Continuing our series of posts by Bike2Malawi riders, Violet Hejazi writes:
“I am a law student who is also a former refugee. I come from Syria, and I am one of the riders of the #Bike2Malawi team organised by the Mamie Martin Fund in support of girls’ education in Malawi.
After a long time spent at home in lockdown doing things I had to do, it was finally the time to do the thing I chose to do!
On a sunny, non-lockdown day, and along with very cool friends and for a great cause, I cycled by the coast of Lancaster and had the best chips in Morecambe. We took some photos and ate some cake.
I found a jasmine tree that filled my heart with joy and made me feel at home. We said hello to the wee kid on his tiny bicycle as we pushed our pedals to raise money to help girls in Malawi pursue their education and secure a decent future for themselves and their families. Going up and down semi-hills, which to me felt like proper steep hills, I was reminded of the struggles that young girls in Malawi face daily and the significance of making education accessible and obtainable for them. I reflected on my childhood and, despite all of the obstacles, how lucky I was in having had the opportunity to be in school and not worry about accessing education.
I am taking part in cycling 100 miles to raise awareness and fund this project, hoping that one day no child will be deprived of their right to be educated and can grow up to become independent, successful members of society.
This was the first 16.5 miles of the 100 miles I will be cycling over the summer, which I am very excited to complete and share stories about!”
My name is Maeve Rafferty and I am very excited to be working with the Mamie Martin Fund to conduct research for my dissertation looking at how MMF-supported women navigate their careers, tertiary education, and sexual and reproductive health after graduating from secondary school. I am an MSc student in Africa and International Development at the University of Edinburgh.
My interest in international development stems from a desire to see equal opportunities afforded to everyone worldwide regardless of their background and characteristics. Specifically, I am interested in how sustainable development can be achieved in East and Southern Africa through political-economy means. On a macro-level I enjoy exploring what this means for governance both on the continent and internationally. From a more micro-perspective I am particularly interested in the intersectionalities of development with gender, displacement and business. Since completing my BA in Business and Political Science at Trinity College I have worked in development firstly, with GOAL as a Development Education Officer in Dublin and latterly, with Viatores Christi as a Project Support Officer in Kampala and, post-Covid, remotely in Dublin.
We are already four months into our Mamie Martin Fund #Pledge100, celebrating the centenary of Jack and Mamie’s marriage and the start of their time in Malawi. We now have over 30 global pledgers, who have embarked on a wonderful range of active and creative endeavours to help raise awareness of the work done by Mamie Martin Fund.
Some of our creative pledgers have already completed their challenge and have received their very special certificate of completion. Jan, who is based in Sweden, has completed 100 beautiful black and white drawings, and has even embarked on her second challenge. Elizabeth has embroidered 100 lovely, intricate cards which sold out almost immediately! You can see her beautiful designs here. The proceeds from the sale of these cards have added a real boost to our #Pledge100 fund-raising efforts –so a huge thank you to Elizabeth for her creative contribution and to everyone who was quick enough to buy her cards!
Jean is swimming 100 swims for Mamie Martin Fund’s #Pledge100
Our #Pledge100 awareness raising and fundraising efforts have been so successful that we have already reached and passed our fundraising target. That calls for a huge thank you to all our pledgers and everyone who has contributed. Let’s not stop here! We still have eight action-packed months to go, so let’s set our sights higher. This is really challenging time in Malawi, with disruptions to education caused by Covid-19. Fundraising for the Mamie Martin Fund means that we can continue to help girls return to school and complete their secondary education.
Here is Kate Jere making the case for helping get girls back to school: “As schools re-open again in Malawi following COVD-19 closures, ensuring girls get back to school has never been more important. Lessons from the Ebola crisis in West Africa have shown that extended school closures increase girls’ risk of early and unintended pregnancies, and result in permanent exit from education.”
Mamie Martin Fund provides an important safety net for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, providing vital support with school costs, transport and other necessities –greatly increasing their chances of staying in school and completing their education.It’s easy to join #Pledge100.Just find something you can pledge to do 100 times during the remainder of 2021 and register here.
We would love to have you on board! All sponsorships and donations are also welcome here.
The Kiltwalk went virtual again this Spring. People could choose their own challenge and complete it over the weekend 23 – 25 April. Michelle only learned about the Kiltwalk the week before. When she had checked that she had not misheard (‘so you wear some tartan and walk?’), she went for it, aiming to walk 20 miles around Edinburgh on Saturday 24th. She plotted a route which included Arthur’s Seat, Water of Leith and Cramond and set off from Newhaven.
Her preparation including buying some tartan; if she was to be a kiltwalker, there had to be tartan. She excelled herself in a few days, with tartan leggings and a skirt. Teamed up with an MMF tee-shirt and some Malawi-Scotland chitenjie, she was the picture of a true kiltwalker.
Supported by her sister Heidi and Moira from MMF, both on bikes, Michelle set a pace of 18 minutes a mile and she held that pace all day. We had a few rest and food stops and the occasional ‘tourist’ stop. The team met some other kiltwalkers but not as many as expected.
It was a lovely sunny day but there was a vicious North-Easterly wind which felt hard walking by the sea from Cramond to Granton. However, at Granton, hot tea and home baking was provided by an MMF friend and Michelle turned to the last few miles with renewed energy. It was after the home baking that she decided to go for the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles and she completed 26.3 miles on Newhaven pier as the sun went down. What an achievement!
In the meantime friends and family donated to her fund-raising page. All donations will be topped up by 50% this year by the Tom Hunter Foundation, so Michelle is, at the time of writing, well on the way to raising enough money to support two girls at boarding school in Malawi for a whole year. Double-achievement. Thanks Michelle!
Mamie Martin Fund volunteer, Richard Robinson, has been thinking about decolonisation from the perspective of organisations like ours. He has published his thoughts on Medium and we share some snippets here and encourage you to read the whole piece.
“In the light of recent debate in the UK I have been thinking about the past links between Scotland and Africa, about how we frame them now, and what that should mean for the future
…
For many of us our own education and cultural background mean that our ways of thinking and unconscious attitudes carry vestiges of colonialism. We must inspect what we do and how we do it to ensure we compensate as well as we can. We should do this openly, which will offer opportunities to make our contribution more visible in Scotland and more effective in Malawi. We strive for our work and our relationships to be conducted in the spirit of respectful partnership but there is no fixed standard for this. It will always be a progressive process in which MMF must be clear about its rôle.
There is still a power imbalance between Scotland and Malawi, particularly stark in wealth and social capital, and this is partly a result of extractive colonialisation. But poring over the balance sheets of a century ago is less helpful than looking at what is happening today: Malawi is still suffering economic disadvantage from global taxation and trade regimes.
…
The MMF website already has great stories from girls and women whose education has been supported. It could also play a part in seeking out, promoting, and publishing personal evidence about colonialism.
For readers who haven’t heard of the Mamie Martin Fund before, please investigate! Allowing girls full access to education, and empowering women, is work that is not even finished in Scotland. In Malawi it has huge potential to contribute to economic well-being and quality of life, and I will soon be out on my bike helping to play whatever small part I can.”
In the Preface to Spirit of Malawi, Susan Dalgety states her ‘ambition [was] to write a book that captured the essence of contemporary Malawi through the stories of its people.’ She achieves this, and more.
Susan Dalgety, a Scottish journalist and local politician, clearly loves Malawi, which she has visited many times since 2005. She interviewed a wide range of Malawians of different ages and backgrounds, from village chiefs and small farmers to government ministers, from a taxi driver and hospital porter to a fashion designer and social media professional. She writes in a clear accessible style and with a journalist’s eye for a good story.
There are five sections: ‘The cycle of life’ (possibly my favourite section covering birth, health, early and teenage years, adulthood, family life and growing old); ‘All in a day’s work’; ‘The people’s culture’; ‘A young democracy’; and finally ‘Whither Malawi?’ There are several pages of Susan’s own colour photographs, all featuring people at work, school and play.
I didn’t find many gaps. Maybe the book could have covered music and musicians a little more. Music is everywhere in Malawi: from traditional dances and drumming to the creative improvisation of instruments (amateur recordings of musicians who create their own instruments make up the most listened-to programmes on Malawi radio) to the many live bands that do the urban music circuit.
This is an unsentimental book which charts people’s daily frustrations and worries and the curse of corruption that affects most levels of life now. It demonstrates stark inequalities in income, education and life chances, which in some ways are worse now than in the aftermath of colonialism. But it also captures the spirit, hard work and entrepreneurialism of ordinary people, and larger successes, for example in fighting AIDS. Above all, it’s a hopeful book.
I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for an up-to-date understanding of Malawi.
Jean Bareham lives in Edinburgh. She worked in Malawi as a VSO Training Librarian at Chancellor College, Zomba from 1978 – 1980, and has visited several times since, the last as a tourist in 2017.
Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day, a day of celebration of women’s achievements. When working at the University of Malawi, women colleagues and I would leave our workplaces and, along with women all over the country, join together in church services and prayers: a time for singing, dancing, joy and reflection. And Malawi does have much to celebrate. Women are increasingly taking up leadership roles in government, with the first Female Speaker of the National Assembly elected in 2019; young female lawyers were at the forefront of the successful call for fresh elections in 2020, following vote-rigging by the previous government; maternal mortality rates have dropped dramatically and more girls than ever before are in school and learning.
Yet International Women’s Day, with its 2021 theme of #ChoosetoChallenge, also marks a call to action – and much remains to be done in Malawi to achieve gender equality. Although women play an active role in civil society, less than a quarter (23%) of parliamentarians are women. Whilst the constitution and recent legislation protects women’s rights, powerful social norms and customary practices undervalue women and girls and restrict their access to property, financial services and decent work. Women and girls face high levels of violence, and despite a 2017 constitutional amendment raising the age of marriage to 18, rates of child marriage are amongst the highest in the world, at over 40%.
Education, especially for disadvantaged girls, is an important catalyst in progress towards women’s empowerment and a more gender-just society. Keeping girls in school and – providing access to quality, inclusive education – can have powerful multiplier effects. Educated girls and young women not only have greater opportunities to fulfil their own potential, but can be powerful role models in their homes and communities, can challenge expectations for their role in society and make informed decisions about the health of themselves and their families. Recent research from Malawi shows that girls in school are less likely to experience violence and are at lower risk of child marriage and early and unintended pregnancy.
While Malawi has made great improvements in girls’ education over the last two decades, closing gender gaps in basic education, many adolescent girls fail to complete secondary education, dropping out before Form 4 and their national examinations: for every 100 boys in upper secondary, only 68 girls are enrolled. Social pressures compounded by school-related costs impact on girls’ ability to complete their education, with girls from the poorest households at the greatest risk of dropout. And as schools re-open again in Malawi following COVD-19 closures, ensuring girls get back to school has never been more important. Lessons from the Ebola crisis in West Africa have shown that extended school closures increase girls’ risk of early and unintended pregnancies, and result in permanent exit from education.
Mamie Martin Fund provides an important safety net for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, providing vital support with school costs, transport and other necessities – greatly increasing their chances of staying in school and completing their education. Over 80% of MMF-supported girls have successfully completed their secondary school and gone on to thrive and make important contributions in their own right, like Stella, a frontline nurse; others, with the support of the Soko Fund, like Annie, have gone on to successfully complete a university degree – definitely something worth celebrating!
I am Mrs. Fiddes Msowoya, a woman who loves Mathematics and Sciences a lot. All my studies are mathematics / science related with credit overall grades for diploma and degree programmes. Studying Masters in Science Management Studies, I still register beyond undoubted distinctions for each course I pursue. I, therefore, urge all the females to love these fields and challenge the world that women too can do it.
Females are still treated secondary in many African countries where Malawi is not exceptional. There is need to strike a balance such that all females should get equal job opportunities as it is with their male counterparts in such fields. This can be achieved only when they enroll in such courses in order do away with categorizing the two groups. Women are equally capable as men. They are strong intellectually. Hence, it is important for them to learn science based opportunities.
Science jobs are well paying, hence such women role-models too shall be empowered and be well paid.
It is paramount to advocate for more females in sciences because currently the world revolves around Science and Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and innovation .Many existing opportunities require such skills and females are facing challenges in competing at global level because of lack of such skills. Without the involvement of women in sciences, males continue to enjoy exclusive employment in science related fields.
Encouraging females to participate in sciences will increase the pool of human resource from which the country can benefit and that will enhance sustainable development .
In Malawi, female population outweighs that of males and excluding them in sciences ensures delayed socio-economic development.
Women are naturally creative, this presents a great opportunity that can foster innovation and help in bringing about a major breakthrough in solving some of the problems in Malawi as a developing country.
Mrs Fiddes Msowoya The Director of Education Y outh and Sports M’mbelwa District Council Mzimba District
This being the centenary of Mamie and Jack Martin’s marriage and journey to Malawi, we launched our #Pledge100 project on 1st January. Shona McAllister is our first pledger – she will run a 5k 100 times this year.
Shona used to run a bit many years ago but took it up seriously during the first lockdown. As part of a virtual running club, a group of six women who motivated each other, she achieved ‘Couch to 5k’ and decided to keep up her running. She says that she could not have done that without the support of those friends. Her ambition was to run well for half an hour. Having achieved that, she is now working on improving her pace. That is a bit tricky in the bad weather so she describes herself as being in ‘maintenance mode’ at the moment.
Shona reminds us that exercise is very good for our mental health. She says that lockdown transformed her lifestyle; she currently works from home and takes a lot more exercise. She and her husband have a new puppy, who is called ‘Emmeline’ after the famous suffragette. No more needs to be said about Shona’s views on girls’ education and her support of our work in Malawi.
Shona’s connection with the Mamie Martin Fund goes back to her late father, who played in a band with Willie Sinclair, Mamie’s grandson. They held many fundraisers for MMF and Shona thinks of herself as running these 5Ks in her Dad’s memory.
Shona lives in the southside of Glasgow with Queen’s Park and Linn Park nearby – excellent running opportunities. She hopes that the awareness and money which she is raising by this pledge will support our work with a view to improving equality and girls’ empowerment and reducing rates of child marriage in Malawi; she wants ‘to create a more equal society’. You can support Shona in her pledge or join her by also registering to do 100 of something this year.
This year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is calling for global action to bridge funding gaps, and ensure essential services for survivors of violence during the COVID-19 crisis, and includes a strong focus on prevention.
Even before COVID-19 hit, violence against women and girls had reached pandemic proportions. Globally, 243 million women and girls had reported being abused by an intimate partner in the past year. In Malawi, a recent baseline survey for the Tithetse Nkhanza (Let’s Prevent Violence) programme in Malawi found that 75 per cent of adolescent girls had experienced at least one type of sexual harassment, abuse or exploitation during the previous year, and girls who were out of school were at higher risk of experiencing violence.
As countries have implemented lockdown measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, violence against women and girls intensified. In Malawi, economic impacts have made families poorer, and school closures have left girls more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, child marriage, and harassment.
Keeping girls in school is a key strategy for preventing violence and delaying early entry into marriage. Access to quality, inclusive and gender-sensitive education can provide important safe havens and support for girls at risk. Curricula that integrate discussions of gender issues, including violence, rights and healthy relationships, can be particularly effective in empowering girls and helping them to recognise and report violence.
Girls from the poorest families are most at risk of being out of school and missing out on the benefits of education. Across the country, only 59 per cent of girls from low-income households make the transition to secondary education. Even those who get to secondary school often continue to need support in various ways and the MMF ‘Ready to Learn’ fund is a vital part of our support.
One girl, Esther, who was being supported by the MMF ran away from home during a school holiday because her family tried to force her into marriage. She travelled back to school, alone, and has been cared for by a local well-wisher ever since. Esther is in her final term at school now and is a confident, cheerful young woman, so different from the terrified girl whom we first met. We wish her well in her next stage of life. Whatever challenges she still has to face, she has her education and the knowledge that people supsported her in her decisions.
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