Homeless but sheltering multitudes

When she first came to Malawi in 1974 fresh from studying paediatrics in her native Italy, little did Sister Rita Milesi know she would stay in Malawi this long. She was just one of the volunteer nurses at Sister Martha Hospital in Mangochi under Celim – an Italian international Christian voluntary work organisation. Our correspondent, FATSANI GUNYA writes her fascinating story.

Waterproofing Chikhwawa from disaster

Every year, the Lower Shire district of Chikhwawa gets in the news for reasons that are both bad and lethal: flooding, drought and hailstorms. This has been happening since newspapers could print stories, but communities in the district are now saying enough is enough. They want Chikhwawa to be disaster-proof. Can they pull it off? Bright Mhango toured the district recently to hear their interventions.

Baking waste into wealth

Many slum dwellers do not have a lot of alternatives. With no or limited educational qualifications and access to loans to start decent businesses, they resort to informal manual labour while others take up crime. Most of them are trapped in a poverty cycle. But some, as AUSTINE JERE writes, eke out a clean living from a dirty element of Chinsapo slums in Lilongwe.

‘I have burnt 46 human bodies’

When Fanuel Moffat started working at the Hindu crematorium in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, he never expected to be more than a security guard. That was in 2003. Ten years later, he deals not with robbers and thieves, but dead bodies. Bright Mhango writes.

The surgeon and his knives

Dr Carlos Gomez Varela, 37, is one of the few surgeons Malawi has. He has performed over 5 000 surgeries, including separating conjoined twins. He is the only surgeon government banks on to service the whole of the Central Region and as BRIGHT MHANGO writes, he is a jolly element Malawi should celebrate.

A slum saving itself from itself

Senti slum in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, is a tangle of structures that pass for houses, toilets and other buildings. So dense and disorganised is the area that it is an eye sore to the community itself. Maybe this is about to change, as Bright Mhango reports.

Creating an HIV-free generation

The Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) has been around for a while now. Although the initiative has faced all manner of problems, its success is there for all to see in Ntchisi.

‘My uncle raped me over and over again’

For many years, Mirriam [not real name] kept a secret that haunted and tortured her. Raped regularly by her uncle when she was 11, she felt the agony that forced sex creates in victims. Mirriam opened up recently and told Bright Mhango how the uncle exploited her innocence.

The haunted house at Biwi

It is the kind of tale you would expect to hear from South Africa, in movies or places where crime grows. To think of an innocent lady being showered with eight bullets in Malawi is grotesque. But as Bright Mhango and Christopher Jimu found out, it is a reality for one family in Lilongwe.

Mingling with the dead

Lufeyo Mphimbi is no ordinary man. His life revolves around the dead. Now, the dead are not anybody’s friend, so when Bright Mhango went to Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe to chat with Mphimbi, he was overwhelmed by the shadow of death that hangs over the hospital’s mortuary where Mphimbi works as supervisor.

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