Category: Study

DEDZA, Malawi – For the past three years, Lusita Maikolo has been in and out of school. Her parents could not manage to pay her school fees regularly, and this led to her being excluded and missing entire periods of learning.

The 17-year-old girl never gave up. During the time she was home and out of school, Lusita would help on the family farm. And after harvest season, they would sell some of their surplus crops to pay the balance of the outstanding school fees. She struggled to catch up on studies after missing time at school, and she was falling behind and at risk of being left behind despite her efforts.

“Staying at home working for long periods made me fall behind in learning,” says Lusita, who attends Katewe community day secondary school. “However, I was always determined to continue with the next class as I didn’t want to lose out on education completely.”

Poverty drives harmful practices

Lusita also feared falling into the same trap her sister did. A year before completing her secondary education, she dropped out of school as her parents failed to pay the fees. She stayed at home for an entire school year and finally decided to get married.

“She always talked of being a professional,” she recalls, “but now she is a mother of two, struggling to make ends meet with an unemployed husband.”

Lusita’s determination was rewarded when she was selected as one of the beneficiaries of a bursary scheme supported by the UNFPA and Korea International Cooperation Agency as part of the project to support adolescent girls and teenage mothers.

Education is a game-changer

Her bursary covers school fees, which are crucial to ensure Lusita can focus on her education. Additional support is also available for her school uniform, shoes, note books, and pens.

She is one of the 45 disadvantaged girls in Dedza and Mchinji districts to be selected as part of the scheme. Lusita beams “My school performance has improved since I was selected, and now I have more time to concentrate on my studies.”

So far, Katewe secondary school has three girls on the bursary scheme. Another beneficiary, Tapiwa Penuel says she wishes the scheme started some time back.

“I lost a lot of time loafing at home because my parents couldn’t afford to pay for my school fees,” she says. “Although I tried to study on my own, I couldn’t understand most of the material. I needed to be guided by the teachers.”

Tapiwa is now on course to finish her secondary school education and she has big dreams. “I want to be journalist,” she says emphatically. “Ever since I was young, I have dreamed about this career. And now that I have a helping hand to finish my studies, I will work to make my dream come true.”

Mr. Macdonald Chinkombelo, who is the Deputy Headmaster at Katewe, believes the scheme is a game-changer for these girls.

“It’s worrying that some bright young girls see their dreams cut short because they come from a poor background. The bursary scheme helps them finish their secondary school and concentrate on education as a pathway, not marriage or having children.”

Education is a crucial catalyst for change for young girls. Access to girls and boys to primary level education has increased exponentially in Malawi since the introduction of compulsory primary education in 1994. Increased enrolment and a reduction in dropout rates are major markers of progress towards providing for an inclusive education system.

However, many challenges persist including low enrolment rates at secondary levels, large class rooms that average 60 students per teacher and the low quality of teaching resources. Girls are also more likely than boys to drop out of school in Malawi. Poverty, unpaid domestic work in the home and harmful practices including underage marriage and teenage pregnancy are key drivers of adolescent girls leaving school before completing the primary certificate.

Source: United Nations Population Fund

Press freedom groups and the U.S. and British ?mbassies in Malawi have expressed concerns after police interrogated an investigative reporter over his sources and confiscated his equipment.

Gregory Gondwe says police held him for four hours Tuesday in a failed attempt to get him to reveal his sources. Gondwe had published a story in March about the government’s alleged secret dealings with a businessman who is on trial for corruption

The arrest of Gondwe, who works with the Platform for Investigative Journalism, came after Malawi’s Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda announced he would take action against those who leaked a document meant for the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

According to the document that Gondwe used in his story, published March 30, it appeared that Nyirenda allowed the government to make payments to the corruption suspect, Zuneth Sattar.

That move runs counter to Nyirenda’s actions in January, when he publicly terminated all of Sattar’s contracts with the government and restricted any payment on the same.

In his story, Gondwe said the government had secretly paid millions of dollars to Sattar’s company, Malachite FZE, to procure eight anti-riot water cannons for police.

Gondwe told VOA Wednesday the police were demanding that he reveal how and from whom he got the documents.

“They [police] said the story was factual, all they are trying to find out is the source, which is something that cannot happen in journalism,” Gondwe said. “The moment I am going to give them my source, it’s the death of journalism. So, from the word go, I told them that ‘this is a futile attempt from your side because you are not going to get anything from me.’”

Tereza Ndanga, chairperson for the Media Institute for Southern Africa in Malawi, told local radio the arrest contradicts the government’s claim of respecting media freedom in Malawi.

“It’s quite unfortunate that we seem to be going backwards, that is really going backwards, instead of really moving forward,” she said. “We currently have the Access to Information law, in which one of the provisions is that journalists are protected from revealing their sources.”

In a joint statement Tuesday, the U.S. and British embassies in Malawi condemned the move and asked police to immediately return the confiscated equipment to Gondwe and respect any private information found there.

James Kadadzera, assistant commissioner for the police, told VOA Wednesday that police did not arrest the journalist.

“Mr. Gregory Gondwe was not arrested by the police,” he said. “In fact, he was invited to Southwest police region headquarters for an interview on the ongoing investigations police are conducting regarding an online news story that was published by an organization where Mr. Gregory Gondwe was working for.”

But Gondwe, who was released four hours later, said he doesn’t believe it was an interview.

“Because when they took me to the police, they kept me in the criminal investigations department room,” he said. “At one time I asked to go to the bathroom, but before they could even release me, the officer that was guarding me asked permission first.”

Police unconditionally released Gondwe Tuesday and returned his equipment Wednesday.

Kadadzera said police might interview Gondwe again if they feel they need to.

Government spokesperson Gospel Kazako said in a statement the government welcomes the release of Gondwe and that it fully subscribes to the values of free independent media.

Gondwe said the statement smacks of double standards and that the government seems to be contradicting itself.

Source: Voice of America

After a sharp plunge in value at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Russian ruble has recovered much of its value against other world currencies, a change made possible by aggressive capital controls put in place by the government in Moscow and a continual stream of payments for the country’s oil and gas exports.

The ruble’s resilience in the face of sanctions may make it easier, at least temporarily, for the regime of President Vladimir Putin to claim a measure of victory over international efforts to turn his government into a pariah. However, the practical effects of the ruble’s recovery may be limited for ordinary Russians, who remain largely cut off from global markets.

Also, as evidence of Russian troops’ brutal treatment of Ukrainian civilians accumulates, and Western governments take further steps to wean themselves off Russian energy, the Kremlin’s ability to protect its currency may weaken.

“I think the natural next step and a big set of questions is around energy revenues,” Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told VOA.

She added, “As the images of atrocities on the ground continue, the pressure to do more is going to increase.”

Surprising recovery

One week before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the ruble was worth about 1.3 cents in U.S. currency, meaning that it cost a little over 76 rubles to buy one dollar. By March 7, after governments around the world announced a range of painful sanctions on the Russian economy, the value of the ruble had fallen by nearly half. That day, a ruble was worth 0.7 cent, meaning that it cost almost 143 rubles to buy one dollar.

The expectation among many in the early days of the war was that the ruble’s loss of value was going to be a long-term problem for the Russian economy. Crucially, most of the Russian central bank’s foreign reserves — funds denominated in foreign currencies and held at banks outside Russia — were frozen. This left Moscow without the option of driving up the price of the ruble by buying it on the open market with dollars, euros and other foreign currencies.

In fact, the Russian government and its central bank took several steps that drove up the price of its currency. As of Tuesday, the ruble was worth approximately 1.2 cents, meaning that it now costs about 84 rubles to buy a dollar — a far cry from the 143 rubles required just a month previously.

“The Russian central bank more than doubled domestic interest rates to 20%. And they also put in place capital controls — that is, they limited the ability of Russian individuals to buy foreign exchange,” Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, former deputy director of the research department of the International Monetary Fund, told VOA.

Milesi-Ferretti, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, said another key factor in restoring the ruble’s value has been a new restriction on Russian exporters.

All Russian businesses still able to sell goods internationally are required to take foreign currency earned from those sales and transfer it to the Russian central bank in exchange for rubles.

This creates a steady demand for rubles, keeping the price high, and gives the Russian central bank a new source of foreign currency.

Dubious future

But the price of the Russian ruble in currency markets does not tell the full story of the impact sanctions have had on the Russian economy in general, and on the lives of ordinary Russians in particular.

“Russia’s economy, by virtue of the sanctions and the coping mechanisms the central bank has employed, has become much more an internal economy, a smaller economy,” Ziemba, of the Center for a New American Security, told VOA.

“It’s important to remember that Russians who used to be able to use their credit cards to purchase goods abroad in the U.S. and Europe, can’t,” she said.

This is in part because banking restrictions have made it impossible for most Russian banks to hold correspondent accounts in banks outside the country, which facilitate international payments. Also, inside Russia, major payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard have stopped processing cross-border transactions.

“So, there is difficulty in actually buying goods, both from a financial perspective, but also because a lot of companies have basically said — even if the trade is legal — they don’t want to do transactions with Russia,” Ziemba added. “The ability to actually use these assets is significantly limited.”

Energy wild card

One thing that remains uncertain is the extent to which Western governments, particularly in Europe, will be willing to stop purchasing oil and gas from Russia. Currently, Russia is running a large current account surplus, meaning it is exporting far more than it is importing.

In recent days, European leaders have proposed a ban on Russian coal imports and have floated the possibility of sanctions on Russian oil as well. Russian natural gas, which makes up a large percentage of the fuels used across Europe, does not appear to be on the chopping block.

Major action against Russian energy exports could significantly damage the Russian economy, but it is unclear that Western governments are prepared to take that step.

“We’re going to have to see how the war evolves, how expectations evolve,” Milesi-Ferretti said. “Everything is shrouded in uncertainty.”

Source: Voice of America

With a flick of his brush, Ghanaian painter Daniel Anum Jasper armed actor Paul Newman with a pair of revolvers. Unfinished paintings of a bell-bottomed John Travolta and nunchuck-spinning Bruce Lee adorned the walls of his crammed Accra studio.

Jasper, a veteran movie poster designer, was finishing up one of the 1969 classic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” commissioned by a foreign collector who had reached out over Instagram.

From the late 1970s to the 1990s, Ghana developed a tradition of advertising films with vibrant hand-painted posters. Local cinemas were flourishing in the West African country, and artists competed over who could entice the largest audience with their often gory, imaginative and eye-popping displays.

Jasper was a pioneer of the tradition and has been painting movie posters on repurposed flour sacks for the last 30 years. But the market for his work, which once had people clamoring for theater seats, has changed.

“People are no longer interested in going out to watch a movie when it can be watched from the comfort of their phones,” Jasper said.

“But there is a growing interest in owning these hand-painted posters internationally,” he added. “Now they hang them in private rooms or show them in exhibitions.”

With the rise of the internet, Ghana’s independent cinemas fell into obscurity. But Jasper’s work has gained appeal abroad, including in the United States, where the posters are valued as unique representations of a specific period in African art.

Western action flicks were mainstays of the tradition, as were Bollywood films and Chinese pictures. Many of the posters include paranormal elements and gratuitous violence even if the films had none, and physical features are wildly exaggerated.

Joseph Oduro-Frimpong, a professor in pop culture anthropology at Ghana’s Ashesi University, has several of Jasper’s paintings. He has collected the posters for years and has been known to buy up a closing video store’s entire supply.

He plans to display his posters at the Centre for African Popular Culture opening at the university later this year, and said he hopes people appreciate their historical significance.

“Of course there is an esthetic value to the posters, how crazy it is and all of that, but we use them to have a conversation with students,” he said.

“We tell them not to think about what they’re seeing now… [but] to think of these art forms as symbols of history that can tell their own stories.”

Source: Voice of America

As efforts to assess impact of last month’s Tropical Storm Ana in Malawi continue, the country’s only power generating company says it has lost about a third of its generating capacity to the storm. Meanwhile, the government has appealed to donors to contribute toward the cost of rehabilitating the station, which it says is beyond its financial capacity.

Officials at the Electricity Generation Company, EGENCO, say Malawi has lost about 130 megawatts following the shutdown of its Kapichira Power Station in the Chikwawa district due to last month’s Tropical Storm Ana.

William Liabunya is EGENCO’s chief executive officer.

“We have lost the dam here because the control mechanism that we had to take the water to the intake of the machines has been destroyed,” he said. “We had the training dike and that has been washed away, and on the dam wall you have seen that now the water is passing through the dam wall and therefore we cannot hold any water at the dam and through that, we cannot generate any electricity.”

EGENCO operates four hydropower stations in Malawi: Nkula, Tedzani, Kapichira and Wovwe according to its website.

The company also operates thermal and solar power plants. Overall, it has a total installed generation capacity of over 440 megawatts, with about 390 of it from hydropower plants and about 50 megawatts are from thermal power plants.

The damage at Kapichira has cost the company 30% of the total hydropower generation.

Liabunya says plans are underway to construct temporary structures to help bring power back but he said he was not certain how soon that would be.

“We have just consulted an expert to look into this issue. In our own resource at the company we have looked at it, and we are saying that for the temporary structure that we want to put and quickly restore the power generation, we are looking at six months the time that will be required but that is to be verified by the consultant as he finishes the expert analysis of the work,” he said.

The storm also killed at least 90 people in Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs says in Malawi, the storm killed 32 people and displaced 188,000 from their homes in 17 districts.

Meanwhile, donor partners and well-wishers including United Nations agencies in Malawi have started providing aid to victims.

Malawi’s Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola is appealing to donors for help in rehabilitating the power station.

“These works cannot be done with only our local purse because we are so exhausted with other related issues. However, I would like to call upon the international community; The World Bank, IMF, European Union, Britain and the Americans to come and assist us,” he said.

Matola says Malawi would need about $23 million for the temporary rehabilitation of the damaged Kapichira Power Station.

In the meantime, some businesses in affected areas have closed temporarily, while others are using gasoline-powered generators.

Source: Voice of America