Mandela’s wife in Malawi, holds talks with President Banda
The wife of former South Africa’s President Graca Machel arrived in Malawi Thursday for a two-day official visit.
Machel’s visit to Malawi is aimed at strengthening relationship between the Malawi Government and the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS), which she is a co-founder.
Immediately after her arrival in the Warm Heart of Africa, according to a report monitored on Malawi’s state television, Machel held talks with the Malawi leader at Chikoko Bay State Residence in Mangochi district, along the shores of Lake Malawi.
During their meeting, the two commanding women tackled on a number of areas but the focus was on how they could contribute towards reducing hunger and poverty among Malawians, which is the core objective of Banda’s Presidential Initiative on Hunger and Poverty Eradication (PIHPE).
MINDS has already shown its commitment to support the capacity of PIHPE secretariat to achieve its goal of eradicating hunger in the country.
The Mandela institution was founded to address short, medium and long term development challenges in Africa in a holistic and comprehensive manner.
Since Banda became president, officials from MINDS have been to Malawi twice to see how best to work with her.
During their meeting in South Africa, Machel said MINDS had special interest in the prosperity of Malawi because she had known President Banda for a long time as a champion for empowerment of the poor and the marginalized society.
In addition, MINDS also undertook to assist the Joyce Banda administration in institutional and capacity building of governance institutions.
President Banda established the Presidential Initiative on Hunger and Poverty Eradication in June this year with the main objective to ending poverty and hunger in Malawi.
