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“You know I used to be scared of Malawians,” he said and let out a big bright grin. It is hard to tell that behind that wide smile once hid a face overshadowed by the trauma that is birthed courtesy of being a refugee. “I am serious. I thought Malawians are difficult. I think it was partly because of the language barrier between us refugees and Malawians.” He continued, his smile slowly fading into a thoughtful face as his lips briefly flattened up into a straight line. He stayed muted for a few seconds, gazing into the roof of his small house as if searching for a lost symbol then glanced up again…“That was a long time ago. Now I look at Malawians and it’s interesting how I have grown to like them. I treat them as my brothers and sisters now…”

Susan comes from a background where people believe that it is a taboo for a woman to be involved in construction-related trades. This misconception has caused many girls in Susan’s village to shun such courses. Not Susan. She wanted to disprove such wrong beliefs and her dream was to be a woman who can take care of her own financial needs. So, she trained in Plumbing in our vocational training programme. Susan has finally achieved her goal. She got a job as a plumbing teacher in the city. She can even afford to pay rent for a house in the city.

Bulaiton was in his late age when he decided to train in Carpentry in our programme. He never allowed age to come between him and his strong desire to find a means of pushing out of the poverty he grew up in. And after his training, he did push out of the poverty. He started off with a small carpentry bench which grew and gave him enough income to build a new house complete with corrugated iron sheets. To Bulaiton this is a big improvement. He also did something uniquely interesting for his grandson and son-in-law.

Pamphil has been living in Dzaleka Refugee Camp for close to seven years now but unlike the average refugee who are trapped in the vicious and inevitable cycle of poverty, Pamphil is a qualified plumber and can ably make a living. It is something that he is proud of because seven years ago when Pamphil and his young sister stepped foot in Dzaleka, he was – in his own words– “nothing but an abandoned destitute”.  The painful recollection of those early stages of his stay in Dzaleka left a deep emotional scar that Pamphil never thought he would never recover from.

Her name is Ireen, a refugee of Burundian nationality. She is also a beneficiary of our university scholarship programme. When you look at her now, it is hard to imagine that she had all along aspired to pursue legal studies and become a judge. Actually, the desire to study law manifested when she was 11 and grew stronger as she got older. But that is not what she studied when she finally found the opportunity to go to college three years ago.

Refugee camps are a sorry sight – throngs of individuals, young and old, squeezed into a small area where sanitation is a disaster and ideal healthcare is almost close to non-existent. Or at least that is the status quo in Malawi’s Dzaleka Refugee Camp. Healthcare for refugees and asylum seekers in the Camp, which currently is home to over 40 thousand people, is a nasty issue. The Camp is served by a small hospital which struggles to meet the growing demand of the refugees plus additional Malawians from communities around it. Dzaleka Health Centre has always experienced inadequate medication to cater to the large population that depends on it and the advent of COVID-19 pushed the small hospital to the edge.

There is nothing nightmarish during this coronavirus pandemic than the thought of a hospital running short of oxygen gas. It is a horrifying thought, more so because it is literally a lifeline for patients of COVID-19. Oxygen gas is that thin line between life and death for such patients and lack of it will only […]

His carpentry bench is located deep in the rural area, in a tiny village about a 20-minute drive from the main road. It is in the middle of nowhere, far from the glamour and glory of modern life and where the majority of the villagers depend on subsistence farming to pull through life. His bench is surrounded by about seven small huts roofed with grass, plastered with mud and windowless. The bench was set up under the shade of a large tree overlooking a small house where he and his two brothers stay. Welcome to Frank’s carpentry business place. This is the bench that brings Frank income each day and lets him help his mother and father to provide meals for the family.

People pursue higher education for different reasons. Some do it to get a job that pays good money while others advance their studies to make a difference in the lives of others. Whatever the reasons for going further with one’s studies may be, education still remains the epitome for achieving change, whether individual or societal. When Gustave opted to upgrade his education by earning a degree, he decided to take a course that he believed would let him contribute – even a little – to make a difference in the lives of the place that he called his new home in 2003 when he became a refugee.

We love Kibebe because it renews hope to the less privileged. Thierry is one of the artisans that Kibebe employed. Initially, the only way that Thierry could take care of the needs of his wife and kids was through jobs like washing laundry at random households. When his kids got sick, he would carry them on his back and walk for 2 hours to the hospital because he could not even afford the fare for public transport. That is his past. Now he works for Kibebe.

Every story that has a ‘happily ever after’ ending starts with a cliffhanger… or a shocking beginning. The story either kicks off with the hero trapped between the proverbial rock-and-a-hard-place or a related shocking scenario which he, of course, eventually overcomes. For Pemphero, a young man living in one of the poorest communities of Dowa District in Central Malawi, his story begins with almost a related situation, albeit slightly different.

When life gives you a lemon, make a lemonade. Archaic as that saying might sound, those who apply the concept behind the adage make considerable profits from the lemonade produced. Ednas Chadzuka is one of the people at whom life chucked a lemon. From struggling with her secondary school education to enrolling at a nursing college with nothing but faith in her pockets, Ednas’ story is a tale of awe, twists and shock.