1. Posted on Wednesday 11 July 2012 - 10:08

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   madalitso

   

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   Madalitso Kateta, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Malawi

   Eliza Mpalale a 31 year old mother of three from Nelson village in Neno southern Malawi did not at any point dream of owning a decent place to call home. Every morning as she woke up tousled and quivering of the early morning cold, Mpalale would set a fire to warm her up. As she put stick by stick on the fire to keep it alive, she would further be perturbed by thoughts of how she would feed her three children.

   

   The sun dried brick hovel she called home would for the time be forgotten as her intestines would tell that she needed food.
   
   However come sun set, she would again be disconcerted by thoughts of the rough ordeal of sleeping in the two square meter hut that did not even have ventilation.
   
   Being HIV positive her environment was worsening her health condition such that she was a regular patient at Lisungwi community hospital within her neighbourhood.
   
   However Mpalale recalls the shock she had when she was told that she would be a proud owner of an ‘iron roofed’ two bed roomed house that Partners in Health (PIH) an American Charity that has been supporting the Malawi Government in health programs in Neno from 2005 would build for her.
   
   “I did not believe my ears when I heard the community worker telling me that the organization would be building a decent house for me, it was just like I had become used to my hovel such that I accepted that I would live in it for the rest of my life, “she said.
   
   Like many poor people in Malawi Mpalale would only be limited to thinking of owning a grass thatched two bed roomed sun dried brick house that are commonly built by poor Malawians.
   However this would also require that she has someone build her the house being very poor.
   
   Despite such houses being very cramped and having very dark interiors with very poor ventilation such a house would have been a villa for her.
   
   “I was used to getting soaked during the rainy season, it was just like that I had become immune to problems and ownership of a decent hose was out of my dreams, “she said.
   
   She said in her previous house pigs would salvage her food as it never had a ‘real door’ and this would usually bring another blow to the family.
   
   In her circumstances she had to give up her three children to some well-wishers so that the children would have a better accommodation in their adopted families while she faced the blunt of sleeping at a dry corner in her shack.
   
   Mpalale’s experience is unique to many poor Malawian widowed women whose husbands die of AIDS in their prime before even building decent homes for their children.
   
   Margret Msipu a 51 year old mother of 11 children from Mwingitsa village in Neno who is a proud beneficiary of a house in the Program On Social and Economic Rights (POSER) being implemented by PIH to compliment the HIV treatment programs that the organization is implementing in the district said that before the house was built for her she would at times sleep on verandas of other people’s houses.
   
   Msipu who like Mpalale also owned a lean-to that could not accommodate all her 11 children said that the house that PIH had built for her had greatly improved her life.
   
   When Africanews visited her home she was at the nearby market where she has since started operating a small scale business to support her daily needs.
   
   Msipu said before the house she could not operate a business as she was always worried of her home.
   
   Msipu said that being homeless also had a very negative impact on her children who she said would not do well in school.
   
   “My children especially the very young ones were usually not happy as they were going through the very tough points of their lives, “she explained.
   
   Victor Kanyema POSER Program Manager said that the initiative has since seen over 71 decent houses being built for vulnerable people in the district.
   
   He said PIH has built 71 houses and has been supporting vulnerable families with nutritious food, cash and was also supporting needy students as part of the POSER program.
   
   “WE believe that sick people cannot manage to access the basic necessities and the situation is worse when such families are very poor, “he said.
   
   He said the program which has six components has greatly improved the lives of poor communities in Neno.
   
   However while the project gives hope to vulnerable people like Msipu Neno district hospital made news headlines in the local media when some members of staff at the districts main hospital demanded the immediate stop of the organization’s activities in the district.
   
   The development confused many that have benefited from the organization’s initiatives who believe that with PIH out in the district many people will start dying of HIV related ailments.
   
   “I just like many people that know how the district used to before this organization started working in the district were very worried that we were going back to the old scenario where many young people were dying of AIDS without any support, “she Msipu who now proudly owns a decent home.
   
   Msipu’s worries echo those of many development planners in the district that have been following events since staff at the districts main health facility staged a strike in protest of the presence of PIH staff at the hospital.
   
   While the reasons behind the strike would not be understood by people like Msipu who have benefited from the interventions that PIH is doing in the district, analysts of the situation have attributed the strike to greed on the side of the government employees.
   
   Lenald Mphidza a social and political commentator in Neno for quite a long time said it was unfortunate that the demands that the staff at the hospital were giving for their action did not make any sense.
   
   “The Partners in Health have greatly uplifted the welfare of people of Neno, and the reasons that the staff were giving for their strike cannot make sense, because it was like one is trying to rob off a generous person that has been so kind to you, “he said.
   
   Mphidza who once served in Neno as a councillor said that the grounds that the government staffs was making on for the American charity to move from the district would give a long signal to other international organizations wishing to work in the district as they would feel they will get a similar ordeal.
   
   “The most unfortunate part of the strike that took place at the hospital is that it targeted an organization that is serving lives of many vulnerable people by offering them quality health services including housing and this only demonstrates that there is corruption within the hospital administration, “he said.
   
   Chief Chekucheku of Neno said that looking at the way partners have developed lives of the poor people in Neno it was naïve for staff at the hospital to demand that the pulling out of PIH operations in the district.
   
   Chekucheku said he was shocked when he heard of the hospital strike as he knows how the district was under developed before PIH started operating in the district.
   
   A report on the housing situation published by oppapers indicates that most Malawians have no access to decent housing.
   
   While it is a fact that life minus a decent house is incomplete. Most Malawians migrate to the cities, especially Blantyre city which happens to be the most congested city in Malawi.
   
   This becomes a problem because you find that slums start developing in cities that are supposed to show the beauty of the nation. Most Malawians who live in rural areas migrate to urban areas in search of better job prospects, education, and health facilities in order to improve their lives and feed their families.
   
   Since they cannot afford a decent home, they end up living in slums because it is the only type of settlement that is affordable and accessible to them in cities where competition for land and profits is intense.

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