Lay Catholic Association in Malawi Engages Prison Community in COVID-19 Projects

Mzuzu Prison Officer in charge, Zachaeus Malekano M’bawa, expressed gratitude to the lay Catholic association, saying the partnership would put to use some of the talents behind prison walls.

“We have hidden talents here which we are failing to utilize for the benefit of our communities, the little we get from such initiatives will help our facility in ensuring that our inmates are well protected from coronavirus,” M’bawa said.

The officer expressed fears that it might be possible that 50 percent of the inmates at Mzuzu Prison have contracted coronavirus going by a random sampling test that had been conducted at the prison premises.

On September 2, Malawi’s President Lazarus Macarthy Chakwera pardoned at total of 499 inmates from various prisons in the country as one way of decongesting the prisons in the wake of COVID-19.

As of September 5, Mzuzu Prison which was designed to keep 550 inmates was hosting a total of 784 prisoners of which 88 are females.

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Members of the community of Sant’Egidio, which has its secretariat in Mzuzu, a city in Northern Malawi, have conducted other projects aimed at mitigating effects of COVID-19 lockdown in the country that has been ranked as one of the poorest in the world.

Through its I Care Campaign launched in August, the leadership of the lay Catholic association has facilitated the provision of food and protective equipment to the elderly in the Diocese of Mzuzu, the feeding of vulnerable children and realized the engagement with inmates in the COVID-19 fight through the making of face masks.

“Seeing the condition of COVID-19, the Mzuzu Sant’Egidio embarked on the I Care Campaign to cushion the poor people and make sure that they were not left out. It has not been easy for a poor country like Malawi in this time of the pandemic,” the lay Catholic association leadership reports in one of its communiques.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.