MB Church is one of the many churches in Malawi which has the mission of planting holistic churches in order to give Hope to the nation through the word of God and charity. This constitutes to 77% of Christian denominations according to 2018 Malawi population and Housing Census. As our Vision states “we are called by God to be followers of Jesus Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit to grow as communities of grace, joy and peace, so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world. This vision is achieved through one of the MB objectives whereby the church makes healthily mature disciples, raising new missionaries and is empowered by the Holy Spirit (Mathews 28:19-20).
The Mennonite Brethren Church in Malawi (MBCM), Dzaleka Refugee camp branch, was opened since 2009 and gathered different believers from different countries, tribes and culture. These people came to Malawi for seeking peace and protection after being tortured, discriminated, raped, under harassment, traumatized by war and conflicts in their home countries. Majority of them being women and children who lives in small crowded place called Dzaleka refugee camp. These are put forward as prayer requests.
● Political situation in Malawi
● Covid-19 pandemic
● Dzaleka refugee camp situation
● Malawi situation
● MBC Malawi prayer request
POLITICAL SITUATION IN MALAWI
Malawi had free and fair general elections in 2009. The ruling party won these elections both in 2014 and 2019 respectively. It is in the 2019 when political turmoil started due to irregularities in the May 2019 elections where the opposition claimed that the ruling party didn’t win and organized many street demonstrations and decided to take the case in court.
It has taken over a year now without since these post elections demonstrations started where many people properties, others got injuries, business struggled and many people lost their live. Recently, the court ruled on fresh elections.
This has led to compaign where some politicians were having speeches of division and violence among the people based on religion , tribes and regions in Malawi, and this has brought more fear to both Malawians and other people people living within Malawi , refugees included.
Political leaders are the ones infatuating these tensions by pronouncing vulgar words on one another. This is contrarily to the objective of MB church to bring peace, reconciliation and give hope to the world. Some of the direct results of the political situation are burning of cars, houses, killings, beatings, blocking roads and violent demonstrations. It is in view of this, us as a church would like to unite people like a precious faith in the bonds of brotherly love and fellowship. (Romans 12:10)
MBC Malawi message: We are all created in God’s image; color, tribe, language, religion, region should not be a reason for discriminating or killing each other. Peace and love should remain our let motiv as everyone is important in God’s kingdom.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
The world has been engulfed with fear of the pandemic disease called COVID-19 caused by Corona virus. Covid-19 is a severe acute respiratory syndrome which was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 11th March 2020. The disease has infected millions of people globally and killed many people around the world.
As of 8th June, 2020 Malawi, has registered 438 cases and 4 deaths. However, there is expectation that these numbers will continue to grow in the months ahead since the country has limited access to health equipment, testing tools and many people are not taking it seriously as they are claiming that it is a political arrangement for not organizing elections.
Since the disease was discovered, 4th June will be a day to remember because Dzaleka Refugee Camp registered it’s first 4 cases in a single day. Already the camp is congested with a population of 47000, which will make it difficult to control the spread of the virus and social distancing. This brings a great threat to Dzaleka community and church members as well.
MBC Malawi message: “The Lord shall fight for you, and He shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:13-14). Do not fear
DZALEKA REFUGEE CAMP SITUATION AND MALAWI AS A WHOLE.
Dzaleka refugee camp situation
Community of Dzaleka has been greatly affected with covid-19 disease due to measures put in place to prevent the transmission of the corona virus. Restriction of movements, washing hand with water and soap, social distancing, wearing masks in crowded places.
Unfortunately, people living in Dzaleka refugee camp are not able to provide to themselves all of this preventive equipment and the UNHCR and other implemented partners are not providing this hygiene equipment to the community at high risk.
Secondly, the WFP has stopped providing food and brought a new system of giving money directly to refugees, an amount of MK 2100 ($2.8) per month which makes $0.093 per day per person.
As it is seen, this amount is largely not enough to survive with for a person, and it makes life very very hard for people living in Dzaleka refugee camp, this leads to malnutrition for children, others die of hunger and different diseases, women get engaged in prostitution for raising few money to survive with which increases the level of HIV/AIDS and many cases of domestic violence were recorded.
Malawi situation
This year, harvest is not enough again due to rainfall pattern, land possession, and having inadequate farm inputs since not everyone can manage to buy them. In this view, hunger is another threat that has affected the community. The majority of people in Malawi live in rural areas and under poverty which makes them not able to buy farm inputs such as fertilizers and quality seed, which leads to food shortage,
The current situation of covid-19 has also affected learning of children in such a way that up to now schools in Malawi have not opened since they closed in March. This issue has led many girls to early marriages, pregnancies, street kids have increased and many have engaged in prostitution and barbary as they spend their time at home doing nothing at all.
The measures which were put in place have negatively affected the nation as a whole economically since movement within and across the border was restricted.
Our prayer is that the Lord can open doors for these vulnerable people at high risk of COVID-19 and other calamities to get food, hygiene equipment and to bring peace in his people.
As a church seeking for holistic transformation into Christ followers, to develop and provide counselling, peace and conflicts resolution in the community of Dzaleka refugee camp and surrounding in Malawi as a whole.
Due to the COVID-19 situation and political issues in Malawi God can provide all necessity for the church to reach its’s mission of bringing hope, peace, reconciliate people as the church is the only hope for the world during this period.
Brothers and sisters, join us in prayer as the Bible says, call me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3.
President of Mennonite Brethren church in Malawi,
Bahati Safari M.