HIV/AIDS clinic, nutrition centre, schools and orphanage in Malawi assisted by St. Catherine’s

Last year my 18-year-old daughter Lucy, invited me to go with her to visit one of St Catherine's outreach projects in Malawi, Africa, and I agreed.

"Medic Malawi" centres around St Andrew's hospital in the village of Mutunthama, but extends to a nutrition centre, an HIV/AIDS clinic in the outlying villages, an elementary and a high school, a parish with 33 local churches and an orphanage.

Malawi is the seventh poorest country in the World. Life expectancy is 36 years. Ninety per cent of the population depends on agriculture to survive.

It is still hard to express the enormous blessing that we enjoyed. We spent 3 weeks living with the Rector Frank, his wife Eunice, and their extended family. We visited outlying villages travelling through the beautiful countryside along dirt tracks.

Worship was amazing. The harmony of the music and the liveliness of the rhythm was uplifting. I was honoured to take part in the services, although there are no women priests in Malawi-not yet!

Of course language was a barrier, but smiles and laughter overcame that. We became friends. We were privileged to enjoy times with the women in the community, many were members of the Mothers' Union (as I am ) , the world wide Anglican organisation with three million members.

Much of our time was spent in the hospital, helping in the pharmacy; in the nutrition centre with the tiny babies and mothers; and in the orphanage. There we played games, sang songs and looked at picture books.

There was much joy and a sense of gratitude, gratitude forGod's abundance and imminence in the present moment. Life is very fragile. There was much conversation and sharing about the enormously different worlds in which we live, both politically and theologically and yet what bound us as Christians, as Anglicans, as God's beloved family in the world, made leaving very hard. Please pray for the parish of All Saints and the ministry of the Anglicans in Mutunthama as they demonstrate God's unconditional love.

Malawi trebles election budget to prevent voters' roll chaos

Malawi has trebled its budget for general elections in 2009, to avoid a repeat of a fiasco in 2004 elections in which voters' roll figures were inflated, electoral officials said Monday.

The southern African country will spend 50 million US dollars (33 million euros) on the May poll, its fourth multi-party general elections since the end of dictatorial rule 15 years ago.

The funds will be partly used to set up a new roll of some six million eligible voters in the poor southern African country, said Fegus Lipenga, spokesman for the Malawi Electoral Commission.

"We will start all over again to register afresh people for the elections... We don't want a repeat of 2004 because a good voters roll is the basis for a credible election," Lipenga said.

He said the funds will partly be financed by the Malawi government and donors, who include Britain, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The 2004 voters roll was thrown into controversy after the number of registered voters dropped by one million after the high court ordered an inspection of the lists.

An Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) observer mission to Malawi in 2004 found the voter registration process to be "deficient, resulting in inflated voter registration figures."

Deficiencies in a subsequent voters roll, such as omission of names and photographs, meant people had to be identified by three different reference documents which caused "confusion, delays and possible disenfranchisement of voters."

The elections in 2004, controversially won by Bingu wa Mutharika, cost about region of 14 million dollars (9.2 million euros), bankrolled by the government and donors.

Rising above the floods in Malawi

From January through March every year, flood waters threaten the inhabitants of Malawi's Lower Shire valley with loss of life and property.

In late February, six people died in the Chikwawa district in the valley. Some 16 villages were severely affected and over 10,000 displaced persons are being accommodated in five camps scattered across the district.

In the neighbouring district of Nsanje about 40km south of Chikwawa, 2,000 people have been left homeless and an estimated 3,436 hectares of crops have been destroyed.

Spy Alufisha, a farmer from Nsanje, says his family has been struggling to live with the annual flooding for decades.

"We have lost both property and crops. Others think that our major aim - is to benefit from hand outs during this time of the year - but that is not the case. These have been our ancestral lands since time immemorial," he said.

Alufisha says the floods have been an impediment for a majority of the people in this region who survive on their crops and the regional agriculture, the mainstay of the country's economy.

Climate change

In September 2007, climate scientists from southern Africa meeting in Lesotho's capital Maseru predicted that parts of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) will experience above average rainfall putting all low lying areas in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia in danger of severe flooding.

The seasonal forecasts generated through the Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF), a grouping of climate scientists from the entire southern Africa region, have become an important planning tool for disaster preparedness.

Experts attribute the problem facing the Lower Shire to be climate-related.

They argue that deforestation and massive environmental degradation has resulted in reduced forest cover that protects the environment from direct rain drops, resulting in severe deep gullies being created.

Alic Kafasalire, an expert on the environment who has spent years working in the field of natural resources management in Malawi, says deforestation is a major concern.

"The loss of rich natural catchment protection - to secure rivers banks and ensure that water sinks in the soil - is related to climate change and is a challenge. This was aggravated in 1980 and in the 1990's when people misinterpreted democracy, as meaning they can wantonly cut down trees mercilessly," she told Al Jazeera.

Moving upland

Meanwhile, during a recent visit to the Lower Shire area, Bingu wa Mutharika, the president of Malawi, urged victims to relocate to safe areas. He also advised residents to utilise the flood-prone areas for farming.

"Moving upland would secure your lives while you could use the flooded areas for farming after the floods. So you would benefit from two worlds," Mutharika told flood victims in Chikwawa.

But in the Dzimphutsi area in Chikwawa about 74km south of Blantyre, the commercial capital, the floods bring with them another danger - water-borne diseases like cholera.

All the water collected from Shire highlands accumulates here and submerges the entire area. As a result, the livelihoods of the local populace is severely affected, communications hampered and strategic operations brought to a standstill.

In the wake of such developments, the Malawi government and the SADC regional water sector programme have signed an agreement to harness floodwater by way of irrigation, fish farming, livestock production and flood control.

The initiative will carry out a feasibility study towards the use of floodwater for dry-land agricultural production and increasing food security. These will possibly include the construction of a small-scale dam on the Mkuzi stream near Dzimphutsi to trap floodwater.

Through the support from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), SADC's Water Division has initiated four other demonstration projects at a regional level. Four of these demonstration projects are in the Zambezi basin countries – Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.

The idea is to demonstrate that water – including "problem water" - can be managed and developed in a manner that maximises the economic and social welfare without compromising the environment.

"The Dzimphutsi project - which is benefiting a population of approximately 6,000 people - primarily focuses on improving people's livelihoods through the integrated use of floodwater for crop production, animal husbandry, domestic use and environmental protection," says Sidney Mainala, the director of water resources in Malawi.

This is in line with the principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM), an approach for managing water resources that was endorsed by SADC member states including Malawi.

Convincing decision-makers

The initiative in Malawi is part of SADC's efforts to foster awareness to ensure that senior decision-makers in all sectors and the media are aware of key aspects of IWRM and its relevance to social and economic development in the SADC region.

The idea is to change the mindset and encourage flood waters to be managed and put to good use.

Hastings Chikoko, the component manager of SADC, told Al Jazeera that the focus will be on projects that have a direct positive effect on people's livelihood.

"The purpose is to demonstrate the positive effects of applying IWRM principles in practical water management. A key element of the projects must by the involvement of beneficiaries' rights from the project design and throughout implementation and monitoring," he said.

Chikoko urges that such participatory approaches between decision makers and communities be used as a tool to sort these perennial problems.

He said that only through such methods can flooding problems facing people in the lower shire valley and other parts of southern Africa be resolved.

But for flood victims like Alufisha, such programmes tailored at rescuing people in flood prone areas may be long overdue.

Malawi’s first uranium mine set for December commissioning

Commissioning of Malawi’s Kayelekera uranium project should start in December, says Paladin Energy MD John Borshoff.

Production ramp-up is scheduled for early next year.

The Kayelekera operation will be Malawi’s first uranium producing mine, and will have a nameplate capacity of 3,3-million pounds of uranium oxide a year.

Paladin owns a 85% stake in Kayelekera, with the balance held by the Malawi government.

“There are 600 people on site at the moment,” notes Borshoff.

He says several milestones have been achieved in the construction of the project over the last few months.

Plant area earthworks at the project are 95% complete.

The project’s 10-MW containerised power plant has been factorytested, and delivered to the Dar es Salaam port, in Tanzania, for transport to site.

The semiautogenous grinding mill has been delivered to Paladin Africa’s storage yard, in Karonga, near the mine site.

Construction of on-site camp facilities for 500 people has been completed, and acid plant long-lead items have been bought.

Mining fleet equipment has been delivered to site, and has been commissioned.

“Within the next six months, we’ll have openpit mining under way,” says Borshoff.

“We’ll have the primary roadworks completed, and the erection of the treatment plant will be under way. Group Five will be on site in two weeks to build the plant.

“Also, a general manager of operations would have been appointed.”

Borshoff says the road has been cleared for Paladin to go ahead with the project, following last year’s near court battle to halt mine develop- ment, as several non-governmental organisations voiced their concerns over uranium-mining in the Karonga region.

Borshoff says the company has resolved all outstanding social issues in an amicable manner, enabling the Kayelekera project to proceed unhindered.

The terms of the settlement include the establishment of a civil society organisation, which will form part of a monitoring team, which will ensure Paladin meets its environmental and health obligations.

Also, at the request of the Karonga community, the government and Paladin have agreed to amend its social responsibility programme.

According to the new programme, $8,2-million of the $10-million which was to be spent on building a school and boarding facilities three years after the start of Kayelekera production will now be applied to the urgent upgrading of the community water supply at Karonga.

Borshoff also reports that Paladin’s only mine producing uranium currently, Langer Heinrich, in Namibia, has finally “achieved its nameplate production”.

Production in the December 2007 quarter reached 390 807 lb, giving a total production of 650 562 lb for the six-month period, July 1 to December 31, thus meeting the company’s target of 650 000 lb for this period.

This follows complications in the ramp-up process at the Namibian operation, after it officially started production in April last year.

The initial ramp-up schedule – as announced in early 2005 – forecast a design production of 2,6-million pounds to be achieved by July 1 last year, which was subsequently deferred to January this year, owing to material failure of leach tank liners in late January 2007, which caused damage to the heat exchangers.

Borshoff says work is progressing on the engineering design and specification for the stage-two production expansion project at Langer Heinrich to 3,7-million pounds of uranium oxide a year.

Construction is expected to start during the first half of 2008, with mechanical completion scheduled for the end of the year.
Borshoff says Paladin is “back on track”, and still “committed to becoming a major uranium supplier”.

• Paladin was admitted to the Namibian Stock Exchange on February 14.

“Last year was our rites to passage. We had some challenges and we overcame them.”

Nash, other sports celebs duke it out in charity tournament

Sunday basketball game in Wells Fargo arena draws big-names, raises money for African AIDS clinic

Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash drew loud cheers from the crowd when he made a surprise appearance at a celebrity basketball game Sunday at ASU's Wells Fargo Arena.

The charity game, which benefited an African AIDS clinic, turned into a nail-biter when two teams made up of basketball, football and broadcasting greats fought for victory in a last-minute, three-point battle.

The Wild Wings — coached by Nash and made up of local celebrities including former Suns Vinny del Negro and Dan Majerle, FOX 10 sports anchor Jude LaCava and Arizona Cardinal Larry Fitzgerald — won the game with 74 points to the Electric Bankers' 71.

The Bankers, coached by Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, included former Sun Eddie Johnson and FOX 10 news anchor Troy Hayden.

FOX 10 sports anchor Gayle Jansen organized the game to benefit the Partners in Hope Medical Centre, an AIDS clinic her brother, Dr. Perry Jansen, runs in Malawi, a central African nation of about 14 million.

"This is our main fundraiser for the year," Perry Jansen said.

Jensen said his center helps about 3,000 AIDS patients per month with treatment that costs $25 per patient.

"The demand is well beyond [those 3,000 people]," he added.

During timeouts and half-time, performers including former Arizona Idol winner Bethany Wright, the Suns Cheerleaders and an ethnic drum group from Burundi — a central African country — entertained the game's spectators. The event included dozens of athletes, broadcasters and artists who volunteered their time to expand the Malawi facility.

"Hopefully we made a little difference here today," Warner said.

He was disappointed NBA legend Charles Barkley, who was scheduled to coach the opposing Wild Wings, couldn't make it to the event.

"I always miss Charles," he said.

Gayle Jansen, too, said she was disappointed Barkley didn't show, but surprised visitors when, with about 10 minutes left in the game, she introduced Nash as Barkley's replacement.

Jensen said she approached Nash at yesterday's Suns' practice and was very grateful to him for filling in for Barkley.

"That really made the event for me," she said.

Jensen added that visiting her brother in Africa several times and experiencing the slums of Kenya and Malawi firsthand compelled her to organize the celebrity game for the second year in a row.

"I have these sports connections," Jensen said. "What is it to ask a couple of hours of these guys?"

The event drew a crowd that filled about half of the arena's lower ranks. The $10 and $75 that spectators paid for their tickets will directly benefit Malawian AIDS patients, Perry Jensen said.

Jerry Fletcher, of Mesa, said knowing his money would go straight to the patients motivated him to bid $2,000 in an eBay auction, a contribution that earned him a spot on the Wild Wings team.

"It was a lot of fun for a guy who basically played high school basketball," Fletcher said. "[And] we felt like it was for a good cause."

Dying for change

It was Mothers' Day yesterday, and in those 24 hours about 1,500 women will have died giving birth, as they do every day of the year. Almost all the deaths will have been in the world's 75 poorest countries. Most would have been preventable in more affluent nations. Maternal health is a bald and unforgiving indicator of the state of a country's medical services - and its civil society. After all, most women give birth. A society that neglects their needs is a society that institutionally discriminates against women.

In a report released on Mothers' Day, MPs on the international development select committee have established that the true number of deaths might be 50% higher than the official estimates: perhaps as many as 870,000 women die annually in the days around birth. For every death, another 30 women are reckoned to be left in some way disabled. In sub-Saharan Africa things are actually getting worse.

In development circles there is agreement about what needs to be done. Governments need to make it happen. Slender budgets - and not just in health - fail to reflect women's needs. In Bangladesh, educating girls has been the key to reducing maternal deaths. Educated young women are more likely to seek antenatal care, and more likely to give birth in clinics.

Rural sub-Saharan Africa presents particular problems. The worldwide shortage of midwives is at its most acute, and scarce clinics are poorly equipped. Most women give birth without skilled assistance, so complications are often detected too late for women to reach distant medical help. Governments must reward staff for working in those backwaters where they are currently reluctant to locate. In Katine, Uganda, where the Guardian is a co-sponsor in a three-year project, the skills of traditional birth attendants are being upgraded, while staff are being recruited and trained to work in rural clinics. New ways must also be found to help women travel in the event of emergency. In Malawi a scheme has been set up where police transport can be called in.

Safe birth is only part of the equation. More than one in 10 maternal deaths is linked to unsafe abortion. Improving access to abortion, and above all to contraception, could, the MPs point out, save thousands of women a year. But the most powerful tool right now is advocacy. The White Ribbon Alliance campaign for improved facilities aims to force governments to reconsider their priorities. The rate of maternal death will not fall by the 75% demanded by the millennium development goal without a transformation in attitudes. Less progress has been made here than in any of the other goals for 2015 set by the UN. That is not a reason for giving up. It is a reason for shouting louder.