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These are stories of people struggling to live better lives, fight poverty with their strong will, hard work and profound trust in Almighty Allah's will. One such story is that of Ida Willard, a mother of two. Willard lives in Chambo Village in a traditional authority Chitukula in the outskirts of Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital.
Willard has never been to school because her parents could not afford school fees and other necessities that are required for a school student. She does not even know when she was born, but Islamonline.net estimated that Ida could be around 21 year old.
How They Live & Survive!
When IOL visited the family, the husband was out doing some casual work.
“My husband is rarely home,” she said.
Her husband is a primary school dropout, but he makes sure that each time he comes home he brings some food with him. She mentioned:
“Sometimes he brings a packet of maize flour, and life goes on.”
She added that they were too poor to afford a good meal, however appreciated whatever was available to eat.
“I work on the farms of others. This is the time when many people are preparing their land for the next planting season, where my husband and I are also busy looking for work to help people clear their land,” said Willard.
The Willard family has managed to build a grass thatched mud house. The house that was built two months ago is much better than the one before.
Holding her one-year-old baby in her hands, Willard added that her family lacks essential basics, such as safe drinking water and proper health care.
"Politicians promised a number of things to help the poor, but till now, nothing has improved. They continue to be rich, and we are just getting poorer each day,” she said.
Each village comprises about 80 families, and each family has an average number of six people.
“The whole village here has no borehole. We draw water from a small stream that is just a kilometre away from here, and that's heavily polluted, but unfortunately, we have no other option,” she said.
“We are poor and if we had the money we would have been drinking from piped safe water,” she said.
She added that the other problem is that the family does not own land on which they can grow crops. Land is scarce in many parts of the country, but those with money have no problems getting some.
Gavaleti Mzini, 47, also lives in a small mud house with her husband and three children in Chambo Village on the outskirts of Lilongwe. She, too, lives in unacceptable conditions. She told IOL that if it wasn’t for her work on the various farms, her family would surely not survive.
“It is not easy. I wish the government would give us some money to do some income generating activities,” she said.
“The government had decided a fund for establishing small projects for the poor, it is very hard for most of us to receive it,” said Mzini.
Rhodah Richman, 19, and Velentina Phiri, 14, who are students in the primary school, complained that they spend much of the time at home helping their parents with household chores.
Rhodah said one of the problems that hinder their education is poverty.
“Our parents are poor, and they cannot even afford an exercise book and a pen. Most young girls drop out of school, because of the lack of resources,” she said.
Self Reliance
This time of the year in many parts of the country most people are in the business of brick making and women are employed to provide water for the men at work, while molding the bricks etc. While in the rainy season, most of these people work in the gardens.
Medson Kagwa is a father of five who lives in the Mtandire Township, where the rich and middle class people live. Mtandire is another township in the heart of the capital city where various families cannot afford water and electricity.
“I settled here at Mtandire a long time ago. I have in the past years worked as a security guard with different companies, and you can just imagine the salary of a guard per month!” he exclaimed.
Kagwa, the 65 year old, now works for an Asian businessman as a guard. He walks about 10 km to and from work each day, but he cannot afford public transport because his salary is too low.
“I receive MK36oo (US$25) a month and with the demands of five children how do you think I am surviving?” he asked.
He also works in the business of buying and selling charcoal. He does this business in his spare time, and sometimes his wife and children help him.
Indeed, having five children Kagwa could not afford educational payment for his children.
Poverty Stricken People
Most Malawians cannot afford three meals a day. Most are merely living on one meal because of their poor status. This is an indication that poverty in Malawi is high, although the local government claims that only 40% of the 13.6 million people are poor.
But a report published by the UNDP in 2008 stated:
"over the past 10 years poverty levels in Malawi have remained stagnant at an alarming 52% (currently 6.8 million people) living on less than US$1 per day; besides, 22% 0r 1.4 million people are considered ultra-poor living on less than US$0.20 per day.”
The fact is that the majority of those who are poor lack access to safe drinking water, electricity, better education, good health facilities and have no access to land for farming. Only 8% of the total population has access to electricity, 67% have access to safe drinking water and 46% have access to improved sanitation. Education statistics show that only 40% enroll in school, and over 10% of eligible children do not attend school in Malawi.
Diseases such as HIV/AIDS are worsening as poverty levels are on the increase in Malawi. When president Bingu wa Mutharika took office in 2004 he promised that his Administration would deal with poverty and a number of programmes, were put into place, such as the agricultural subsidy programme, the Malawi Rural Development Fund (Mardef) and the Income Generating Public Works Program.
“My biggest enemy in Malawi is poverty, and I will make sure that poverty is reduced in Malawi.” added Mutharika,
This is the president’s sixth year in power, and many people are shackled by poverty. His Administration is blamed for the high levels of poverty due to corruption, which he promised he would root out.
The agricultural subsidized fertilizer and seed programme was promising to reduce high levels of poverty amongst the poor farmers, who are being targeted, but the programme has been marred by allegations of corruption amongst those officials.
Since Mutharika took office the economy has improved, and has been growing at an average of 7% a year, but this economic growth has not trickled down to the local Malawian in the villages, towns and cities.
While the government claims to be making good progress on the economic front, people like Gaveleti and Ida and many others will continue drinking from wells that are not safe. However, there is nothing they can do since they are poor!
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