Thousands of people at Nsombi Island on Lake Chilwa in Zomba are living a miserable life as they are deprived of critical social services.<\/p>\n
Malawi News travelled to the island, a one and half hour engine boat ride from Kachulu dock, and found people condemned to a life without secondary schools, health facilities and potable water.<\/p>\n
Located on the border with Mozambique, the Island has a population of over 3000 people and fishing is their way of life.<\/p>\n
Group Village Headman Chisoni said it was unfortunate that the population at the island was neglected by government and most of the non-governmental organisations.<\/p>\n
He said education at the island is a far-fetched dream, as pupils had no access to secondary education after finishing primary school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no secondary school, when pupils finish their primary education; it becomes difficult to pursue their studies. The nearest secondary school is over 50 kilometers away, out of which almost 40 kilometers is covered on the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at times when we find some students that are interested to pursue their education, we ask people here to contribute money and rent a house for them near St Michaels Community Day Secondary School in Mpyupyu,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He, however, said sometimes financial challenges and distance force the students to drop out of school.<\/p>\n
On lack of potable water, GVH Chisoni said people rely on unprotected sources because the area does not have piped water or boreholes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe use water from the lake. People bath, relieve themselves in the water and we also drink the same water. We really need help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On health, the chief said people struggle to get medication as there is no health facility at the Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe at times have mobile clinics conducted by the District Health Office, but once in a month. At times due to financial constraints they take months before coming again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the people are at risk of contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases including HIV\/Aids, because of the lifestyle here, but the problem is where to get the services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, Jhpiego is implementing a project at the Island on Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a hard to reach area, therefore, we chose this area to be one of the beneficiaries of the project. The response from the community was overwhelming. There was a day when we had a maximum of 65 people,\u201d said the Project team leader in Zomba Whyson Mkandawire.<\/p>\n
He, however, said the only challenge they faced during the implementation was lack of a health facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter helping the people, we were supposed to be referring them to a health facility, but there is none here. But all in all we are satisfied with the response,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A beneficiary of the project, Jones Kasawala, said he could not overemphasize the importance of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, Initiation counsellors were responsible for circumcision, but safety was a problem. Therefore, I urge my fellow men who are not circumcised to undergo the procedure. It is not painful, and the healing process does not take long,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Initiation counsellor, Taulo Mingwa, admitted that safety was a problem as they were using one razor blade to circumcise two or three people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are no longer doing that because of the coming in of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A woman, whose husband was circumcised, Chrissy Assani, said, \u201cWe were taught the importance of VMMC, and I urged my husband to go for it. I advise women to do the same with their husbands.<\/p>\n
However, on lack of critical social services, District Commissioner, Bennet Nkasala, said the district does not have any plans soon to assist Malawians that are living on the Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already submitted our budget for 2015\/2016 financial year, and Nsombi Island is not in our plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we will look at the number of people at the Island, and see if we need to construct a secondary school. On health, we have mobile clinics conducted by the District Health Office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The DC was optimistic that some development partners would help the people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of people at Nsombi Island on Lake Chilwa in Zomba are living a miserable life as they are deprived of critical social services. Malawi News travelled to the island, a one and half hour engine boat ride from Kachulu dock, and found people condemned to a life without secondary schools, health facilities and potable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4130,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions\/4130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}