SPECIAL REPORTS (47)
Skills Development Contest; a Loser on the Winners List
Evelyn Maunde is clad in a blue work suit and safety boots. She has put on syndicate, probably to keep his head warm on the cold weather that embraced the hilly located Soche Technical College in Blantyre.
Children with Disabilities, Orphaned, Escape Freddy by the Rooftop
Women were busy cooking at Matope village at Ndirande in Blantyre on this particular raining Monday. Dark cloud had fallen one of the households in the village.
LWB Leads Fight Against Cholera in Worst-hit Lilongwe District
For over a year now, Malawi has been struggling with a cholera outbreak which health authorities have classified as one of the worst in decades.
Malawian Children in Parent-Sponsored Servitude in Mozambique
Malawi was among 189 countries that adopted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 but the country managed to achieve only four of the eight goals by 2015 due to several challenges.
In 2015, The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the UN as a successor to the MDGs, with a deadline of 2030.
Our reporter Chikondi Mphande focuses on some key issues that prevented Malawi from achieving MDG 2 on Universal Primary Education and MDG 1 on Hunger and Poverty Reduction, and how these might also affect the country's efforts to achieve the SDGs if no serious action is taken.
Chikondi uncovers a new form of slavery where some Malawian parents are giving away their children to herd animals and work in crop fields in Mozambique instead of going to school.
In this investigation, Chikondi encounters some children with sad stories of how they suffer ill-treatment and how they had to foot long distances returning home after slavery experiences in a foreign land.
Cyberbullied, Verbally Shamed: Double Trouble for Sexual Abuse Victims
Often times in this country, victims of sexual abuse, usually girls and women, are cyberbullied and verbally shamed by the public which tends to protect perpetrators of sexual abuse.
In this analysis, Chikondi finds that there is a heavy price for one to pay for speaking out after being sexually abused, a tendency where a victim is shamed, blamed and doubted.
Chikondi highlights the story of Chisomo, a 16-year-old girl from Dedza, who was forced to abort three pregnancies after being defiled several times and being impregnated by her guardian.
Chileka International Airport; the Past, the Present, the Future
Our special report looks at the enabler number six of the Malawi 2063 Vision which strives for a globally competitive economic infrastructure that will promote domestics economic activities and spur foreign direct investment for wealth creation.
The enabler, among others, inspires the country to have an aviation sector that is internationally competitive and expanded to attract more competition from global players.
In this report, Happy Njalam’mano of Zodiak Online flies to Chileka International Airport in Blantyre, one of the country’s old air entries, where he finds that the facility is moving backwards rather than forward in terms of development.
Happy writes.
Science Gives Sexually Abused Women in Malawi Hope in Fight Against HIV
Patuma is a commercial sex worker. She ekes her living through sex. She says her work is dehumanizing. This is because decisions in her work are mostly made by her clients.
She is one of the many women that suffer from unimaginable violence that is concealed in commercial sex rooms in Malawi: a story of women suffering in silence.
Such women are forced into sex without condoms, for example, in situations where the women are drunk or where the husband’s sexual behaviors are known to risk the lives of their wives, which puts the women in the harm’s way of injury and disease.
In this special investigation, Innocent Kumchedwa encounters not only sex workers like Patuma but spouses as well who lament the dominance of men on matters of sex and its effects.
Innocent, further ponders on the opportunities some newly invented scientific means to prevent sexually transmitted infections provide for these vulnerable women.
Local Communities in Malawi Reap from Carbon Trading
Some communities in the Central and Northern regions of Malawi are being rewarded for making significant steps in reducing greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere through planting and taking care of trees.
Sad Story Behind Beautiful Smiles of Malawi’s Female Hospitality Workers
The hospitality industry is associated with peace and calm and fun. It is in the hotels and lodges where life is associated with tranquility and enjoyment – a near taste of the world hereafter.
The hospitality industry is largely associated with smiles, good food and happiness. But in this special assignment I find that behind all that sophistication, pomp and apparent sacred hospitality services, there are women in tears: tears of payments under the minimum wage; tears of sexual harassment perpetuated by both bosses and male guests.
How Malawi Is Slowly Winning the War Against TB
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that the tuberculosis (TB) treatment rate in countries around the world must be at 90 percent, and several countries including Malawi are working hard to achieve this.
If the statistics are anything to go by, Malawi is on the right track in the fight against TB as the treatment success rate in the country is at 90 percent.
This success has not been easy to come, according to Programmes Manager for the National TB and Leprosy Elimination Programme Dr James Mpunga. So how is Malawi making strides in the battle against one of the most difficult diseases?
As Chikondi Mphande has been finding out, it remains a laborious battle – a mixed bag.
