The country’s main referral hospital Queen Elizabeth is currently being crippled by the lack of basic resources, working equipment and drugs but also lack of professional personnel due to the current economic crisis the country is undergoing through.

The situation has left those working at the hospital, especially nurses and doctors, undergo difficulties in performing their duties as they cannot work without the necessary equipment. It has also lead to some patients who visit the hospital not to get proper treatment while others have switched to private hospitals which however tend to be more expensive.

Speaking in an interview yesterday, the Chief nursing officer Mrs Chigwenembe said the shortage of health personnel has forced the hospital to comprise in terms of wards allocation in order to have all the patients attended to. She said the few nurses and doctors that are available have a work overload and it is really a difficult task for them.

 Meanwhile, Chigwenembe called on the ministry of health together with the nursing training colleges to increase the number of graduating nurses in order to beef up the number of nurses at the hospital. She further pleaded with government to increase financial allocation of locum allowances to nurses so as to motivate nurses to work beyond their shifts.

However, it is doubtful if the Malawi government would make any meaningful intervention on the matter as the ministry of health is among several ministries that are feeling the pinch of austerity measures government has put in place. According to media reports, the ministry of health has suffered most with the deduction of over five billion Malawian kwacha.

In an attempt to improve skills, the Malawi institute of Journalism organized a public speaking workshop at the college’s Blantyre campus last Saturday.

According to the college’s Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) education officer, Josiane Blanc, the workshop was organized to help the aspiring professional journalists with public speaking skills which will enable them to suite in an environment when covering stories. “We wanted to equipped our students with all the skills relating to journalism,” said Blanc.

The workshop was open to all students at the campus and was being controlled by Eloquent Toastmasters club, which is a group of academics whose aim is to improve public speaking skills of all individuals.

Chimwemwe Luwani, vice president of Eloquent Toastmasters, said their club has organized the workshop following a request from the students to be taught some skills on public speaking. Luwani said that he was impressed with the attendance and active participation of the students and promised to organize more workshops at the institution.

“We are impressed with the active participation displayed by the students today, though they need to practice more on public speaking in order to be good at asking questions as journalists,” said Luwani.

One of the students who attended the workshop, Elias Saona, said he was happy that his dreams of becoming a good public speaker are being molded with the toast master’s workshop.

“I have learnt how to maintain confidence and drive my audience along my speech”, said Saona.

Eloquent Toastmasters is one of the three Toastmasters clubs in the country after Blantyre Toastmasters and Lilongwe Toastmasters.

According to Michael Malera, one of the members of Eloquent Toastmasters, the club is open to anyone for membership and whoever is interested is supposed to pay eight thousand Kwacha membership fee for six months. The club meets on the first and last Thursday’s of every month at Blantyre Sports Club from 6-8 p.m.

Police in the north have expressed concern over the growing number of suicide cases in the region; Northern Region Police Public Relations Officer Norah Chimwala confirmed the development.

Speaking in an interview, Chimwala said the region has registered eight cases of suicide so far this year.”This year the number of suicide is growing high compared to last year just because within two months we have reported eight cases, which is a very high number.”

However, Chimwala said that the police are trying the best to minimize such fatal behaviour in the region. “We [police] are sensitising the community on negative effects of committing suicide through police communities and victim support unit.”

At the same time, the police are encouraging the public not to commit suicide because it is not a solution to a problem.

Last Saturday was a blessed day for Mzuzu prisoners as they received groceries of more than two hundred thousand kwacha from Viyele CCAP congregation.

The groceries included soap, sugar, salt and cooking oil. Exercise books were also given to those who are learning within the campus.

“We are pleased to donate to Mzuzu prison because most of time prisoners are neglected. They are regarded as inferiors and criminals. [But] we should not segregate them since we are all creatures of God,” said Rev. Douglas Chipofya of Viyele CCAP.

“Not all prisoners are criminals. Some of them are innocent but they are jailed because of injustice and lack of good lawyers,” he added.

Rev. Chipofya argues all well wishers to give something to the sufferers because a hand that gives, receives.

Viyele CCAP is under Livingstonia synod located in Luwinga, Mzuzu.

PHOTO BY CHRIS LOKA

BY CHRIS LOKA

A man identified as Vigo Chilongosi, age ranging from 25 to 28, was found dead along Mchesi River in Lilongwe on Sunday at around 5:30 a.m., police have confirmed.

According to the officer-in-charge of Kawale Police, Assistant Commissioner Griffin Mpumulo, the deceased is believed to have drowned in Mchesi River following heavy rains that flooded the river.

Eye witnesses to the situation said they had seen Chilongosi with a friend coming from Mchesi to Kawale.

“This man was with his friend, they were coming from Mchesi on their way to Kawale 1 where the deceased was staying. Instead of crossing the bridge near Share World Private Secondary School they decided to use a short-cut way which has is no bridge. Without knowing that the river was flooded, they encouraged each other to go on with the short-cut. When they attempted to cross, unfortunately the deceased fell down and could not make it,” said the eye witnesses.

PHOTO BY CHRIS LOKA

The brother in-law of the deceased, Baxton Kalinde Phiri, said, “The whole family is very shocked with the untimely death of Vigo because he was one of the breadwinners of our family. He was doing piecework in town for his living.”

The body of Chilongosi, who hails from Chipezeyani village, T/A Kwataine in Ntcheu, was taken to Kamuzu Central Hospital for postmortem.

Kawale Police have so far, in reference to the incident, advised the public to be watchful when it rains. They also urged the public not to cross rivers with no bridges for their own safety inorder to avoid such deaths.

Students from Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ), Lilongwe campus, have been advised to develop a spirit of patriotism and have a sense of responsibility to conform to the nobility of their profession.

Deputy Minister of foreign affairs Hon. Kondwani Nankhumwa said this when he granted the students an audience during an educational visit the students had at the new, ultra-modern, Chinese-built parliament building.

Nankhumwa said Malawi is at the moment being perceived negatively internationally because of what he called irresponsible type of journalism which has dwelled on highlighting only the negative news which is otherwise unverified.

“Some of the challenges that the country is facing have been fuelled by the media. They keep sending negative stories on the international online media which has in some instances led to the suspension of aid,” said the deputy minister, adding that “by the time the donors resume aid after carrying out their investigations Malawians are already suffering.”

He urged the budding journalists to stick to their ethics and be accountable and also desist from being involved in cheque-book journalism which he said will be detrimental to their careers.

“As someone who is also coming from a journalism background I feel pity with the conduct of some media practioners in the country. You are very lucky nowadays unlike in our times because we never had institutions which offered specially-tailored training in journalism, everyone who felt like he could write could just wake up to say he is a journalist without receiving proper training in the field,” said the deputy minister who is also chairman of the media committee of parliament.

He said government has already underlined its interest by offering journalists scholarships to go and study abroad to enable them attain the best possible expertise in the field so that they help effectively in building Malawi as a nation.

Also present during the briefing was Health Minister Hon. Jean Kalirani who also agreed with Nankhumwa in deploring what she called sensualisation of issues aimed at grabbing people’s attention at the expense of people’s needs.

“Always at all times try to remember the importance of verifying facts before publishing them, like at my ministry there is a lot of information which we can share with you so you can see what we are up to in that way we can satisfy the needs of our diverse society,” said Kalirani adding that members of the press are free to go and get information at her ministry anytime.

“Malawi has a success story which is not being told instead all energies are being invested in boldening only the dark spots,” bemoaned the minister.

Nankhumwa commended the students for their interest to come and see for themselves what happens at the August house and also learn how deliberations are conducted.

The visit was organised with the intention to orient and familiarise the students on parliamentary reporting on development and budget issues to act as a feeder for their online publication, the Weekend Express.

Minister of Information and Civic Education, Patricia Kaliati, has condemned the Weekend Times for publishing ‘Action Girl,’ popularly known as ‘Page 8.’

Kaliati said such publication is demeaning to women and that it makes young girls and women even more vulnerable.

She said this at the official launch of the Malawi Child Protection and Gender Media Network which was held at Cresta Hotel with support from Plan Malawi on February 17.

“Why pay a girl child to pose in the nude? What a shame? How would you feel to see your daughter or sister exposed like that?” asked an irate Kaliati, holding a copy of the publication.

The minister asked the journalists in attendance to fight and push for the removal of ‘Action Girl’ which she said encourages abusive tendencies in society.

Kaliati also hailed journalists for the initiative which goes a long way to expose abusive practices and act as a call for action on such matters. She also assured journalists of government’s support.

She also expressed her gratitude to Plan Malawi for their support in different government development endeavours.

On his part, Enock Chibwana, chairman for the network applauded Plan Malawi for the gesture.

“We appeal to government not to leave us alone. And Plan Malawi don’t leave us on the way.” Said Chibwana.

Regional Communications and Media Relations Manager  for Plan, Regis Nyamakanga said his organisation believes in the power of the media and asked journalists to create non-exploitive content and bring various issues of abuse to policy maker’s attention.

Commenting on the event, Kara Stevenson, a Canadian journalist working with Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) said she feels the launch is a big step for Malawi.

In attendance was the chairman for the Media Council of Malawi, Patrick Semphere, and Nsanje North Parliamentarian, honourable Viyazi.

The Malawi National Road Safety Council in Mzuzu has argued for the city’s bicycle business operators, known as sacramentos, to abide by the rules set by the National Road Safety Council.

This development comes after a meeting organized by the National Road Safety Council in the city.

Speaking in an interview, the council regional manager, Lenard Ntonya, ordered bicycle operators to follow the rules of National Road Safety Council so that accidents are reduced. To date, some bicycle operators have been neglecting the rules.

While commanding bicycle operators in the city to be more concerned with their lives, Ntonya said that “life is most precious than the money these people make.’’

Adding on the matter, deputy commissioner of police, Gertrude Kachinga, also instructed passengers to board bicycles with  all necessities. Furthermore, she thanked bicycle business operators for attending at the meeting in large numbers. At the  previous meeting, there were only nine people in attendance.

Also commenting on the matter, the new chairman for Bicycle Association of Mzuzu, Joseph Sitima, concluded that the association will aid the logical flow of information to help reduce accidents and unnecessary arrests by the Malawi Police Service.

Mzuzu University (MZUNI) students on Wednesday expressed their anger over Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) school fees procedures by blocking Mzuzu-Karonga M1 road and demanding money from vehicle owners using the road.

The incident came a few days after the bank issued fees to the students. While some students received half of the required money, other names were completely missing.

“Some have received the whole amount, while others have not. We are not happy with what is happening therefore we are [demonstrating] to let the government know,” said Nelson Selemani, one of the students.

The demonstration which started around 7:00 a.m. was cooled by the arrival of more than ten police officers an hour later. No one was arrested as the students ran away upon seeing the police vehicle.

Similar to this incident, barely three weeks ago the police came to the rescue of the school’s finance director – who was harassed by angry students on the campus over money issues.

A man in Chibanja has died suddenly after committing on Monday evening in Mzuzu, city police have confirmed.
Northern region public relations officer Norah Chimwala identified the deceased as Masaka Sande 43, of Muso 11 village T/A Ganya in Ntcheu District.

Chimwala said the wife of the deceased, Jane Phiri Sande 30, reported to the police that her husband died suddenly after committing suicide. She said that she found him hanging himself with a rope as she was coming from the toilet.

“People should find ways of solving their problems and not committing suicide as they will live their dependants with so many problems,” Chimwala said. She continued to said that whenever people have problems, they should come to police at Victim Support Unit (VSU) for counselling so that their problems should be dealt accordingly.

The PR expressed deep concern over the rising number of suicide cases in the northern region, she said that police have registered eight cases in the region.

A postmortem conducted revealed that the deceased died due to suicidal strangulation.