The year 2020 has brought great change around the world. Malawi has seen its share of floods, elections, and regulation changes due to COVID-19. If you haven’t had the chance to keep track of it all (who does?), Story Time has put together a brief rundown of what has happened in Malawi this year, and where things stand now.
Chisomo’s Story: The Effects of Drought on Livelihood; How to Move Forward
Chisomo is a previous Story Time participant in the Women’s Empowerment Project, and since graduating, has become a volunteer facilitator and learner guide for CAMFED on the topic of sexual health and reproduction. She feels that because she went to school, “maybe I should do business. I should do something on my own.” But her mall business is not without struggle, due to the recent drought.
3 Energy Alternatives Bring Hope to Malawi
Malawi not only faces rising energy demand, but has insufficient power generating capacity, lacks investment in new generators, struggles with high transmission and distribution costs, poor power quality and reliability, and finally, heavily subsidized pricing, that is controlled mostly by the government. But there is some hope on the horizon.
Baobab: How One Tree Gives Life Mystery and Hope
This unusual tree looks like it has been planted upside down, and has many African tales associated with it. Today it’s being used for many different things, it is even considered a superfood. However, like many other species of plants in Malawi, the Baobab tree is endangered. The pressures of poverty force many Malawians to burn these increasingly rare trees for fuel.