Karonga women asked to support each other in tripartite polls

Kali

Women in Karonga have been called upon to give each other full support ahead of the May 20 tripartite polls if female candidates are to emerge victorious in the election.

Heri Shora of Karonga Women’s Forum made the remarks on Thursday in an interview where she pointed out that for a long time women have failed to make strides in politics because they lacked backing from fellow females. 

“Government and other stakeholders have in the past decade or so been advocating for women’s participation in leadership including politics but the irony is on why men outsmart ladies and yet demographically women are in majority, perhaps we have not supported each other well enough,” wondered Shora.

Shora condemned the pull-down syndrome among women which according to her has contributed to the downfall of numerous successful women in various sectors of the society.

“It is high time Malawian women stopped looking at the woman next door as a competitor rather we should embrace the spirit of oneness by shunning nuisance tendencies such as backbiting and pulling each other down, that is   the only way Malawi can get anything closer to achieving the 50-50 gender threshold for decision making positions,” she added.

“This year’s election is very crucial for us because voting for three seats gives women the chance to cushion for the deficit that the country has had in terms of women’s political leadership for a long time, so I am appealing to women across the country to vote for females who have gathered the courage and are contesting for various political positions in their respective areas,” Shora advised.

However, only five women from Karonga have been validly nominated to contest in the parliamentary and local elections even though the figures at national level reveal that over 500 women have been nominated for the May 20 tripartite polls.

Chairperson for NGO- Gender Coordination Network Emma Kaliya recently told the media that the figures are impressive because they have shot up as compared to the 2009 general election and that she expected most of the women to win the election.

Synod bemoans lack of special needs teachers

Livingstonia Synod of the Church for Central Africa Presbytery (CCAP) has said children with special needs in the country will continue to face challenges in academics if there is no deliberate effort to train more teachers for such students.

Project Manager for special needs in the synod’s education department Boniface Massah said this in Karonga on Thursday during a District Executives  Committee (DEC) meeting.

“As a country Malawi has a policy on equal access to education but this seems untrue for children with special needs because the country has few trained teachers who have necessary skills to teach pupils or students with different challenges,” said Massah.

“Because of this lack of manpower there have been high dropout rates of these children especially those with hearing and vision impairments,” he added.

Massah told the gathering that the development compelled his department to embark on a project that aims at raising awareness among parents, teachers and communities on the need of paying attention to special needs education.

“Our aim is to let everyone know the rights of children with disabilities and we want to promote inclusive education to make sure that such children have access to education just like their normal colleagues,”   Massah explained.

The project which uses an approach termed Advanced Parent Awareness Community Trainings (APACT) receives funding from the Scottish government and is currently being implemented in Karonga, Chitipa and Mzimba districts.

Montfort College is the only institution in Malawi that trains special needs teachers. On average it graduates 90 instructors annually a population of over 60,000 children with special needs a development which according to Massah compromises quality service delivery.

Additionally, he said the project aims at letting children with such conditions understand their situation better through parent support groups.

District Social Welfare Officer for Karonga Heston Jaji hailed the synod for the project saying it would help change the attitude of people towards education for children who are physically challenged.

“For decades people have thought that disability is a medical issue but by the end of this project they will have known that it ha of late migrated to being more of a social issue,” Jaji commented.

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