devote myself to motivating and inspiring students by sharing with them my life story just as I was inspired by Pullu. From them on, I would go to secondary schools and to deliver motivations talks to students,” she says.

Through interactions with secondary school students, Tendai learnt that one-off motivational talks were not as beneficial to students.

She noted that many students required continuous coaching and career counselling to build trust in a mentor, to open up and eventually believe in themselves and work towards their dreams.

This is how the idea of Maphunziro265 came to be.

Tendai believes in the power of well designed, interactive and high-quality workshops as platforms for inspiring youths into action.

This is why in 2019, Tendai, together with three colleagues [Chimwemwe Manyozo, Tendai Banda and Charles Lipenga], designed and delivered a series of workshops titled ‘Upgrade Yourself’. 

The workshops were conducted in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu and reached over 300 youths with practical knowledge, tips and exercises on how they can build their own personal brands using resources available to them.

The workshops further supported youths with skills on how to market themselves and stand out in an ever shrinking, highly competitive job market and business sector.

As a young professional woman, through her career growth and development, Tendai noticed how young women face challenges such as lack of role models and mentors in leadership positions in the workplace.

She observes that women require mentors, connectors and promoters who will give them visibility, talk about their accomplishments, put up their names when big opportunities come around and promote them for stretch opportunities.

“I remember when I completed my master’s degree, I got a job with Unicef because a colleague shared with me the advert and supported me through the application process. Had it not been for this colleague, I likely never would have come across this opportunity. It is for this reason that I designed and hosted the Young Professional Women’s Mixer,” she says.  

The Young Professional Women’s Mixer is a workshop targeting young professional women designed in February 2020, through Maphunziro265.

It took the form of interactive, highly engaging and thought-provoking workshop meeting. It brought out young professional women from all professions in Lilongwe, where young women speakers shared their insights and provided examples from their life experiences.

Tendai’s journey has not been without challenges, though. Her greatest challenge was the lack of career coaches and guidance on how to make positive choices.

“While at Chanco studying for a BA Humanities degree, the perception was that the degree is useless and its holders amount to nothing further than teaching. I bought into this. I also remember once in my early career, I worked so hard on an interview which had three stages. I made it to the final round only to be dropped. I was so demotivated and crushed. It affected my confidence and productivity. I wish I had someone who would have encouraged me and challenged me by saying that there are several opportunities ahead of me and that this failure did not define me,” she adds.

Tendai did her education at Marymount Secondary School where she graduated in 2006. Thereafter, she went to Chanco.

She later followed her passion in youth development and worked in different capacities with Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Plan International and Save the Children International.

In 2015, she took a break from work, after securing the Chevening scholarship and obtained an MA in Development Studies from the University of Sussex-Institute of Development Studies (United Kingdom) where she graduated in 2018.

The same year she returned home and worked with Unicef.  Tendai is a 2009 International Youth Fellowship (IYF) fellow and has recently been selected as part of the 2020 Mandela Washington Fellowship, a flagship programme of the Young African Leaders Initiative.

She believes everyone has the ability to make something of value out of themselves, “all that is required is for someone to believe in these dreams and provide encouragement and an environment that fosters their fulfillment”.

Not many students in Malawi want to be associated with sports once they have been selected to study at public universities—let alone programmes which are perceived challenging such as at University of Malawi’s College of Medicine (CoM).

What more with stigma and negative perceptions, among other factors, that discourage girls from taking up sports.

But women’s football star Memory Austin defied the odds to stand out as a women football role model.

The Ntopwa Super Queens player, who also played for Ndirande Kings, Bangwe Super Queens and CoM, pursued her dream of becoming a women’s football star alongside her studies.

After her secondary school studies at Milpark Private Secondary School in Mwanza, Memory scored 13 points in the Malawi School Certificate of Education examinations (MSCE) 2010 and was selected to pursue a bachelor’s of Science Physiotherapy (Hons) at CoM.

She graduated in 2016, after five years of studies, and in 2017 she did her internship at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (Qech).

Memory also worked for Beit Cure International before Mwaiwathu Private Hospital where she was engaged as physiotherapy specialist for two years, until February 2019.

This was no mean feat for a young girl who was raised by a single parent—her primary school teacher mother, since six years old—following the death of her father.

Despite being a qualified medical personnel, Memory’s passion for sports has seen her forgo other opportunities to take a full-time job at Football Association of Malawi (FAM) as the first women football development officer, effective May 1 this year.

She said: “I have been sporty since I was a child. I spent most of my time with my brother, who taught me swimming, acrobatics and football, among other sporting disciplines. I was with my brother all the time and as they played football, I was there watching him with his friends.

“It was fascinating that when one of the teams had fewer players, they could ask me to join them to balance the numbers. That’s how I started and I loved it.”

Memory says the decision to study physiology at CoM was influenced by her passion for sports. And her decision to take up a career in sports was not too hard to make.

“Actually, when I was applying to study physiotherapy at CoM, I had to look for a course that accommodated my passion for sports, especially women football. So, I found out that this course [physiotherapy] had to do with sports management.

“It’s exactly what I went through, while doing practicals in my third and fourth-years. We were allocated to assess and treat national team players and those from other leagues. So, sports is also part of what my profession is made up of.”

While at CoM, the soft-spoken personality said she captained the women’s football team from 2013-15 and won two Best Player of the Year awards. She looks up to her mother as her source of inspiration.

“My mother knows that I love sports and she is happy with that. She inspired us [her children] to do what we love. She never stopped us from exploring what is best for us. She supported all of us,” she says.

Her exploits in sports and education has not gone unnoticed as she is one of the mentors for the African Women’s Leadership Programme Region Five.

About her job at FAM, Memory says: “We did interviews last year July. We have been waiting for the results all along. And after so many months, I was happy to get the offer letter.

“People should expect to see women football being run as a profession. Together with the National Women’s Football Association (NWFA), we will put up structures to run the sport professionally, in terms of management.

Her mother, Dorcas Semphani, who now head Neno Primary School, is proud of her daughter’s achievement.

She says: “It’s the wish of every parent to see children achieving their goals and become productive citizens. The feeling is the same with me to see her doing well in her studies and women’s football as well.

“I didn’t find anything strange because she grew up with her brother who was a footballer.”

A number of people have described Memory as a role model and a true servant to women football.

NWFA chairperson Suzgo Ngwira said they have high hopes in Memory to use her experience as a footballer and qualifications to contribute to the development of the sport.

“Finally, we have someone fully committed to driving the women’s football agenda. Expect women football transformation at all levels as we are raising the bar higher. She is a capable woman and needs our support,” she says.

Ngwira also urges women football players to balance their life with education.

“We are proud of Memory [Austin] having pursued her ambition of playing women’s football and graduated at College of Medicine in bachelor’s of science in physiology (Hons).

“What she has achieved is a proof that with focus, other girls can equally succeed in sports as well as education. She is a role model and as an association, we would like to encourage girls to study and take up sports. It is possible with discipline and desire to achieve their goals.”

Ntopwa Super Queens owner and sponsor Isaac ‘Jomo’ Osman says the club is happy for Memory.

He says: “It’s a great achievement for the team to have produced a player who has graduated from College of Medicine and has been employed by FAM.

“She is a model to her teammates. She is already a hard working girl with good behaviour and we are confident she will do a good job.”

Osman also urges his players to emulate Memory’s hard working spirit, saying they should not expect good things to come on a silverplatter.

Memory, 29, comes from Fonda Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Chekucheku in Neno.

“Because right now……. there’s only one thing that’s on my mind. Right now, if we’re being really real? As a black person in America, there’s only one thing that could possibly BE on my mind.

‘And that’s fearing for my life.”

This was an article written by Natasha Cloud on the playerstribune.com on May 30 2020. She is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women’s National Basketball Association. She headlined it Your silence is a knee on my back, that also inspired me to borrow it for my editor’s note.

Natasha’s article was in reaction to the death by police of Geroge Floyd. Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Footage of the arrest on 25 May shows a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck while he was pinned to the floor.

Mr Chauvin, 44, has since been charged with murder.

The key events that led to Mr Floyd’s death happened within just 30 minutes, based on accounts from witnesses, video footage and official statements, according to bbc.com.

I was touched to read just Natasha’s headline because it ignited in me something so strong along the lines of oppression that do not necessary stop at racism. It is all about speaking up and not staying silent.

In this country, there are many atrocities committed by various sectors of society and we choose to remain silent. They include those by police the ill-treating fellow black people. It is not wonder there is so much hatred between law enforcers and the public it is meant to serve because of the long standing issues. If you get arrested for example, the kind of treatment the accused and their relations are subjected to are appalling. A mere visit to police cells is enough to degrade someone. This am speaking from experience as the police talk to you as if you were pieces of garbage. The treatment of the accused while in cells too, is harsh, sometimes forcing them to make confessions from torture. And because we choose to remain silent, it continues.

Our politicians choose to give us messages that are simply meant to put them into office. They dwell on telling us what we want to hear rather than what we need or will implement. Regimes have come and gone with little fulfillment of their promises. It is the poor Malawian who suffers in the end, going without basic needs simply because we have let them off the hook by not holding them accountable. If they keep silent about the social injustices and opt to castigate each other instead, that is a knee on voters’ necks.  

Natasha further writes: “But you know what crushes me most of all?? It’s how the systems of power in this country are built so strong and with such prejudice, that in order for white supremacy to flourish — people don’t even have to actively be about white supremacy. They don’t have to carry the burden of being openly racist, or waste their energy on being loudly oppressive. It’s not like that at all.”

She sums it up well by condemning systems of power  whose tendencies do not begin or end with the US, but worldwide, us include.

Pirira Ndaferankhande believes that women can change the world and make it a better place.

Ndaferankhande, the first female executive director (ED) of Malawi Interfaith Aids Association (Miaa), highlights the need for women to equip themselves with knowledge in whatever they do — whether preaching, business or office work to be able to change things.

She is a true epitome of what it means to fall, get back up and move on no matter how bad it hurts. She has been there.

Born on April 11, 1976 at Likuni Hospital, the 44-year-old recounts that life has not been easy for her.

“I always thought I would pass through the corridors of the University of Malawi through Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN), but things never went the way I wished. I wanted to take care of the sick until they were well again as a nurse.

“At 44, I have been married twice and been divorced twice and this alone can give someone, especially a woman like me, a lot of stress and shame, but I told myself I am a strong and focused woman,” she says.

As if that is not enough, one of her twins is a girl with disabilities who struggles with sight and coordination of the brain. But she keeps her faith.

She had always dreamed of becoming a nurse, but she saw her dream slip right through her hands when she was weeded in the first semester of her first year of college in 1994.

One would think that her parents, the late Sydney Ndaferankhande and Stella, knew she would have to stomach many hardships when they named her Pilira, which means endure. But despite all the challenges she is always bubbly — almost always smiling.

Earlier in life, she says she discovered and told herself that what culture and religion think is an achievement will never define her or put her in a corner where she finds herself unable to function as a woman with a mission on earth.

“Whenever I am hit with a crisis, I sit down and talk to my inner self. I start a conversation with the Pilira in me and make an agreement that circumstances will never define me,” says the mother of two.

Having survived the pain of losing two marriages and coming out strong, she wishes, among other things, to be a counselor for others who are depressed, especially because of marriage separation and divorce.

“I personally know what it means to be married and to be a single parent for over 10 years. There is a lot of stigma, especially in the faith community, connected to singlehood whether through late marriage, widowhood and separation or divorce,” she says. 

Piriranotes that culture has categorised marriage as an achievement to the extent that people are still regarded as failures if they are not married even if they excel in life.

This also impelled her to start a grouping known as Motivational Hub and Hope Counselling and Recreation Centre where she is the patron and several friends have joined.

She dreams of becoming one of the great women to be remembered for changing the lives of single parents and children raised by single parents, by giving them hope.

The mother of two also likes working with women and girls, especially those that have been through gender-based violence (GBV), striving to restore their smiles.

She was confirmed as Miaa executive director in December 2019 after a year of acting in that position.

After being weeded from KCN in 1994, she pursued a course in information communication technology (ICT) with Data Processing now called National College of Information Communication Technology (Nacit) and obtained a diploma in Computing and Programming in 1995.

Her first job was with First Merchant Bank followed by Finca Malawi where she met her first husband and father of her twins.

She has worked with other organisations such as Banja la Mtsogolo, John’s Hopkins and Malawi Network of Religious Leaders Living with Aids (Manerella).

In 2006, she went back to Nacit to pursue an honors degree in Information Systems, graduating in 2008. She went on to read for a master’s degree in Leadership and Change Management with Leeds Metropolitan University through Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) and graduated in 2014.

She has just enrolled for a doctor of philosophy (PHD) in Business Administration where she expects to research in doctrine and decision making.

As Miaa executive director she is happy that she is able to work with religious leaders with different beliefs, doctrines and backgrounds and learns a lot from them.

“I am at a point where I have knowledge of almost all faith groups in the five-fold ministry of Christ. Through my work, I can read the Q’uran and associate with Muslims freely,” she says.

Miaa is an interfaith umbrella grouping of religious institutions in the country, mandated with faith-based responses of HIV and Aids.

It draws its membership from religious mother bodies of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) for the Catholic Church; Malawi Council of Churches (MCC); Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM); Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM); Qadria Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM); Union of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Malawi; Christian Health Association of Malawi (Cham) and Pentecostal and Charismatic Network of Malawi (Pechanoma).

The interfaith organisation is now working with the prophetic movement under the Prophetic Ministries Association of Malawi who they believe will be another great partner on issues of faith healing; treatment literacy through HIV and adherence to uptake of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) as well as Covid-19 prevention and testing.

Her advice to her younger self is simple, and the advice would also apply to younger girls today.

“It is better to have a broken relationship than a broken marriage,” says Ndaferankhande, which would resonate with many who feel it is important to get to know someone well enough before marrying them so that you do not end up in marriage break ups.

Further, she advises that 24 hours in a day is too much for one to have nothing to do and die poor physically, spiritually or intellectually, rather aim to leave a legacy when you die.