Slow down on child bearing, Inkosi M’belwa urges subjects in Mzimba

Inkosi ya Makosi M’belwa V of Mzimba has urged his subjects “to slow down on child bearing” saying the rate at which the country’s population is growing is alarming.

M’belwa made the call at his Edingeni headquarters recently on the sidelines of a visit by Global Hope Mobilization which is running campaigns throughout the country for children between the ages of 6 and 19 to remain in school, and not to rush for marriages.

M’belwa argued that the land was becoming scarce, and that he was lately registering a litany of land dispute cases at his office largely because of the overpopulation problem.

“We’re bearing too many children. We’re growing at an alarming rate, and yet the size of our land is the same,” lamented M’belwa.

The youthful traditional leader encouraged his subjects planning to marry to have “a maximum of two children.”

Himself an advocate that youths remain in school, too, M’belwa chided the youths from engaging in such sordid behaviors as taking alcohol and getting married early.

He asked the youths in his vicinity to “take their time.”

Mzimba District Commissioner Thomas Chirwa thanked Globe Hope Mobilization for the “impact” they were making in the district.

Reacting, Global Hope Mobilization executive director Careb Thole said it was their wish to look into it that young people were “packed with the rights messages” regarding their adolescence.

“It is a critical stage in their development to adulthood, and if right and correct information is not imparted on them at this stage it is a disaster,” said Thole.

M’belwa, Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani of Ntcheu and Bishop Bernard Malasa of the Anglican Church are the named faces championing the project while Skeffa Chimoto is the ambassador.

According to Thole, the choice of chiefs is strategic so as they help in making by-laws that will see to it that children are protected and remain in school while the church leader’s choice is to guide their flock and through preaching disseminate the same message to church-goers.

In Mzimba, Globe Hope Mobilization are running two projects in Edingeni: Narrowing the Gap, a project which is encouraging children to remain in school and Kalondolondo wa ba Mama – aimed at encouraging HIV positive mothers to deliver in hospital so that they avoid mother to child HIV transmissions.

Elsewhere in the country, the organisation is running its projects in the districts of Lilongwe, Ntcheu and Dowa. The projects are run with funding from GIZ.