Malawi

As I read "Malawi," from the "I Live Here" series, I was heartbroken, and confused. I don't even know about Malawi, or where it is. I know of Darfur, Xhosa/Khosa, Nigeria, and I know about AIDS/HIV, and Malaria. I don't know what I would even do to change this. The "wasting disease," people, young children jailed for stealing corn and phones; children making coffins, it's remarkable. Where do the orphans go when they're released from jail? Back to jail, or in a hospital, after getting diseases from the jail. "I do not want to come back, but where will I go?" I noticed in the intro of "Malawi," the narrator called it the "anarchy of Lilongwe," and I think that's really important to note, because this story is really chaotic. All the stories and little tangents all stem from a concrete base and end up spiraling out of control. All of it mashes together and forms a tangled mass of wide-eyed survival. (Malawi Notebook)

What I looked into, to find home made help from Malawis for Malawis sent me to EISA Malawi: Malawi Human Rights Commission. It's promoting democracy, which I think is really important to setting up a stable environment, and creating basic order, eventually leading to better and more expansive lives and homes for the peoples of Malawi. It began in 1994, but didn't get fully activated or accepted until 1999. "The MHRC is mandated to investigate cases where it is alleged that a person has suffered injustice and it does not appear that there is any remedy reasonably available by way of proceedings in a court or by way of appeal from a court or where there is no other practical remedy." Court seems to be very pressing in Malawi, "And who put the law that when one is wrong he should be imprisoned and when did this law start and which country did it start in?" (Malawi Notebook)

"The MHRC also expressed concern over reports of parents forcing their daughters into marriages for food. The MHRC was charged with monitoring, auditing, and promoting human rights and conducting investigations regarding violations of human rights; however, a shortage of resources resulted in a backlog of cases, delayed production of reports and failure to expand human rights monitoring." Holy crapola! Exchanging daughters for food? This can't be real. This is insanity. Why don't people in Malawi have food? Why are they so poor? What sparked this? What made it keep going down? What's keeping this nation so down? Is it the diseases? Are they just spiritless ghouls, waiting for death, writhing in poor spirals, confused and degenerating? "The whole village is in front of us, staring. Some people smile-I've never seen such wide, beautiful smiles. Huge eyes that light up with joy so fresh it looks like it could smudge." (Malawi Notebook.) At least the depression hasn't diminished the hope of this village.

Why is it that we aren't helping our people? (Our people; a global effort to stop hunger, violence, and injustices? A global effort to get us all to hit the malls, to eat together and ride horses!) "After a New York Times article was published about prison conditions in Malawi, the boys were quietly shuffled to the current facility." (Malawi Notebook) Why was it quietly changed? Did the New York Times have anything else to say about this? Was there any more follow up?

Here is EISA Malawi. I'm actually unsure if it IS a home root organization, but it's cool, nonetheless.
http://www.eisa.org.za/WEP/malagency1.htm