Youth group cleans Cape Maclear

It’s 7:30am on the southern shores of Lake Malawi in Mangochi. Mondays are supposed to be slow days in Monkey Bay, one of the numerous eminent tourist destinations in the country. But the beach is rather lively. Sixteen boys and girls have gathered at Chembe—a scenic shoreline village at the heart of Cape Maclear.

The youth are armed with brooms, rakes and plastic bags. They are about to launch a sanitation crusade to restore order and sparkles of the lakeside strip which offers passersby and holidaymakers never-ending postcard views.

“We are here on a mission to clean the beaches of our beloved lake of the litter. It has become an eyesore,” says the leader, Happy Nkunika.

They call their group Chiyembekezo Foundation, a well of hope for the future they want. The litter Nkunika and his peers love to hate includes broken bottles, plastic  bags, food leftovers, sugarcane peels, beer jugs, packets of opaque beer, used tea bags, faeces and many other things that both visitors and residents dump with reckless abandon. Not many of them seem to mind where they throw unwanted things they keep churning out.

The garbage is a depressing blot on the picturesque landscape, and the young Malawians are playing their part to salvage the situation.

“The majority of the youth at Cape Maclear depend on tourists lured by the beautiful lake and its stunning shoreline. Some sell curios while others are tour guides. Wanton dumping of litter on the beach has the propensity to scare away the tourists, robbing the youth of their main source of livelihood,” says Nkunika.

By mobilising the youth from Chembe and surrounding villages to clean the beach and market places, they want to create and sustain a conducive environment for tourists as well as the rural folk.

“We want to make the tourist destination even more appealing. We are saying: ‘Please come again.’ They shouldn’t regret coming or shudder to come back,” says Nkunika.

Founded last year, Chiyembekezo strives to improve sanitation as well as the wellbeing of the elderly, people living with HIV and the youths.

It dedicated September, the National Tourism Month, to clean attractive spots along the lake on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

But the days devoted to getting rid of broken bottle glasses and other litter that deface the shoreline places to go and pose a hazard to the tourist is not just about saving the country’s tourism industry from unnecessary drawbacks.

It keeps the predominantly unemployed young Malawians busy, saving them from risky sexual relationships, alcoholism, drug abuse and criminal tendencies.

After the daily cleanup, the volunteers are happy Cape Maclear now looks cleaner than it has always been.

Khezia Kalipinde , 25,  appears in high spirits, saying she volunteered to join Chiyembekezo because there can never be a better thing to do than creating a better world for all.

She said: “I used to stay idle, but the foundation offered me a chance to put my energy to good use. I share its objectives.

“We are happy to make our village a little cleaner instead of indulging in risky activities, including leisure and transactional sex that exposes many young men and women along the lake to HIV infections.”

So far, the foundation has managed to cover a beach stretch of about a kilometre with their cleaning exercises.

The cleaning up exercise has the blessings of village heads Chembe, Katukumala, Madothi, Kafukula and Nkhono.

The traditional leaders encourage the youth to keep up the good work, saying the inspiring spirit of self-help has been almost nonexistent since the annual Youth Week initiative was scraped together with founding President Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s rule in 1994.

They appealed to organisations of goodwill, including district councils, the civil society  and  First Lady Gertrude Mutharika’s Beautify Malawi (Beam) Trust to support them with essential equipment, including groves, boots and other protective wear.

“The youth don’t have the funds to buy gloves, but they have the will and zeal to get dirty for three days a week just to keep their beloved lake clean to attract tourists and save their communities from avoidable diseases,” says village head Matope.

The volunteers are looking for funds for installation of waste bins in strategic parts of the shoreline setting to curb wanton littering. n