Live in struggle and survive. My motivation is your story.
By Steve Govati
Have you ever met an electrician with disability: without hands and feet?
Kandeu appealed for those with
disability to be innovative and all Malawians to give opportunities to people
like him.
This
is what
Kandeu said “We have
capabilities, yes we are disabled but we can”.
By Steve Govati
this story is a continuation, to read first portion click here
"My
brother I heard you want to get married, don't try that.
Nowadays, things have
changed, your children are your responsibility no one can take care of them
unless otherwise. You should rebuild your future to be brighter."
After the counsel, Bayan and his young brother left Ntcheu for
Likoma in 2016 to stay with granny of his mother who is now 103 old.
“We heard that our uncle left MK15 million to my sister Mary
to aid our life before got buried in 2014. By then Mary was finalizing his
education at Bunda college, we asked her to share at least MK3 million to help
us, but she refused saying my father was alive and should take responsibility”,
Bayan said.
His granny became responsible for his life including paying school
fees. Life was sometimes hard when it came to food as most of the times they
survived through tea.
Bayan resumed school as a form three student and his performance led
him to head boy.
Despite the progress, food remained a challenge and his young
brother was crying to return to Ntcheu.
“It was in 2017, every day he cried for Ntcheu but we had no money
for transport and none to help us. Later, some relatives gave us some money and
promised that we will never get any help from them even school fees,” he said.
He further said he reported the issue to school where headmaster sought
to sponsor him but his relatives stopped the action.
That locked his school and he left for Ntcheu hopelessly.
“I asked my former employer (owner of the restaurant), Mrs Lungu
for a job, luckily I was employed as house keeper but at same time I had to
attend school”, he said.
“In this world, when you are doing great, some individuals hate it
as they love seeing you in hot soup”, this is what Bayan said while facing the
heavens.
“In Lungu’s house, someone pit on my bed and things went upside
down. And I left for Nachiye where I was staying with my aunt until I wrote
MSCE examination at Mcherezezo Secondary school", he said.
Later, Bayan went to Lilongwe where he was working at Tchasi car
wash at a salary of MK14, 000 per month.
"It was hard to survive at that price. Then I begun working in
deports to source income but things were still hard that I later went
home", he narrated.
While in Ntcheu, he applied to be a G4S guard in Blantyre and in
February 2018 he started working as guard.
In 2019 he begged an uncle to sponsor his tertiary education so to
be an automobile mechanical.
"God was with me and my uncle accepted my request with only
single thought. I started studying automobile mechanics at Sochi technical
college", he said.
Bayan worked at G4S during nights and went for weekend classes at
same time attending his internship during day hours.
"I sat for level 2 examination in 2021. Am now working at God
Love People (GLP) Mechanics at Kanjeza in Blantyre”, he narrated.
“I
had to fight for my own life to survive because no one was there for me at
first. I had to start and some people helped me out of volcano. My upmost
gratitude should go to GOD”, Bayan said.
THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF MY COLUMN
How will I manage to pay school fees? Andaccommodation?" These questions
assaulted Andrew Kamanga’s mind after he heard that he had been selected
to The Polytechnic, a constituent college of the
University of Malawi.
Kamanga is currently in third year at thecollege, pursuing journalism and media studies. Save Our Souls (SOS) is paying for his accommodation andfees balances.
Andrew Kamanga
He lost his father when he was only four yearsold. Born in 1994,
he is the third born in a family of eight.
"I started feeling the pain of my father's death when I
grew up as I could see my mother struggling to take care of us. She could wake
up at 4 o'clock in the morning, carrying heavy loads of maize and other crops
from Nkhata Bay to Mzuzu on foot to sell,” narrates Andrew who did his primary
and secondary education in Nkhata Bay.
He adds: “Now that I could see how she was suffering for our
sake, I really wanted to pay her back one day. I was convinced the only way I
could earn her a good living was through education.”
The hard situations could not let Kamanga to perfect scores
rather he got 20 points in the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE)
examinations in 2013. He was not selected to any university college despite
several efforts.
"I did not lose hope. I still believed that I was
intelligent and that it was only through education I could have a good future.
I totally rejected the 20 points I scored as I thought I could do
better than that,” he said.
He resolved to sit again for the MSCE exams but the challenge
was school fees as his mother was already struggling to pay for his young
brother.
In his pursuit of his dreams, Kamanga joined G4S where he was working as a security guard so
that he saves money and go back to school.
"Life was very hard at G4S as people laughed at me. Some
could point fingers at me when I passed closer their homes, probably because
they did not expect a young person like me to be a guard—a profession so
demeaning, associated with old and illiterate people as per
societal perspective,” says Kamanga.
G4S posted the young security guard to Mzuzu SOS Children's
Village gate where he worked for about a year. Staff members at SOS encouraged
him to go back to school and this energised his longing for education.
After saving enough, Andrew resigned and went back to Form 3
at Katoto Secondary School.
When he was in Form 4, SOS, through their Family Strengthening
Programme, identified Kamanga’s family as one of the vulnerable and started
paying school fees for him and other family members.
He scored nine points in the 2016 MSCE.
"I was very happy to hear that I was the highest and only
one with single digit points at Katoto in 2016. I wanted to challenge SOS
because they had promised to continue paying school fees for me if I went to
university,” he says.
The fears that troubled Andrew became history as SOS kept their
promise; they are paying for accommodation and meals for him and his young
brother Brown who is in third year at the same institution, studying Internal
Auditing.
"I will forever remain grateful to SOS for the support they
have been rendering to my brother and I”.
This is Andrew Kamanga’s story, hope has motivated you somehow.
"Walking at least two hours to
Dombole Secondary school sometimes with empty stomachs from Nachiye village"
FORTUNE BAYAN
"My brother I heard you want
to get married, don't try that. Nowadays, things have changed, your children are
your responsibility no one can take care of them unless otherwise. You should rebuild
your future to be brighter."
These are keys issues merged in an
interview with Fortune Bayan, 28, from
Nachiye, Ntcheu.
He was born in a family of four children
who sadly lost mother in 2008. Wind flowed and life zipped in challenges especially
when his father got married to another woman.
"Life was hard at that time. I was staying with my brother, Gift who was pursuing third year of Secondary
education at Dombole and I joined same school in 2010 when I was 16 years old."
Bayan said.
As children how did you survive?
"Our father was providing a little like soap. We used to fetch harvest
remains in people's gardens and sometimes piece labor in exchange for maize and
sweet potato," he responded.
Bayan added that they used porridge, sometimes roasted maize for dinner.
But some relatives broke their house and stole maize flour and other staffs when
they were at school.
"We were forced to left for police turn off. And there God blessed
us with a piece work of roasting maize for porridge, a 50kg bag at MK500. This helped
us a lot", he narrated.
After writing his form four examinations
in 2014, Bayan went back to village to
stay his grandmother.
"Fortunately, Gift was working
at certain bakery in Mphate. It didn't take a while, I found a job at Lungu restaurant
at a pay of MK7000 per month. I should mention here that I didn't pass well in
Malawi school certificate of education. Sometimes I guessed school it's not my issue
then with a salary I was getting I wanted to get married with Emmy Chagaga", Bayan said
Some of his relatives did not accept
the marriage idea and Mary, his sister
advised him and she said
"My brother I heard you want to get married, don't try that. Nowadays,
things have changed, your children are your responsibility no one can take care
of them unless otherwise. You should rebuild your future to be brighter."
