The word ghetto is popular and often associated with all sorts of negativity such as thug life.
Originally, ghetto life or ghetto is commonly referred to poor or impoverished urban area where life in general is hard and most of its dwellers live below the poverty line.
Ndirande Ghetto is one of the popular neighbourhoods in Blantyre which houses majority of people below the poverty line.
It is against this background that author Andrew Malisero has taken up the challenge to change the narrative of the ghettos in the country.
Growing up in Ndirande, Malisero who is also a footballer, told Society that he is committed to contributing towards the change of Ghetto life through different interventions.
“In my book called A Boy From Ndirande, I advocate the thinking that not all is lost in the ghetto. We need to deal with negative mindset about the ghetto and take action in order to save children and the youth who are the future leaders,” said Malisero.
According to the author, when people hear or talk about the ghetto, all that comes to their mind is negativity. But it is high time this mentality was dealt with.
“I personally grew up in the ghetto where life is really tough for many people. Apparently, when people think about ghetto all that they think of is all sorts of criminal activities. But we must understand why crime rate is high in the ghetto. It is because of high poverty and unemployment levels.
But together we need to take action to correct this situation because things are getting out of hand. We need to do something to save the children from being lost on the pretext of leading ghetto life.
Ghetto needs proper schools and access to skills training and services such as water and health,” said Malisero.
He added that it has always been his dream to see positive things coming from the ghetto.
“Not all is lost in the ghetto. There are vibrant kids and youth who simply need access to education, motivation talks and skills development to make it in life and change the narrative. And it is possible to change the narrative of the ghetto if we come together and do something.
For example, ghettos like Ndirande need things like sports academy to nurture talents of ghetto youths,” said Malisero, who is a Ekhaya FC’s striker.
He said his book A Boy From Ndirande is more than a mirror of ghetto life as it spells out potential of the ghetto youths.
Apart from changing the narrative of the ghetto through the power of writing, Malisero organised a workshop on 5 July 2025 at Golden Peacock Hotel in Blantyre.
Organised under the theme “Overcoming: From Dreams to doing”, the workshop was attended by inspirational youthful speakers such as musician-cum-politician Fredokiss Kalua.
“What we need as a nation is to equip the youths with realistic strategies that can help unlock their potential. We need to mobilise each other to reach out to the ghetto youth because together we can make a huge difference,” said Malisero.
On his part, Fredokiss underscored the power of youth engagement and participation in order to change the story of the ghetto in the country.
“Leaders need to engage and empower the youth to ensure that they are change makers not mere followers. We need to change the mindset and deal away with actions that victimise the youth from the ghetto because this perpetuates poverty and and criminal activities.
More importantly, the youth from the ghetto need education and improved access to services such as job and business opportunities,” said Fredokiss.
