Raising the Voice of Farmers

One of my major activities is finally complete. I completed a two day lobbying and advocacy training with farmer leaders in Malawi. We invited the Executive Board of the Farmers Union of Malawi, the Lobbying and Advocacy Standing Committee, the Coalition of Women Farmers Association and our District Farmer Union Chairpersons. It was a great workshop. My Malawian colleague Cindy Kacherenga did the initial morning session which involved a session on roles and responsibilities of the different agents of Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) with the emphasis on farmers having the main responsibility in raising their voice. The FUM Secretariat which I am a part of has a role in supporting the farmers. The issues come from the farmers the secretariat provides the necessary support such a research, technical advice and communication. This meeting also allowed us to get the participants, all of whom are farmers to prioritize the more than 70 issues that have been given to me since I arrived. We had them split into three groups on different themes and pick the six most pertinent issues. Then they chose the 3 most pertitnent from those and finally they chose one to work on in the workshop. For the next day and half I led them through the nuts and bolts of advocacy with a lot of group work where the real learning took place while they put into practice what they learned. At the end I expected them to present an actual advocacy message on their chosen topic. They could have

Witchcraft 'Plane' Crashes in Lilongwe

The following story was found on page 2 of the November 18, 2008 of The Nation newspaper in Malawi. Of course I would have loved to go and investigate this story but all evidence was destroyed as it always is.

Witchcraft 'plane crashes in Lilongwe
by Samuel Chibaya

Pandemonium erupted at Falls Estate in Lilongwe when a woman discovered an object suspected to be a 'witchcraft airplane' outside her house on Saturday morning.
In an interview with The Nation on Sunday, Maria Khudzani Banda, a resident of White Falls, said she discovered the strange object resting on four legs at the back of her house when she woke up on Saturday morning.
She said in the wee hours of Saturday morning, she heard a sound as loud as a gunshot near her house but saw nothing when she peeped through the window.
"I slept until morning when I woke up and went to the back of the house where I saw the object. The object contained bones, pinkish beads, a dead frog and a porcupine quill," claimed Banda.
When news went about the area, hundreds of people flocked to the house to look at the object.
"I reported the incident to the village headman. With the help of some men, he took the object away and burnt it somewhere. At first it failed to burn but the men later tore it apart and inside were a bottle of glycerine and hair oil. It then burnt," said Banda.
She said she was surprised to receive a visitor on Sunday morning who claimed to be a witchdoctor from Area 24 and offered to help her following the incident.
"I told him off because I don't believe in witchcraft. I only believe in God." she said.
Banda, who has lived in at Falls Estate for five years said sometime back, a mysterious fire was discovered burning at her door.
Meanwhile calm has returned to the area.