May 8 2025
Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm where I relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Peace and only peace reigns supreme here.
It is not every day that I could be talking to villagers around the farm about my other exploits, apart from how well they can tend chitedze for the benefit of our children. You see, the chitedze we are growing is doing fine and we should be harvesting soon, with the rains gone.
So, you see, on May 3, I had the chance of living the farm and headed for Mzuzu, the Green City to celebrate World Press Freedom Day (WFPD). You see, this is a time to reflect on journalism.
At the same time, it presents that rare opportunity to meet colleagues in the field, friends we have made in the field along the way. A spirit of camaraderie always exists at the celebration.
Apart from Nation Publications Limited (NPL) scooping the Print Media House of the Year Award, 12 individual awards were shared among teammates whose efforts in telling people stories that are analytical is their greatest pursuit.
Dear Diary, getting three awards in a night gets you over the moon. You see, the awards are a dedication to colleagues at NPL who facilitated everything to get the stories. To get an approval to play ‘Mungo Park’ and go out to Makhanga in Nsanje, Zalewa in Neno, Chiringa in Phalombe or the Balaka Town itself, you need a support system that believes in the cause.
You see, I dedicate the Water and Sanitation Award to 18-year-old Julita Masanjala who was swept down the Shire River as she tried to draw water before going to Ngoms Private Secondary School where she was in Form Two. Her body was discovered three days later, decomposed. It is also a dedication to Lines Listoni, a 26-year-old mother of four who was mauled by a marauding crocodile as she tried to draw water from the Shire. She survived by sheer luck, but to date, her wrist still pains.
Since creation, Zalewa has never had piped water inspite it being a strategic area connecting Blantyre, Lilongwe and the border of Mwanza. Until the promise for safe water becomes a reality, the muzzled voices of Lines and Julita will continue to haunt those in authority. Why should water be death instead of life?
The Adult Literacy Education award is dedicated to Mirriam Mazoko, a widow from Kasungu who spent time at Matchaya and Kachere prisons for buying and selling stolen clothes in her kaunjika business. It is also for Martha Joji who was engaged in illegal charcoal business at Nancholi in Blantyre. It wasn’t for that crime that she was sent to Blantyre Prison, it was because of a love crime.
Today, Mirriam and Martha are fully reformed. They have knew skills to earn a better living. They have learnt tailoring at the Halfway House in Balaka. Fellow residents, prisoners who are about to be released attest of the benefits of the skills in tailoring, welding, electrical repairing and carpentry they got there.
Adult literacy is not just about reading and writing. It is also about skills development. And giving inmates these skills, gives hope for a brighter future. How else can you best reform prisoners?
The last one on access to justice goes to Stella Likoswe, the mother of a four-year-old girl who was heavily abused by her step mother in Machinjiri Township. What used to be the South Lunzu Magistrate’s Court is just 10 minutes from her home but now, like residents of Chileka, Ndirande and Machinjiri, they have to travel to Blantyre to access justice. That is a drain on her time and meagre resources on her tomato business as she has to board a minibus to and from the court.
You see, Likoswe is faced with that tragedy because the court was torched down by arsonists in 2015. Since the court was not repaired, today it is a Pentecostal church. Rest can’t come until access to justice is there for all. With the long distances, people like Likoswe decide to drop the cases, making them victims suffering in silence.
So, it was a perilous night Dear Diary. It was great being out of the Munda wa Chitedze Farm to the great and green city of Msumba (Sic).
