News

Joyce Buleya* was only 14-years-old when she fell pregnant in the midst of her Standard 8 class year. Confused and conflicted, her dream of becoming a nurse suddenly dimmed before her as her options dwindled.

In Malawi, a vast majority of pregnant school-going teenagers drop out of school due to a number of adverse factors, although the government policy is to readmit them back into the fold as soon as they deliver.

Now more than ever the Universal Human Right to Education is in danger. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the education of more than one billion children across the world and has aggravated the existing global education financing crisis. This has upended the education sector and greatly threatened the progress of the entire Sustainable Development Agenda and specifically Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).

Edina Bauleni, of Phalombe District, southern Malawi, was inconsolable when her house collapsed and crops washed away as a result of heavy rains in 2019.

The heavy rains had hit Malawi causing flooding in most parts of southern region, including Phalombe. Scores of houses collapsed, crops and livestock were washed away, leaving communities devastated.

By Steve Miller

Nearly a year ago when this COVID-19 crisis was taking hold, people across the world expressed outrage at the term ‘China virus.’

It was important to condemn such divisive and, some said, racist language.

In the COVID-19 ward at Zomba General Hospital, a man is brought in on an ambulance stretcher, heavily panting and evidently out of breadth. The medics move him move in and help him to the only free bed at the far end of the ward.