Miss Malawi addresses MPs on population boom: Announces Build Malawi Initiative
Malawi reigning beauty queen, Cecilia Khofi, on Wednesday addressed parliamentarians including Speaker Richard Msowoya and leader of opposition Lazarous Chakwera on the effects of overpopulation.
Khofi, who was crowned Miss Malawi two months ago under the banner of fighting overpopulation, became the first beauty queen tomeet the legislators through the Malawi Parliament Population and Development Dialogue (MPPDD).
She appealed to MPs to work with her on population issues as she is the ambassador for the cause.
“My appeal is for members to work with me to address the issues of population whose impact has been severe and let to scramble for land and larming deforestation rates which affects the country’s gross domestic product,” said Khofi who currently holds a job in the Ministry of Health – Blantyre District Health Office.
The 23-year-old nutritionist graduate from Chancellor College informed MPs that she has established the Build MalawiInitiative (BMI) to champion her cause on curbing overpopulation, saying she intends to promote and champion girls’ education by inspiring and empowering them attain higher education and enrolling teenage mothers back into school.
Khofi is also a human rights activist working with several organisations in fighting against gender-based-violence (GBV) and human trafficking which she claims has given her great exposure to work with girls of different ages and from different communities.
Speaker of Parliament commended Miss Malawi managed by two media institutions, Nation Publications Limited (NPL) and Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), for giving population issues attention it seriously deserves, saying Malawi is stitting on a time bomb.
According to the country’s population data sheet compiled by Population Reference Bureau (PRB), in just over 40 years, Malawi’s population has increased from four million people in 1966 to 13.1 million in 2008. It now stands at about 17 million.
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Please talk population growth, not overpopulation.
And note that various govt and multisectorsl partners efforts have helped drop fertility rate from 5.7 children per mother to 4.4 children per mother in just about four years.
Quiet an achievement. Does Miss Malawi know this?