From Kenya and Rome, Sister Maureen, Patricio and Adela travelled to Malawi from 17 to 23 November to further strengthen the WUCWO World Women's Observatory network with Catholic women and other institutions. It was an "early Advent" experience, because one of the words that sums up our trip is HOPE.
The reality: Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 60% of the population living in poverty, a situation that is even more severe in rural areas. There is also a major food security problem, accentuated in recent years by adverse weather conditions and worsened by the cyclone that hit the country in March. Approximately 9 million people, almost half of Malawi's population, were affected and 4.2 million people are currently acutely food insecure. This situation has serious implications for the lives of families. Poverty and hunger are a source of domestic violence and malnutrition rates, especially among children, are very high.
Signs of hope: Doreen Zimba, President of CWA, the Catholic Women's Association of Malawi, and Sister Teresa Mulenga, from the Teresian Sisters Congregation, accompanied us to witness how the power of love and solidarity transforms people's lives.
We visited the Mithugu community in Phalombe. Their homes and crops were badly damaged by the cyclone, but they have received help to start farming again, and men and women are working together to prevent domestic violence.
In Lilongwe, the capital, we heard the testimony of two women who had survived violence at the hands of their partners and had managed to save their lives, but were left without financial resources. The women of CWA are helping them to get by.
The Dzaleka refugee camp is home to more than 50,000 people mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. It started in 1994 as a temporary settlement and has grown into a permanent community. Despite the difficulties and challenges they face every day, they live in hope. During the celebration of the Eucharist in one of the two parishes, we were moved by the witness given, the energy to move forward and the positive impact on the community, fruit of the effort and courage, especially of the Catholic women. On this visit we were accompanied by the members of the CWA council made up of the diocesan women Presidents of the 8 dioceses of Malawi, the religious sisters who are their advisors and the chaplains. They delivered food and basic necessities for the neediest families. We were touched by the enthusiastic welcome and the invitation to dance together as sisters belonging to the same human family.
Strengthening networks: As the mission of the WUCWO Observatory is to give visibility to women, especially the most vulnerable, and to inspire and generate pastoral strategies on the part of the Church, synergies on the part of civil society NGOs, public policies on the part of States and contributions to the international agenda that favour the integral human development of women and that of their families, communities and peoples.
We visited, to help achieve this, the Archbishop of Blantyre, Thomas Msusa, and the Bishop of Zomba, Alfred Mateyu Chaima. We presented them with research data from interviews with 10,790 African women, 81.6 % of whom said they had suffered domestic violence. They valued very positively the work that the Catholic women of the CWA together with the religious sisters are already doing to fight against this scourge and offered their support to continue working together.
Sister Agnes Magalasi, secretary general of AWRIM (Association of Women Religious Institutes of Malawi) also committed to disseminate WWO's work among religious congregations and to strengthen the joint work with CWA at diocesan and national level.
In order to establish synergies with other NGDOs, we had a meeting with CARITAS-Malawi representatives, where they expressed a positive willingness to support the work of WWO.
With the aim of disseminating WWO's work, we went with Sr Teresa Mulenga to Lunta TV and Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and they committed to work in a network to strengthen the projects we carry out and communicate them to the whole country.
Something new is sprouting
On this journey we have witnessed that life always resurfaces from the hand of God, who makes everything new, through the hands and hearts of so many people of good will that we have met in Malawi, sowing and growing seeds of hope.
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