What follows is a typical MESA sponsored radio program, Chimvano cha Mavu, which means "Unity is Power", that was broadcast in Chichewa but translated to English.
| Presenter: |
Now MBC Radio 1 presents to you "Chimvano Cha Mavu". The program is sponsored by MESA, Malawi Education Support Activity, which is being implemented by American Institutes for Research in partnership with Save the Children US, CRECCOM and Malawi Institute of Education with funding from USAID. |
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Signature tune/song for opening the program My name is Hamilton Chimala and I welcome you to this program, Chimvano Cha Mavu, which aims at promoting educational quality in this country. MESA activities are already in place in Kasungu, Machinga, Mzimba South and Phalombe. As promised in the last program, one element of MESA is to do research on what hampers educational quality and mobilize school communities to find solutions to their constraints. A Theatre for Development troupe was at Jenda in Mzimba South recently. One of the major problems affecting education in the area is "kabwandire" (Market days), which are conducted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is a lot that happens at the market place. Be there so that you hear for yourself what the people said happens and what people resolved to do to promote standards of education. |
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Song by the TFD troupe - let's celebrate because MESA is here with us |
| Interviewee: |
My name is Precious Lungu. |
| Presenter: |
Okay, what are the problems that affect education standards around Jenda? |
| Precious Lungu: |
Late hour markets called "kabwandire", which are common in the area and have led many school-age children astray. |
| Presenter: |
What do you mean by "Kabwandire"? |
| Precious Lungu: |
It is a special market set on particular days attended by large number of traders and customers, more especially in late hours of the day. |
| Interviewee: |
My name is Tomaida Chirwa. Kabwandire is a big market at Jenda where people come from distant places to buy and sell assorted commodities. |
| Presenter: |
What do they sell? |
| Tomaida: |
They sell second hand clothes, tomatoes, shoes and the like. |
| Presenter: |
According to the TFD play we are watching here, this affects education. How is that? |
| Tomaida: |
Most people in this area are used to small-scale businesses. When children see their parents running the businesses and the money they raise, they feel going to school is a waste of time. |
| Interviewee: |
My name is Titus D. G. Nyirenda, one of the school management committee chairpersons in Katete Zone. |
| Presenter: |
Mr Nyirenda, tell me what problems you, as a school committee chairperson, face in Jenda area. |
| Nyirenda: |
The problems we face: first children rush to Kabwandire at Jenda trading centre where a lot of activities take place, some useful and some useless things happen. Children look for chips and many other things. |
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(a bar setting of a TFD drama performance. Voices of beer drinkers) Mr Gama we need a song. Let's not fight ..( Much noise). |
| Presenter: |
These are MESA TFD troupe members who stay in one area to research on factors that affect education. They present their findings to communities through participatory drama performances to mobilize teachers, community leaders and school committees. So far they have done this in Phalombe, Machinga, Kasungu and Mzimba South. How was it in Mzimba South, let's go there. |
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A song by TFD troupe members during a drama performance. |
| Speaker: |
My name is Thokozire Shawa. I have come with my poem entitled "My Name is AIDS".. My name is AIDS . When I enter human bodies I don't come out . I wear off their bodies and destroy their hair . My name is AIDS .. Those who want to avoid me should follow my advice .. Don't share razor blades, tooth brushes and injections at hospitals . My name is AIDS.. the main mode of contacting me is sexual intercourse . Please colleagues if you want to avoid me; abstain.. My name is AIDS. |
| Interviewee: |
My name is Brandina Nkhoma, Primary Education Advisor, Katete Zone. One of our problems is that most children do not come to school on market days. We have welcomed MESA warmly so that we benefit from it and teachers make the school environment appealing to attract more children to come to school and attend well-presented lessons. I urge teachers to prepare their work thoroughly before going into a classroom and parents should support teachers by sending their children to school even on market days. I thank MESA for coming here with the TFD activities. |
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By the MESA TFD troupe members - inviting MESA to the area. |
| Presenter: |
Traditional Authority Mzikuwola was present at the event. I asked him how HIV/AIDS affects education of children in the area. What is Chief Mzikuwola saying? Chief Mzikuwola: The main problem is that most of our children do not attend school sufficiently as what happens at the trading centre makes them busy. For example, we have a market at Jenda, which is held twice a week. There come many people. Many children flock there. With the advent of HIV/AIDS, when a parent is sick they make their children absent from school and send them to the market to sell vegetables. Later on the child performs poorly at school. I am happy with the MESA TFD performance, which has clearly exposed the problem. Their findings are a torch to parents for them to be careful about the education of their children by monitoring their movements and sending them to school. A parent who loves his/her children should listen. I know these days people talk about democracy, but as a people we have a culture to protect. AIDS has no medication unlike other old venereal diseases that were curable. As community leaders we need to address our subjects frequently in settings like this one, which MESA has held. Moreover, as we attend district assembly planning meetings it would be better to propose to the assembly that we they construct better structures at the trading centre as the place is one of revenue sources. Those who are conducting bizarre businesses at Jenda should be sent back to their homes because they are the ones who provide loopholes for the proliferation of HIV/AIDS. |
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A song by TFD troupe members. |
| Presenter: |
That was Traditional Authority Mzikuwola from Mzimba. During the TFD performance people agreed to meet the next day, 27th December 2003, to discuss ways of combating their problems in a style of Chimvano Cha Mavu (unity of wasps) so that "Kabwandire" no longer poses a threat to their children. On behalf of MESA, being implemented by American Institutes for Research, Save the Children US, CRECCOM and Malawi Institute of Education with funding from USAID, I, Hamilton Chimala and my colleague, Abdul Chirwa, on the sound console say: keep listening to the other programs on MBC Radio 1. |
