Muslim organizations in the southern African country of Malawi are making pioneering early child education and communal child care through free pre-schools in rural and poverty infested areas, where such educational facilities were non-existent.
"We are targeting areas where children are likely to be denied access to early education," Sheikh Jafar Khalid, senior education inspector at the Al Barakah Charity Trust in Blantyre, told IslamOnline.net.
Generally, there are no government run pre-schools in the country. Mostly, these institutions are run privately or by faith organizations.
A survey by IOL correspondent shows that Islamic organizations are the first to penetrate into most of the remotest parts and the densely populated poor urban locations of Malawi.
The schools are for children between the ages of 3 and 6.
They are offered food hand-outs to help them enhance their health status, a major requisite to a healthy growth and development.
Qudrat Issah, a teacher at a nursery school run by the Bilal Trust in the district of Chiradzulu, said the pre-schools are helping to iron out differences that emerge as a result of social standing.
"We are pooling together children from varied backgrounds thereby bringing a genuine sense of brotherhood among the children," she told IOL.
"Ascribed or attained status is of no essence in our schools. As a result, the younger children are endowed with confidence which may help them excel in other aspects later in life."
She further emphasized that the schools were not discriminatory on religious grounds in rendering its services.
Islam is the second largest religion in Malawi after Christianity.
Official statistics suggest they constitute 12 percent of the 12 million population but the Muslim Mother body Muslim Association of Malawi say they are over 36 percent.
Vulnerability
The pre-schools are helping to address some of the problems faced by vulnerable children, mostly orphans and children from poverty-stricken families.
"We believe that children in poverty stricken areas are not properly introduced to education thereby increasing their risk of going on the leeway or at worse, risk dying of preventable conditions such as malnutrition," said Sheikh Khalid.
"We want to socialize the children and mould their characters into acceptable, morally, spiritually and health wise."
Government records indicate that nutrition indicators have remained largely unchanged since 1990, where one out of five children is underweight and half of all the children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
UNICEF Representative to Malawi Aida Girma said most of the nearly 26,000 children who die everyday worldwide, mostly in developing countries, lack access to essential health services and under nutrition.
"In 2006, 49 percent of all deaths of children occurred in sub-saharan Africa despite the fact that less than a quarter of all world’s children live there."
HIV/AIDS also remain a major challenge, but social workers think pre-schools can be used as a starting point to identify affected and infected children for relevant attention.
"Statistics show that about 30,000 are infected with the HIV during birth annually. And about half a million have been orphaned so these pre-schools need to be supported and commended for their efforts," Peter Mgwira, a sociologist in Blantyre, told IOL.
By socializing the children and teaching them religious values, the schools prepare them to avoid stigma and discrimination of those infected by the HIV, he added.
Welcomed
Sheikh Khalid said they also want to ensure availability of Muslim-friendly education for younger children.
He believes the spread of such schools across the country was likely to safeguard the identity of the younger Muslims.
"A child’s character is formed right away at the beginning of school. We therefore deemed it necessary to introduce the younger Muslims to the idea character of a genuine Muslim."
Hamis Bwanaisa, a widower whose children attend a pre-school being run by the Bilal Trust, is all praise of the newly introduced child education and communal care system.
"We can now concentrate on our work in the fields while our children are learning," he told IOL.
"At least we are proud to see very young children reciting numbers and the alphabet, in our days it was unheard of or at least a preserve for a privileged few."
Bwanaisa also said, as a widower and a poor farmer with a very limited income, he is being offered great assistance in teaching and feeding the children.
"I wouldn’t be as effective as the teachers in teaching the children as well as feeding them. It’s indeed a blessing."
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Journalist And Managing Editor Charged With 'Publishing False News
Reporters Without Borders has condemned charges laid against Mike Chipalasa, of the privately-owned "Daily Times", and its managing editor, James Mphande, for "publishing false news likely to lead to a breach of public order".
The charges relate to an article carried by the paper on 14 January 2008 which included remarks by opposition leader, John Tembo, that the government had "brought foreign experts into the country so that the 2009 elections will go in favour of the [ruling] Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)."
"It appears that this entire case is just a bid by the government to intimidate and silence journalists who quote the opposition", the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
"We urge the authorities and Malawi's justice system to halt these proceedings against our colleagues, whose work is not just to report comments which are favourable to the government."
Police arrested Chipalasa on 2 February and questioned him for several hours about the article quoting the opposition leader. He was released on bail on 3 February. Head of the criminal investigation department, Davie Nyongo, said that James Mphande, whose by-line was also on the article, was also being sought for questioning.
Both journalists have been charged and Chipalasa has been summoned to appear in court on 15 February. He faces up to six months in prison.
The charges relate to an article carried by the paper on 14 January 2008 which included remarks by opposition leader, John Tembo, that the government had "brought foreign experts into the country so that the 2009 elections will go in favour of the [ruling] Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)."
"It appears that this entire case is just a bid by the government to intimidate and silence journalists who quote the opposition", the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
"We urge the authorities and Malawi's justice system to halt these proceedings against our colleagues, whose work is not just to report comments which are favourable to the government."
Police arrested Chipalasa on 2 February and questioned him for several hours about the article quoting the opposition leader. He was released on bail on 3 February. Head of the criminal investigation department, Davie Nyongo, said that James Mphande, whose by-line was also on the article, was also being sought for questioning.
Both journalists have been charged and Chipalasa has been summoned to appear in court on 15 February. He faces up to six months in prison.
SUSTAINABLE MINING
Environmental bond may help Paladin silence anti-mining NGOs on Malawi uranium project
Post uranium mining concerns at Paladin’s Kayelekera project in northern Malawi have been addressed following the introduction of an environmental bond that will see the miner put aside funds to cater for environmental damage that may follow mining activities.
BLANTYRE - Paladin Energy Limited (ASX:PDN, A$4.71 a share) has moved in fast to silence the remaining small pockets of resistance at its Kayelekera Uranium project by coming up with an environmental bond that will see the company save funds to cater for any environmental damage the extraction of uranium ore may cause.
Opponents to uranium mining - especially the Civil Society Organizations (CBOs) who dragged the miner to court - have been arguing that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report issued by Paladin Energy early last year was unscientific and did not address issues of health - how the company would protect people working on the mine and those living in surrounding areas from radiation exposure which might lead to cancer, deformity and skin problems.
The CBOs tore into the EIA report saying it failed to include studies of both sufficient scientific quality and length of environmental monitoring to make a credible case for assessing the extent of the environmental impacts from the uranium project. The CBOs were further incensed that Paladin proposed to leave the tailings above ground instead of depositing them back into a former open cut or even underground mine as is the standard in Australia - the company's headquarters.
According to the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of West Australia, the most serious health hazard associated with uranium mining is lung cancer due to inhaling uranium decay products. Uranium mill tailings contain radioactive materials, notably radium-226 and heavy metals - manganese and molybdenum - which can leach into groundwater. What happens to tailings after the mining companies have left the site is said to pose major headaches for the future.
But addressing Members of Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources who toured the mine last week, the Minister of Transport and Public Works, who until last Friday was the Minister of Mines, Henry Chimunthu Banda, said Paladin will open an account with one of the banks in Malawi with an amount that will be quantified yearly.
He said the amount would be expected to increase gradually depending on the environmental damage uranium mining will cause to areas surrounding the Kayelekera mine..
"The idea is that at any time the mine closes, there has to be money to address environmental issues," Banda is quoted by The Nation Newspaper as telling the Committee.
As regards people's safety, the bond government has signed with Paladin entails that at the time of entry into the mine, every worker has to undergo medical check up and records have to be kept and verified by government.
"The workers will also go for check up periodically and the results will be compared with the outcome of the first check up to see whether their stay in the mine had an effect on their health," he said.
Kayelekera will be the second uranium mine after Langer Heinrich Uranium mine operated by Paladin, which will list on the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) on Thursday, February 14, according to a statement signed by the company's Managing Director John Borshoff.
Post uranium mining concerns at Paladin’s Kayelekera project in northern Malawi have been addressed following the introduction of an environmental bond that will see the miner put aside funds to cater for environmental damage that may follow mining activities.
BLANTYRE - Paladin Energy Limited (ASX:PDN, A$4.71 a share) has moved in fast to silence the remaining small pockets of resistance at its Kayelekera Uranium project by coming up with an environmental bond that will see the company save funds to cater for any environmental damage the extraction of uranium ore may cause.
Opponents to uranium mining - especially the Civil Society Organizations (CBOs) who dragged the miner to court - have been arguing that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report issued by Paladin Energy early last year was unscientific and did not address issues of health - how the company would protect people working on the mine and those living in surrounding areas from radiation exposure which might lead to cancer, deformity and skin problems.
The CBOs tore into the EIA report saying it failed to include studies of both sufficient scientific quality and length of environmental monitoring to make a credible case for assessing the extent of the environmental impacts from the uranium project. The CBOs were further incensed that Paladin proposed to leave the tailings above ground instead of depositing them back into a former open cut or even underground mine as is the standard in Australia - the company's headquarters.
According to the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of West Australia, the most serious health hazard associated with uranium mining is lung cancer due to inhaling uranium decay products. Uranium mill tailings contain radioactive materials, notably radium-226 and heavy metals - manganese and molybdenum - which can leach into groundwater. What happens to tailings after the mining companies have left the site is said to pose major headaches for the future.
But addressing Members of Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources who toured the mine last week, the Minister of Transport and Public Works, who until last Friday was the Minister of Mines, Henry Chimunthu Banda, said Paladin will open an account with one of the banks in Malawi with an amount that will be quantified yearly.
He said the amount would be expected to increase gradually depending on the environmental damage uranium mining will cause to areas surrounding the Kayelekera mine..
"The idea is that at any time the mine closes, there has to be money to address environmental issues," Banda is quoted by The Nation Newspaper as telling the Committee.
As regards people's safety, the bond government has signed with Paladin entails that at the time of entry into the mine, every worker has to undergo medical check up and records have to be kept and verified by government.
"The workers will also go for check up periodically and the results will be compared with the outcome of the first check up to see whether their stay in the mine had an effect on their health," he said.
Kayelekera will be the second uranium mine after Langer Heinrich Uranium mine operated by Paladin, which will list on the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) on Thursday, February 14, according to a statement signed by the company's Managing Director John Borshoff.
Korfball in Malawi
In 2007 the Malawi Korfball Association was officially recognised as the 48th Associate member of the IKF after an initial introductory visit from an international korfball team from the Netherlands and South Africa.
This introductory project was supported by ICCO, a nongovernmental Dutch organization for development cooperation.
The original introduction of korfball in Malawi was made possible by the IKF, ICCO and The Spirit of Sport Foundation. The Malawi Korfball Association has since been granted E level status from the IKF Development and Promotion Committee which is a great accomplishment in the early stages of development.
It is expected that the MKA will also work closely together with the Zimbabwe Korfball Federation (ZKF) and South African Korfball Federation (SAKF) to further their development. Willemijn Assink (The Spirit of Sport Foundation) and Daniel de Rudder (IKF) will soon be travelling to Malawi to further continue the korfball development plan. They will continue with the program ‘The promotion and development of Korfball’ by conducting korfball clinics, trainings and education for coaches in Blantyre en Mzuzu. In conjunction with the practical sessions, they will advise and plan further the structure of korfball in Malawi.
Willemijn Assink and Daniel de Rudder will also investigate the possibilities of suitable (sport) partners who may be interested in creating a ‘multisport’ accommodation facility in Malawi with the aim of developing a Community Sport Club/Center.
This introductory project was supported by ICCO, a nongovernmental Dutch organization for development cooperation.
The original introduction of korfball in Malawi was made possible by the IKF, ICCO and The Spirit of Sport Foundation. The Malawi Korfball Association has since been granted E level status from the IKF Development and Promotion Committee which is a great accomplishment in the early stages of development.
It is expected that the MKA will also work closely together with the Zimbabwe Korfball Federation (ZKF) and South African Korfball Federation (SAKF) to further their development. Willemijn Assink (The Spirit of Sport Foundation) and Daniel de Rudder (IKF) will soon be travelling to Malawi to further continue the korfball development plan. They will continue with the program ‘The promotion and development of Korfball’ by conducting korfball clinics, trainings and education for coaches in Blantyre en Mzuzu. In conjunction with the practical sessions, they will advise and plan further the structure of korfball in Malawi.
Willemijn Assink and Daniel de Rudder will also investigate the possibilities of suitable (sport) partners who may be interested in creating a ‘multisport’ accommodation facility in Malawi with the aim of developing a Community Sport Club/Center.
Malawi should not deny Madonna adoption - minister
A Malawian minister on Monday praised Madonna's efforts to rally support for orphans in the southern African nation and said it would be wrong for the government to deny the pop star's adoption of a child there.
Madonna, who is in the process of adopting a Malawian boy, David Banda, hosted a New York event charity event last week that raised millions of dollars for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the U.S. singer's orphan care projects in Malawi.
"This country owes her so much. Very few famous people would take their time off to rally other celebrities to raise money for a poor country like Malawi, which very few people know about," Information Minister Patricia Kaliati told Reuters.
"It will be wrong for Malawi to even dare deny this wonderful woman all the rights to be a parent of David and many more Malawian children," Kaliati said.
Madonna is due to appear before a Malawi court in April for a final hearing on Banda's adoption. She began the adoption proceedings in 2006 after meeting the boy in a local orphanage.
The toddler, now about two years old, is living with Madonna and her film director husband Guy Ritchie in London.
The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been badly hit by the AIDS epidemic and is one of the poorest in the world.
There are an estimated 1 million orphans in the country, many of whom are infected with the HIV virus.
Malawi's government is amending its adoption laws.
Madonna, who is in the process of adopting a Malawian boy, David Banda, hosted a New York event charity event last week that raised millions of dollars for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the U.S. singer's orphan care projects in Malawi.
"This country owes her so much. Very few famous people would take their time off to rally other celebrities to raise money for a poor country like Malawi, which very few people know about," Information Minister Patricia Kaliati told Reuters.
"It will be wrong for Malawi to even dare deny this wonderful woman all the rights to be a parent of David and many more Malawian children," Kaliati said.
Madonna is due to appear before a Malawi court in April for a final hearing on Banda's adoption. She began the adoption proceedings in 2006 after meeting the boy in a local orphanage.
The toddler, now about two years old, is living with Madonna and her film director husband Guy Ritchie in London.
The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been badly hit by the AIDS epidemic and is one of the poorest in the world.
There are an estimated 1 million orphans in the country, many of whom are infected with the HIV virus.
Malawi's government is amending its adoption laws.
Southern Africa: Nearly $89 Million Needed to Respond to Floods - UN
The international relief aid community is seeking nearly $89 million to help hundreds of thousands of people in flood-hit parts of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.
The appeal aims to respond to floods that have destroyed thousands of homes, devastated crops and left some 449,000 people in immediate need of humanitarian assistance. With fears that continued rains could cause even worse flooding, the funds will also be used to prepare for a possible deterioration of the situation.
"The governments have done an excellent job. And they urgently need the support of the international community to ensure that all those displaced by the floods receive the food, shelter, water, medicine and other basic necessities they require to survive," said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
"We are only halfway through the rainy season and with more heavy rain expected, we must be able to assist potentially hundreds of thousands more people," he added.
In Mozambique, the hardest hit country, the international humanitarian community requires more than $35 million to respond to the needs of 258,000 people affected by the floods, including more than 90,000 who have been displaced during the past month and are now living in resettlement areas.
In addition, about 90,000 hectares of crops have been swamped, destroying the livelihoods of many subsistence farming families. The funds will be used to support the relief effort being led by the Government of Mozambique by providing vital food, water and sanitation supplies, shelter, family kits, medicines and education materials.
In Malawi, international partners are seeking about $17 million as a result of heavy rains and subsequent floods that affected more than 152,000 people. Already more than 700 cholera cases have been reported and the situation will likely worsen in the coming weeks, OCHA warned.
Nearly $18.5 million is needed in Zambia to respond to the needs of more than 20,000 affected people. Floods have caused extensive damage to infrastructure and ruined large areas of crops, which could drastically reduce this year's harvest in many areas.
International responders in Zimbabwe are seeking nearly $15.8 million following localized flooding that began in mid-December 2007, affecting more than 15,000 people. The Government is leading the response to the floods with support from humanitarian partners, who have already distributed shelter items, food, water and sanitation supplies.
The flood-affected regions in the four countries have some of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, and OCHA noted that the displacements and losses caused by floods will have deeper consequences on HIV-affected households by disrupting health services.
"Despite the scale of these floods, the governments and the international humanitarian community have so far prevented this crisis from becoming a catastrophe," said Mr. Holmes. "Without additional funds, we might not be able to cope if the situation does get worse - and that would leave large numbers of people at greater risk," he added.
The appeal aims to respond to floods that have destroyed thousands of homes, devastated crops and left some 449,000 people in immediate need of humanitarian assistance. With fears that continued rains could cause even worse flooding, the funds will also be used to prepare for a possible deterioration of the situation.
"The governments have done an excellent job. And they urgently need the support of the international community to ensure that all those displaced by the floods receive the food, shelter, water, medicine and other basic necessities they require to survive," said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
"We are only halfway through the rainy season and with more heavy rain expected, we must be able to assist potentially hundreds of thousands more people," he added.
In Mozambique, the hardest hit country, the international humanitarian community requires more than $35 million to respond to the needs of 258,000 people affected by the floods, including more than 90,000 who have been displaced during the past month and are now living in resettlement areas.
In addition, about 90,000 hectares of crops have been swamped, destroying the livelihoods of many subsistence farming families. The funds will be used to support the relief effort being led by the Government of Mozambique by providing vital food, water and sanitation supplies, shelter, family kits, medicines and education materials.
In Malawi, international partners are seeking about $17 million as a result of heavy rains and subsequent floods that affected more than 152,000 people. Already more than 700 cholera cases have been reported and the situation will likely worsen in the coming weeks, OCHA warned.
Nearly $18.5 million is needed in Zambia to respond to the needs of more than 20,000 affected people. Floods have caused extensive damage to infrastructure and ruined large areas of crops, which could drastically reduce this year's harvest in many areas.
International responders in Zimbabwe are seeking nearly $15.8 million following localized flooding that began in mid-December 2007, affecting more than 15,000 people. The Government is leading the response to the floods with support from humanitarian partners, who have already distributed shelter items, food, water and sanitation supplies.
The flood-affected regions in the four countries have some of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, and OCHA noted that the displacements and losses caused by floods will have deeper consequences on HIV-affected households by disrupting health services.
"Despite the scale of these floods, the governments and the international humanitarian community have so far prevented this crisis from becoming a catastrophe," said Mr. Holmes. "Without additional funds, we might not be able to cope if the situation does get worse - and that would leave large numbers of people at greater risk," he added.
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