CHIRADZULU, Malawi: Sixteen-year-old Rosa Nowayga is like most girls her age — she likes to dance and hang out with friends. But she's also married with two children. Her eyes sparkle with youthful optimism, but her shoulders prematurely slouch with exhaustion.
"Malawi is [full of] girls like me," she says, waiting in line at a rural healthcare clinic. "We can't change our situation. Poverty eats you."
LAUREN E. BOHN / FOR NBC NEWS
The landlocked southern African country is racked with challenges, its people accustomed to hanging on by a thread. Roughly the size of Pennsylvania, three-quarters of Malawi's 16 million live below the poverty line. Just nine percent of the population has access to electricity. The country's life expectancy hovers around 49. While primary education is free, only 16 percent of girls finish.
But one ambitious woman, who was born in a village not far from Rosa's, vows to change all that.
"All the ills that have dragged Malawi backwards must be stopped now," said Malawi's 63-year-old president, Joyce Banda, who was Vice President until her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, died 21 months ago. "We're at a transition point, and I am a part of a crop of new leaders on the African continent that worry about the people first."
As the second female president of an African nation, Banda is a beacon of hope. She isn't afraid to take on challenges that have weighed her country – and a continent – down for decades. But ahead of presidential elections in May, Banda has just as many detractors as she does fans. And time is running out to convince her country that she's the one who will walk them back from the edge of survival.
0 comments:
Post a Comment