Joyce Banda asks religious leaders to pray for elections

President Dr. Joyce Banda has asked churches in the country to pray for a peaceful electoral period saying there should not be any bloodshed. 
“It is the duty of any God fearing Malawian to pray for peace in the country and people should not despair for God is the sole provider to every individual,” Banda said.
“As a nation we have to thank God for what he continues to do to this country. We particularly need to pray for the forthcoming elections so the country continues enjoying the peace that we have,” Banda added.
President Banda was speaking on Sunday at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire in Mangochi when bidding farewell to Reverend Canon John Chilombe who has been assigned to Luapula Anglican Diocese of Zambia as Missionary.
The function also coincided with the feast of annunciation of the birth of Christ to Mother Mary.
President Banda said people had every reason to thank God for since every day was a bonus. “We should consider every day of our lives as a bonus because most of colleagues passed away a long time ago but God continues to safeguard us.”
On this note, Banda reiterated that there was need to advance cordial relationship between the church and government in order for the country to realize meaningful and sustainable development at all levels.
“I cannot agree more with the previous speakers on the need for the church and government to work closely together in development activities – the two (government and church) should always complement each other,” she emphasised.
She also commended the Anglican Church for implementing various projects in the health and education sectors and pledged to support the church’s Mother’s Union Guild through her market women initiatives and activities with some small grants so that they equally participate in socio – economic activities.
In his remarks, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire Reverend Brighton Malasa said the Anglican Church was very grateful to government for creating an enabling environment for its development partners to operate in.
“The Anglican Church cherishes the cordial relationship existing between the church and the government in working in complement to each other,” Malasa said. “We (Anglican) are just sustaining what earlier missionaries initiated after noticing that there was great need for improvement in health and education.”
“The Anglican Church has been working hand in hand with government in improving the welfare of people in the area of education as well as in health,” Malasa said.
The prelate observed that it was sad to note that many Malawians were still reeling in poverty as country celebrates 50 years of independence, pointing out that the Anglican Church would work tirelessly to promote the welfare of Malawians.

Commenting on the forthcoming tripartite elections, Malasa asked political parties to practice civilized politics by addressing issues instead of castigating others during campaign rallies to avoid provoking each other degenerating into violence.
“I would to take advantage of this opportunity to appeal to all political parties contesting in May 20 tripartite elections to refrain from violence and practice clean or issue based campaign if we have to make the elections peaceful,” he emphasised.
Malasa, therefore, urged Malawians to respect their leaders because leaders are chosen by God.
In his sermon, Robert Mumbi Bishop of Luapula of Anglican Diocese in Zambia advised Canon Chilombe to strive at working dedicating his life to God like a messenger who listens attentively to the one sending to avoid distorting the message.
“Be it what you may, priest, civil servant or a business man – avoid the fashions and temptations of this world. God sends people in various capacities to serve with a sense of service and zeal to work,” Mumbi said.
Mumbi, therefore, challenged the gathering that the Lord is sending everyone to serve without regard to what they were in society. 
Rev. Cannon John Chilombe born in 1951 was ordained to priesthood in 1993. Before his posting to Zambia served in various establishments of the church including that of dean for St. Peter and Paul Cathedral Church at Mpondasi in Mangochi until his appointment to Foreign Service.
He becomes a third missionary priest from Malawi Anglican Church to work in Zambia after Leonard Kamungu who served in Eastern Zambia Diocese of Anglican between 1910 and 1913 and Bishop Bernard Malango who served in the Northern Diocese of the church in Zambia.

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Joyce Banda : A New Leader for Africa

Joyce Banda, president of Malawi since April, is already a beacon of hope for that desperately poor country, but also for good governance across a continent long plagued by its opposite. Banda has captured the world's attention in short order -- and not just by revealing how she believes she barely escaped assassination by her predecessor, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, or those close to him. President Mutharika had made his brother foreign minister and was grooming him to replace him. Warned by her security guards, Banda switched cars only to see the car she was to be in hit by a large truck.

But much more than the intrigue of a failed assassination -- or her gender in a male-dominated culture (and continent) -- has brought her the world's attention.

Shortly after assuming office -- in a country where 40 percent of the people live on less than $1 a day and the majority can't afford even a bicycle -- Banda declared she would sell the presidential jet and a fleet of 60 Mercedes limousines. When she travels abroad, she flies commercially, even though the air service to Lilongwe is so bad she can get to few places without spending the night in Johannesburg.

"Malawi is half across the river, and the other bank is within reach," said International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, when she visited Malawi in early January -- one of only two nations on her tour. She praised Banda for moving to devalue Malawi's currency -- despite knowing she would face huge domestic political problems. The new president's resolve drew the admiration of donors and the attention of investors, most of them long wary of Malawi. Under the crushing rule of Banda's predecessors, the poor country was getting only more desperate and corrupt.

Mutharika had expelled the British Ambassador after Wikileaks reported that he had told the British Foreign Office in London that the president was "becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant." Banda welcomed the British back.

In July, it was Malawi's turn to host the African Union summit, a great honor for a nation that received only 760 tourists in all of 2012. But Banda set one condition. Saying she didn't care if Malawi lost the summit, Banda refused to welcome Sudan's leader, Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted and sought by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity. The summit was moved to Ethiopia. Al-Bashir attended. Banda stayed home.

She also took little time to purge government leaders of questionable integrity, including a police chief accused of responsibility for the death of 19 people in anti-government riots. Mutharika's brother was sacked too. Banda could have attempted to prosecute him and get him out of her way politically; many felt she had cause for his involvement in a conspiracy to deny her the office of president, but she thought it better for Malawian democracy for her not to.

Banda said she was going to reverse Malawi's legal ban on homosexuals, but was able to do so for only a brief 10-day period in November; sadly, she has so far been unable to take on furious opposition led by religious leaders, but her declaration was courageous, and the time could come.

Banda recently told South African journalist and Sunday Times (London) correspondent RW Johnson, "Under Bingu I was marginalized, scandalized, humiliated and he even tried to kill me. So, having been a victim of dictatorship myself I want to do all I can to protect human rights. Human rights and good governance are vital to a democratic society. We have to strengthen our institutions -- and that means I've had to sack a lot of people who were undermining them through corruption or nepotism... I've set up a special monitoring unit within the presidency to watch out for corruption. We also have to ensure that aid is properly spent."

Banda understands that foreign aid can't solve Malawi's problems. "We can only get out of this by our own efforts," she told a group of visitors last week, among them two former presidents. In Malawi for a meeting of the Aspen Institute's Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health (GLC), Presidents Mary Robinson of Ireland and Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia comprise part of a global cheering section for Malawi's president, their colleague and a founding member of the GLC.

A key to Malawi's future may lie in whether Banda can be elected in her own right next year. The opposition is vigorous, determined to get back the spoils of government. But it is divided. And if women vote in the numbers expected, she should be able to win. She is hoping that her reforms have time to show results. The people of Malawi are used to governments promising much and delivering little. She is determined to reverse that trend, and to do so in a way that preserves democratic governance -- and that benefits the poor majority. If she succeeds, she will be an example for all of Africa.

Another key to its future is that Malawi could soon join some of its neighbors in mineral riches. Large deposits of oil and natural gas are now presumed to lie under Lake Malawi, and uranium and rare earths have been discovered. If she can be elected -- and she would be eligible under Malawi's constitution to serve two terms after this partial term -- she could put a lie to another curse of African development: that mineral wealth leads to greater inequality, corruption, and even war. Given the initial evidence from her first year in office, Joyce Banda could be the ideal leader to assure that mineral wealth benefits an entire African nation, and not just those who extract the wealth and those in government and their families and cronies who are given shares of it. .

And Banda has not lost her passion for tackling the most intractable of Malawi's problems; as an activist for women, especially the rural poor, Banda has sought access to almost everything for them -- education, electricity, and the most basic health care. She is a champion above all for providing access to free or affordable education to rural girls, few of whom stay in school past the age of 10.

Malawi's appalling rate of maternal mortality is explained to some extent by the lack of support for educating girls. With no education, an early marriage becomes the only option. Finally, with limited access to family planning, and unable to pay for medical care, or the transportation to travel to a hospital, or even a clinic and trained midwives, women have too many babies too young, often leading to death from complications during pregnancy or childbirth.

It is worth looking closely at the elements of Banda's Safe Motherhood Initiative, aimed at reducing the nation's terrible maternal death toll. Inspired by her human rights conviction that, as she says tirelessly, "even one maternal death is too many," Banda's plan is founded in the realities of what can be achieved in a country with little money, poor infrastructure, deeply rooted cultural impediments and with a daunting shortage of trained medical personnel.

She hopes to raise salaries and improve working conditions for nurses and midwives, and to convince women to space their children and to have their babies in hospitals, rather than at home. Banda says success will rest on the willingness of the nation's most influential leaders -- the traditional village chiefs. In many communities, local chiefs have already begun to exact a fee of a goat or a chicken if a woman has her baby in the village, where she is more likely to suffer life-threatening complications. The incentive is working, according to the President of the Chief's Council.

At dawn on a recent morning at a hospital in Mponela, Malawi, Zinc Chilenje, a nurse who is on call 24 hours a day, had helped two local women give birth to baby girls. He said it had been a good day. Though he had only two beds in the birthing room, he had not had to juggle his charges. Just one more birth would have made the night much harder.

The program in Mponela is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. This means Chilenje has a good stock of contraceptives to help local women space their children, and support from a team of volunteers in the villages who provide contraceptives and help monitor the women's health. Not too far from the hospital is a shelter where expectant mothers can stay in the weeks before they give birth. Not one woman has died in the hospital since 2006, but Chilenje wonders how the success can be replicated across the resource-strapped country.

About 60 miles away in Lilongwe, at the opulent palace built by her predecessor, the president of Malawi is asking herself the same question. One day last week, looking out at the friendly faces of of her fellow members of the Aspen Global Leaders Council, she vowed to fight for the means to expand her life-saving initiative. "No woman should die giving birth to another life," she said. "It will take political will. And that starts with me."

Every year an estimated 3,000 women die in Malawi during pregnancy or in childbirth -- a rate of 675 deaths per 100,000 live births. To meet the relevant UN Millennium Development Goal, the rate will have to fall to 155 by 2015. It's a challenge no other country has met in such a short timeframe. Banda has drive, and a dedicated staff, but she won't be going it alone. "We leave here with a profound sense of commitment," President Robinson told her Malawian colleague. "Malawi speaks to issues the world needs to care more about -- not only for Malawi, but for women everywhere. I assure you, we will help you."

President Joyce Banda : Awards and Achievments

1997- “Hunger Project Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger” shared with President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique
Sculpted under the Dana Toomy “Imaging Peace Project” for the Hall of Fame in recognition for championing women and children’s rights
1998- International Award for entrepreneurship development by the Africa Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs and ECA in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia
1998- 100 Heroines Award given in Rochester, New York
1997- Voted Woman of the year in Malawi
1998- Voted Woman of the year in Malawi
2001- Certificate of Honour given by the Federation of World Peace and Love in Taiwan, Republic of China
2005- Received the “Role Models of Excellence”
2005 Government/Civil Society Leadership Award given by the American and African Business Women’s Alliance based in Washington, DC, USA.
2006 International Award for health and dignity women, Americans for UNFPA
2009 Award of Recognition by the Black Mayors Caucus
2009 Life time achiever Award by the Rehoboth Trust
2010 Woman of Substance Award by African Women Development Fund
2011 Listed Africa’s Third Most Powerful Woman by Forbes Africa Magazine
2012 Listed Africa’s Most Powerful Woman by Forbes Africa Magazine

President Joyce Banda’s mission in life

Top 2 Reasons to Book President Joyce Banda as a Speaker

You want a powerful head of state to discuss how she advocates for women, children, and the underprivileged in a country where they have often been ignored or abused. As a panelist and motivational speaker at a number of international conferences and forums, she will empower and motivate your audience

President Banda’s mission in life is to assist the women and youth gain social and political empowerment through entrepreneurship and education. She has spent the past thirty years as a development practitioner, a philanthropist and a champion for social justice and equality. She has a strong passion for women, children and the under-privileged. In this regard, she has been involved several development and humanitarian work through the following platforms:

She established the Joyce Banda Foundation in 1998 and the Foundation provides integrated rural development services to over 300,000 resource poor beneficiaries. The Foundation provides services in the following areas:
i. Free Secondary School for Orphans
ii. Early Childhood Development and Orphan Care
iii. Youth Development
iv. Food and Income Security
v. Maternal health and Safe motherhood
vi. Water and Sanitation
vii. Women’s leadership
viii. Economic Development for women

Joyce Banda donates blankets to elderly, orphans: Vows to continue with charity

August 22, 2014 Banthu Times Reporter

Malawi former president Joyce Banda on Friday, August 22, 2014 visited the densely populated Nancholi Township in Blantyre where she donated blankets and other assorted items to orphans and elderly widows under the banner of the Joyce Banda Foundation International (Joyce BandaFI). Banda: I will not stop helping the needy.Banda welcomes on arrival in Nacholi, Blantyre. Ex-Malawi leader Banda donates blankets. Scores of residents in the welcomed the former Head of State with song and dance, rekindling memories when she the leader of the country popular with poverty alleviation initiatives.

When she addressed the enthusiastic crowd, Banda said she had been away (abroad) for more than a month and that it felt good to return home and meet the people.

She said her humble gesture to donate the blankets was a manifestation of how she feels about the
underprivileged, the sick and the poor.

“This is work I have done even before I became a politician; it’s in my blood. With the little resources that the Lord Almighty has blessed me with, I will continue to help marginalized and the less privileged
both through Joyce BandaFI and as an individual,” she said.

Joyce Banda, as she is fondly referred to by adorers, said no-one will take away her charity initiatives and that no-one must mistake that for politics.

Banda’s mission in life has been to assist the women and youth gain social and political empowerment through entrepreneurship and education.

She has spent the past thirty years as a development practitioner, a philanthropist and a champion for social justice and equality.

Joyce Banda has been involved several development and humanitarian work. She established the Joyce Banda Foundation in 1998 and the Foundation provides integrated rural development services to over 300,000 resource poor beneficiaries

President Joyce Banda : First Female President of Malawi

An entrepreneur, activist, politician and a philanthropist, Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda became president is Former President of the Republic of Malawi having ruled Malawi from 2012 -2014. She is Malawi’s first female president and Africa’s second. Voted as Africa's most powerful woman by Forbes Magazine for two years running and voted as one of the most powerful women in the world, Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda is a champion for the rights of women, children, the disabled and other marginalized groups.

Before becoming President of Malawi, Dr. Joyce Banda served as a Member of Parliament; Minister of Gender and Child Welfare; Foreign Minister and Vice President of the Republic of Malawi. While serving as Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, Dr. Joyce Banda championed the enactment of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill in 2006, which provides a legal framework and instrument for elimination and Prevention of all forms of Violence against Women and Girls.

President Dr. Joyce Banda is credited for turning round Malawi’s ailing economy which was on the verge of collapse when she became president in April 2012. She instituted a number of economic reforms which did not only bring the economy back on right truck but also saw the economy growing from 1.8% in 2012 to over 6.2 % in 2014; improved the operational industrial capacity from 35% in 2012 to 85% in July 2014; enhanced Malawi’s foreign exchange import cover from one week in 2014 to three and half months in July 2014; and also turned around Malawi’s fuel cover from 1 day in 2014 to 15 days in 2014 at any given time. In the areas of democracy, good governance and rule of law President Banda repealed a number of draconian laws that infringed on people’s civil liberties, media freedom and weakened institutions of good governance and rule of law.

Dr. Joyce Banda’s unwavering commitment to promotion women’s maternal health and reproductive rights saw her establish Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood, which spearheaded the fight against high maternal mortality and promotion of safe motherhood in Malawi. Remarkably during the two year period of her presidency, Malawi registered considerable success in the areas of maternal and child health and reproductive health in general as the country reduced maternal mortality ratio from 675 deaths per 100,000 live births to 460. The achievement is attributed to the model which President Banda introduced, which was a balanced act of both traditional and technical dimensions and approaches.

Staying fast to her humanitarian convictions, President Banda sold the multi-million dollar presidential jet and donated 30% of her salary to Malawi Council for the handicapped (MACOHA), an organization for people with disabilities during her two year of presidency.

A recipient of more than 15 international accolades including “Hunger Project Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger” shared with President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique in 1997, President Banda is a strong advocate for women and girls’ emancipation and empowerment and a prominent civil rights campaigner. She founded the Joyce Banda Foundation International, which has guided projects from empowering women, rural communities to providing orphans education. Currently the Joyce Banda Foundation International has benefitted over 1.3 million people in Malawi through various programs and interventions ranging from economic empowerment, agriculture and food security, education, water and sanitation, youth development just to mention a few. Among many other organizations, she established the National Association of Business Women, which lends women start-up cash to build small businesses, and the Young Women's Leadership Network, which mentors female students in schools.

On the international scene, President Dr. Banda was instrumental in formation of such organization is a African Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (AFWE), currently running in 41 countries in Africa, Council for the Economic Empowerment of Women in Africa (CEEWA) and Americans & Africans Business Women’s Alliance (AABWA) of which she served as First President.

President Banda sits on a number international organization bodies. These include Executive Advisory Committee of UNIFEM, Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health and Scientific Advisory Board of the Programs in Global health and Social change for Harvard Medical School.

President Joyce Banda has been a panelist and motivation speaker at a number of international conferences and forums, including the International Conference on Women in Beijing, the American and African Business Women's Africa Conference in London and the Women Deliver Conference in Washington, DC.