Just wanted to compare these three pictures of peoples houses in Malawi. This is how life is like in Malawi
Mutharika's house in Ndata
Malawian kids playing outside their home.
some of the houses belonging to ordinary malawians.
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
malawi president's personal house vs a citizen's house
Just wanted to compare these three pictures of peoples houses in Malawi. This is how life is like in Malawi
Mutharika's house in Ndata
Malawian kids playing outside their home.
some of the houses belonging to ordinary malawians.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Unfair World
I see them everyday at my work place selling different kinds of things. As young as seven, who can hardly give you the right amount of change, are selling us bananas, cooked maize and sugarcanes. They wake up very early and walk to various areas to sell the things sent by their parents.
Some have even stopped going to school because of various reasons but mainly their parents too poor to take care of them. So they are sent to sell these foods to find their daily needs. I have managed to talk to some of them who narrated very sad stories about their families. Life is unfair.
The word 'unfair world' keeps coming to mind when I see them everyday. I always try to engange them in conversation to hear them out. They all have stories to tell. Even their parents are able to tell me why they send them to the streets. They are convinced that that's the only way.
One example is of a thirteen year old girl called Maggie who has just started selling cooked maize near our office. I talked to her several times. She has just written the Primary School Leaving examinations and in search for money to pay for secondary education, her parents sent her to do business. She seems to like this idea.
But the streets are not a safe place for a 13yr old who has to travel a long distance to her home in the evening. We read in papers of 8yr olds who are raped right in their homes. What more with a 13yr old who is looking money to make ends meet? Life is unfair.
I feel sorry for them everday. I try to help where I can but they just keep coming. You can see it in the way they dress, the food they eat and the life they live.
Some have even stopped going to school because of various reasons but mainly their parents too poor to take care of them. So they are sent to sell these foods to find their daily needs. I have managed to talk to some of them who narrated very sad stories about their families. Life is unfair.
The word 'unfair world' keeps coming to mind when I see them everyday. I always try to engange them in conversation to hear them out. They all have stories to tell. Even their parents are able to tell me why they send them to the streets. They are convinced that that's the only way.
One example is of a thirteen year old girl called Maggie who has just started selling cooked maize near our office. I talked to her several times. She has just written the Primary School Leaving examinations and in search for money to pay for secondary education, her parents sent her to do business. She seems to like this idea.
But the streets are not a safe place for a 13yr old who has to travel a long distance to her home in the evening. We read in papers of 8yr olds who are raped right in their homes. What more with a 13yr old who is looking money to make ends meet? Life is unfair.
I feel sorry for them everday. I try to help where I can but they just keep coming. You can see it in the way they dress, the food they eat and the life they live.
Friday, August 21, 2009
WHO CARES?
To them that’s how life is like. There is nothing they can do to change their present situation. Life to them means struggling to find basic needs. They just came to accept this fact. Every five years they vote for people who they hope will bring change, but nothing changes. Who cares?
Every morning they wake up from their sleeping mats to be greeted by the sight of their poorly dressed and hunger stricken children. At times one meal per day strategically prepared to cover all the three meals does the trick. Not that they are too busy to eat but availability of food to be prepared thrice.
Farming, yes, the God given talent is all there is to give them the much needed food. But with the prices of fertilizer that they cannot afford, they harvest very little from a large piece of land. Subsidies are there but they target a few people who have connections.
Who cares what they dress? As long as they cover their nakedness, fashion to them means nothing. There is no money to buy the latest Pierre Cardin suit. Freely they walk in tatters and some second hand clothes sold cheaply at various trading centres.
Education, yes their kids need to be educated. Thank God primary school is free, but that’s where it ends. Secondary schools have become very expensive for them. To buy uniform, pay fees, and buy other needed resources for learning is a big burden to them. Even those that are lucky to have finished their secondary school are still expecting to be fed by them. Who is going to give them a job? Forget about college. It’s a luxury very few can afford.
This is what life means to them. Days turn to months and months to years with little changes. Only governments change but sufferring remains. Young men turn to fathers at a tender age catching the virus in the process. Girls as young as 15 become wives and mothers. Children suffer from malnutrition and other related diseases.
On paper, policies, strategies and goals are made but very little impacts the poor masses. They continue suffering every day of their lives. There is no better explanation to this kind of life. Who is wrong or what should be done to change this? Poverty is here to stay if nobody cares for these fellow country men.
Pictures taken by Caitriona Rogerson and Natasha Fitzpatrick in Blantyre, Malawi
Every morning they wake up from their sleeping mats to be greeted by the sight of their poorly dressed and hunger stricken children. At times one meal per day strategically prepared to cover all the three meals does the trick. Not that they are too busy to eat but availability of food to be prepared thrice.
Farming, yes, the God given talent is all there is to give them the much needed food. But with the prices of fertilizer that they cannot afford, they harvest very little from a large piece of land. Subsidies are there but they target a few people who have connections.
Who cares what they dress? As long as they cover their nakedness, fashion to them means nothing. There is no money to buy the latest Pierre Cardin suit. Freely they walk in tatters and some second hand clothes sold cheaply at various trading centres.
Education, yes their kids need to be educated. Thank God primary school is free, but that’s where it ends. Secondary schools have become very expensive for them. To buy uniform, pay fees, and buy other needed resources for learning is a big burden to them. Even those that are lucky to have finished their secondary school are still expecting to be fed by them. Who is going to give them a job? Forget about college. It’s a luxury very few can afford.
This is what life means to them. Days turn to months and months to years with little changes. Only governments change but sufferring remains. Young men turn to fathers at a tender age catching the virus in the process. Girls as young as 15 become wives and mothers. Children suffer from malnutrition and other related diseases.
On paper, policies, strategies and goals are made but very little impacts the poor masses. They continue suffering every day of their lives. There is no better explanation to this kind of life. Who is wrong or what should be done to change this? Poverty is here to stay if nobody cares for these fellow country men.
Pictures taken by Caitriona Rogerson and Natasha Fitzpatrick in Blantyre, Malawi
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
THE MISSING BRAZILIAN STUDENT – GABRIEL BUCHMANN
He visited Malawi and thought of climbing Mulanje Mountain where he got lost on 17th July 2009 and was found dead on 5th August.
Gabriel Buchmann was on a mission to Asia and Africa.He traveled to 28 countries and Malawi was his last country to visit before going back to Brazil on 28th July. He was an Economist/ Humanitarian studying effects of poverty around the world. He had a BA in International Relations and Economics, he pursued an MA in Economics at PUC University in Rio de Janeiro. He had been awarded with a Fulbright scholarship and was to start a PHD in Public Policy at UCLA in September.
Here is how his best friend Pedro Hemsley described him at the start of a rescue mission:
“ A quick comment on the guy. Gabriel is an economist who studies poverty. He traveled many times to get to know people who live under adverse conditions – unlike most economists, who stick to the figures. He worked with public policy for poverty (you may guess how ineffective it is in most of the world) and will start his PhD in September at the University of California to go on researching and working on poverty. He decided to take a one-year trip in Asia and Africa to live with people, to see actual people in real situations, before going back into the books. He wasn’t a typical tourist at all. He didn’t sleep in hotels, but found accommodation with locals.
He hunted and fished with them.
He took part in their rituals.
This is who we are looking for.”
Before coming to Malawi Gabriel had been to Kenya and Uganda. Here is one of the last emails he sent to his relatives on 1st June 2009:
“Dearest mom, girlfriend and João, my top partners in this backpacking trip, my dearest little sister, After more than a week of a full-on experience into the heart of Africa . I’ve found this cybercafe in Jinha, countryside of Uganda, just in front of river Nile…to I write you to say that I am truly overwhelmed and life is wonderfully good! My days in Africa have been absolutely fantastic!!! After spending a few days in the house of a refugee from Congo in Nairobi, don’t ask me how I ended up in the remote village of the masais in Kenya, where I spent days running after giraffes, zebras, and antelopes carrying on a spade and arrow. I was having a truly tribal experience, sleeping in these people houses and all that….oh, and among many adventures in Kenya, I ended in style. I did a bike safari with my masai friend in a stunning national park… So I’m pretty roots here, walking for a week wrapped up in one of those colorful pieces of fabric, carrying on a stick of wood and steal spade…all I know is that since I’ve arrived in Africa I haven’t seen ANY muzumgo (white man), besides myself…
Oh, by the way, in the middle of all that today I sent a child to school!!! It’s a long story, but to keep it simple, after spending a whole day walking around a small village in Uganda with a boy that, among other things, introduced me to his family, which lives in totally misery, and then for coincidence I went visiting this public school and was talking to the director, so I decided I would pay the enrollment fee and all the expenses so that this boy could go to school until the end of the year…
The best about being in Africa is that only here I can travel the way I’ve always dreamt. Today for the second time I stayed at a hostel since I arrived in this continent, all other days I stayed and had meals with the locals, spending less than 3 dollars a day, which allowed me to distribute the rest of my daily allowance among those who helped me along the way by feeding me or by receiving me in their homes. I am overwhelmed to live such adventure …making a real journey into the heart of Africa, a totally non-touristy one, in a sustainable way, being able to help a few Africans on the way…here with almost nothing you can make a huge difference in people’s lives…for instance with only 12 dollars I paid my friend’s rent in Congo for the whole month. With only 40 dollars I paid for one year of such a cool school for this other boy……”
Gabriel's body returned to Brazil in Rio where it will be cremated at Mortuary Pax River after a wake in the chapel of Memorial of Caramel in Caju starting from Monday 10th August to Tuesday 11th August.
May his soul rest in peace!!!
Gabriel Buchmann was on a mission to Asia and Africa.He traveled to 28 countries and Malawi was his last country to visit before going back to Brazil on 28th July. He was an Economist/ Humanitarian studying effects of poverty around the world. He had a BA in International Relations and Economics, he pursued an MA in Economics at PUC University in Rio de Janeiro. He had been awarded with a Fulbright scholarship and was to start a PHD in Public Policy at UCLA in September.
Here is how his best friend Pedro Hemsley described him at the start of a rescue mission:
“ A quick comment on the guy. Gabriel is an economist who studies poverty. He traveled many times to get to know people who live under adverse conditions – unlike most economists, who stick to the figures. He worked with public policy for poverty (you may guess how ineffective it is in most of the world) and will start his PhD in September at the University of California to go on researching and working on poverty. He decided to take a one-year trip in Asia and Africa to live with people, to see actual people in real situations, before going back into the books. He wasn’t a typical tourist at all. He didn’t sleep in hotels, but found accommodation with locals.
He hunted and fished with them.
He took part in their rituals.
This is who we are looking for.”
Before coming to Malawi Gabriel had been to Kenya and Uganda. Here is one of the last emails he sent to his relatives on 1st June 2009:
“Dearest mom, girlfriend and João, my top partners in this backpacking trip, my dearest little sister, After more than a week of a full-on experience into the heart of Africa . I’ve found this cybercafe in Jinha, countryside of Uganda, just in front of river Nile…to I write you to say that I am truly overwhelmed and life is wonderfully good! My days in Africa have been absolutely fantastic!!! After spending a few days in the house of a refugee from Congo in Nairobi, don’t ask me how I ended up in the remote village of the masais in Kenya, where I spent days running after giraffes, zebras, and antelopes carrying on a spade and arrow. I was having a truly tribal experience, sleeping in these people houses and all that….oh, and among many adventures in Kenya, I ended in style. I did a bike safari with my masai friend in a stunning national park… So I’m pretty roots here, walking for a week wrapped up in one of those colorful pieces of fabric, carrying on a stick of wood and steal spade…all I know is that since I’ve arrived in Africa I haven’t seen ANY muzumgo (white man), besides myself…
Oh, by the way, in the middle of all that today I sent a child to school!!! It’s a long story, but to keep it simple, after spending a whole day walking around a small village in Uganda with a boy that, among other things, introduced me to his family, which lives in totally misery, and then for coincidence I went visiting this public school and was talking to the director, so I decided I would pay the enrollment fee and all the expenses so that this boy could go to school until the end of the year…
The best about being in Africa is that only here I can travel the way I’ve always dreamt. Today for the second time I stayed at a hostel since I arrived in this continent, all other days I stayed and had meals with the locals, spending less than 3 dollars a day, which allowed me to distribute the rest of my daily allowance among those who helped me along the way by feeding me or by receiving me in their homes. I am overwhelmed to live such adventure …making a real journey into the heart of Africa, a totally non-touristy one, in a sustainable way, being able to help a few Africans on the way…here with almost nothing you can make a huge difference in people’s lives…for instance with only 12 dollars I paid my friend’s rent in Congo for the whole month. With only 40 dollars I paid for one year of such a cool school for this other boy……”
Gabriel's body returned to Brazil in Rio where it will be cremated at Mortuary Pax River after a wake in the chapel of Memorial of Caramel in Caju starting from Monday 10th August to Tuesday 11th August.
May his soul rest in peace!!!
Monday, July 20, 2009
SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE NEEDS YOU
They are out there yet we hardly see them
they choose not to complain......
They struggle with life yet continue to live
stoically accepting their situations.....
Every morning they wake up to face the same things
no food, no clothes, no fees, no friends, no money, no hope....
In silence they watch their kids dressed in tatters
scrambling for the little food they have
Yet we choose to ignore them
They silently pray we come to their rescue.....
We have them here, you have them there yet we don't know them....
everyday we pass them, riding buses with them even chatting
If only we knew their situations....
they try to laugh with us yet tears of pain are secretly flowing
We have them in offices, schools, stadiums, car parks....
yet nobody seems to care
Somebody somewhere needs you......
There are many in our church, i believe yours too.....
zealous with church work, running up and down
They dance, confess, recite, worship and sing.....
yet nothing changes their situations
They praise God for our testimonies, new job, new car, house,business
clapping hands, shouting on top of their voices amen!! amen!!
The state of their shoes, suits, bibles or hymns reminds them everything....
spiritually satisfied yet on empty stomachs they go
If only you could discern.....
that someone somewhere needs you
In our neighborhood we have them, hope yours too
happy when rain comes for their crops.......
Yet their houses dangerously leak
yes !! they have dreams, plans and hopes.....
Good futures, educated children, beautiful houses, cars
yet they fail to find a starting point......
next month's salary, next years farm produce, next time
whilst days are turning to weeks, months and years.....
Yet we are there prosperous and rich than ever
all along they are there, next door, next bench, next desk, next pew.....
Check out your neighbor, friend, relative...
because he needs you.........
(dedicated to those who lack basic needs in life)
they choose not to complain......
They struggle with life yet continue to live
stoically accepting their situations.....
Every morning they wake up to face the same things
no food, no clothes, no fees, no friends, no money, no hope....
In silence they watch their kids dressed in tatters
scrambling for the little food they have
Yet we choose to ignore them
They silently pray we come to their rescue.....
We have them here, you have them there yet we don't know them....
everyday we pass them, riding buses with them even chatting
If only we knew their situations....
they try to laugh with us yet tears of pain are secretly flowing
We have them in offices, schools, stadiums, car parks....
yet nobody seems to care
Somebody somewhere needs you......
There are many in our church, i believe yours too.....
zealous with church work, running up and down
They dance, confess, recite, worship and sing.....
yet nothing changes their situations
They praise God for our testimonies, new job, new car, house,business
clapping hands, shouting on top of their voices amen!! amen!!
The state of their shoes, suits, bibles or hymns reminds them everything....
spiritually satisfied yet on empty stomachs they go
If only you could discern.....
that someone somewhere needs you
In our neighborhood we have them, hope yours too
happy when rain comes for their crops.......
Yet their houses dangerously leak
yes !! they have dreams, plans and hopes.....
Good futures, educated children, beautiful houses, cars
yet they fail to find a starting point......
next month's salary, next years farm produce, next time
whilst days are turning to weeks, months and years.....
Yet we are there prosperous and rich than ever
all along they are there, next door, next bench, next desk, next pew.....
Check out your neighbor, friend, relative...
because he needs you.........
(dedicated to those who lack basic needs in life)
Sunday, July 19, 2009
MALAWI'S LOWEST PAYING JOB - 1
Despite that June and July are the coldest months of the year in Malawi, 28 year old, Jimmy Masangwi is spending all the nights of these months outside. Not that he doesn't have a home but it is what his work demands him to do. He works as a security guard for a certain security company in Blantyre.
Operating security firms is one of the blossoming businesses in the country that has attracted alot of people's interest. Walk in the streets of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu and see how many rapid response cars and uniformed security guards you will meet. Many business people including high profile politicians are operating security companies which are creating the much needed employment.
An interview with Masangwi and several other guards working with different security firms revealed the problems that these guards are going through in their companies. Chief among a list of problems is the salary that they are getting after spending 30 sleepless nights.Some get as little as K4,000 (US$28) per month. As if this is not enough, they get their money as late as the 7th of the following month.
This is a very sad development considering the fact that life has become expensive and people cannot survive on US$28 the whole month. These are people who have families that depend on them, they have to pay house rents, buy food and other necessities, pay for the children's school fees.
Masangwi also said that when companies or individuals hire guards from the security firm, they pay alot of money which in most cases is charged on daily basis, but the guards themselves get very little at the end of the month.
Recently a high profile politician who runs a security firm was locked in his office by his employees because of misunderstandings over salaries. Unfortunately these guards have no means of communicating their grievances to the relevant authorities because only a few of the security firms have labour unions.
As Malawi continues to enjoy the international recognition as one country whose economy is growing faster, these security guards are still a long way from benefiting the gains of this economic growth. They rarely get salary increments and their conditions of service are very poor despite being a sector which employs alot of people.
Operating security firms is one of the blossoming businesses in the country that has attracted alot of people's interest. Walk in the streets of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu and see how many rapid response cars and uniformed security guards you will meet. Many business people including high profile politicians are operating security companies which are creating the much needed employment.
An interview with Masangwi and several other guards working with different security firms revealed the problems that these guards are going through in their companies. Chief among a list of problems is the salary that they are getting after spending 30 sleepless nights.Some get as little as K4,000 (US$28) per month. As if this is not enough, they get their money as late as the 7th of the following month.
This is a very sad development considering the fact that life has become expensive and people cannot survive on US$28 the whole month. These are people who have families that depend on them, they have to pay house rents, buy food and other necessities, pay for the children's school fees.
Masangwi also said that when companies or individuals hire guards from the security firm, they pay alot of money which in most cases is charged on daily basis, but the guards themselves get very little at the end of the month.
Recently a high profile politician who runs a security firm was locked in his office by his employees because of misunderstandings over salaries. Unfortunately these guards have no means of communicating their grievances to the relevant authorities because only a few of the security firms have labour unions.
As Malawi continues to enjoy the international recognition as one country whose economy is growing faster, these security guards are still a long way from benefiting the gains of this economic growth. They rarely get salary increments and their conditions of service are very poor despite being a sector which employs alot of people.
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