Malawi students share their challenges with Lakeland students

On Nov. 27, students from Malawi helped bring awareness to fellow Lakeland students of their struggles coming to America in the convocation.

Sophomore Rae Zeman, the emcee for the convocation, introduced Jeff Elzinga, general studies division chair, who started the Students of Malawi organization with David Gallianetti, director of communications and sports information, last January. The mission of the organization is to help gain awareness of the Malawi students of frica.

Elzinga was a diplomat in the 1990's, and he said, "Our connection with the country started in 1999."

Elzinga and President Stephen Gould talked about the idea of bringing students from Malawi to Lakeland College, and they decided that they would bring five students to the campus every year.

The Malawi students study for three years in order to earn a bachelor's degree and become "teachers of teachers," Elzinga said. This means that the graduated students will travel back to Malawi to help educate the current teachers in the Malawi schools.

Elzinga continued, "We graduated now 30 students."

A slide show was then shown of the landscape of Malawi, which is a country in southeastern Africa.

According to Elzinga, the country is about the size of the state of Pennsylvania, and Lake Malawi is about the size of Lake Michigan.

Elzinga then gave a background of the situation in Malawi. Learning "occurs outside under trees." One of the most important things Malawians need are school buildings. "Facilities at best are second rate," said Elzinga of the schools in Malawi.

School supplies were brought over for the students in Malawi, along with soccer balls, which is a "prized possession" in Malawi. "To get a soccer ball is kind of a treat," Elzinga said.

Elzinga said that on one of the last trips they took to Malawi, they brought a lot of school supplies.

In two high schools, unused school supplies were collected at the end of the school year. "Both schools collected fifty boxes of school supplies," Elzinga said. They then brought these supplies to the Malawians.

A community service project was boxing books to bring to Malawi. Also, six two-room schools have been built in Malawi.

An audio slide show was then played, in which Malawi students talked about their lives. The point was made in the audio show that Malawi does not have enough
supplies, and that "Teaching is one of the lowest-paying jobs in Malawi," and also that in Malawi, teachers were looked at as "failures."

Then Elisa Waltz, Matt Holm, and Rae Zeman interviewed five Malawi students about their challenges in coming to America, favorite experiences at Lakeland thus far, and what they miss from home.

After the interview was over, audience members were able to ask the Malawi students any further questions.

The convocation was very informative of an extremely important issue. Those who attended were given a better understanding of what the situation is like in Malawi. They became aware of just how many obstacles and challenges the Malawi students have overcome in order to follow their dream of studying at Lakeland to help fellow Malawians by becoming "teachers of teachers."

EU-Africa summit a 'turning point' in relations: Malawi president

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika said on Friday that this weekend's EU-Africa summit in Portugal will be a "turning point" in relations between the continents.

"I think this (summit) will be a turning point in the relations between Europe and Africa because we will be looking at new areas which will strengthen Africa's economy and political institutions so that we can become better partners," Mutharika told reporters before leaving for Portugal.

The two-day summit in Lisbon begins Saturday.

He said Malawi will ink an agreement, on the sidelines of the summit, under which the EU would give 431 million euros (630 million dollars) to help spur economic development in Malawi, where half of its 12 million people live below the poverty line.

"I have told the Europeans that a stronger Africa economically and politically is a better trading partner for Europe than a weaker one," the president, an economist, said in remarks broadcast live on state radio.

Zimbabwe: Mixed Fortunes for Country's Reps in Malawi

Zimbabwe's representatives at the Zone VI Volleyball Club Championships met with mixed fortunes on Wednesday night with Koba winning their first match 3-0 against Katoto Trickers of Malawi.

But the Winstonian Bulldogs lost 3-1 to defending champions Botswana Defence Forces VI.

BDF have always given the Zimbabwe national champions a tough time as Bulldogs lost to the same team last year in the semi-finals of the same competition in Swaziland. Koba, Bulldogs, BDF VI and Katoto Trickers are in Pool B and the top two teams from each of the two groups will make it into the semi-finals. The Botswana army side lost the first set, but recomposed themselves to win the three sets 26-24, 22-25, 25-19 and 25-26. Bulldogs conceded most of their points from touching the net as they lost control in front of the border.

And once the Botswana army side took the lead in the second set, they did not look back and this marked the beginning of Bulldogs' crumble. Bulldogs coach Arron Mtede was still confident that they would make it for the semi-finals. Martin Dururu's Junior Stars Harare (men and women), CAAZ, Thunder, and Railstars were the other Zimbabwe teams that were expected to take part at this tournament but they failed to make it. Junior Stars were reported to have left Harare yesterday by road, but the organisers of the tournament have already ruled them out. Koba arrived here on Monday by road while their counterparts Bulldogs flew in on Wednesday morning.

Bulldogs were expected to take on Katoto Trickers last night while Koba were set to clash against the defending champions.