Yesterday, while stuffing envelopes for the upcoming election for our local teachers’ union, I received a text message from a good friend in Malawi. It seems that he had just been re-elected as Secretary General for the Teacher’s Union of Malawi. As I stuffed 11,000 flyers into hundreds of envelopes I thought of the similarities and differences between our working conditions.

Here in Toronto the candidates for the positions of Executive Officer have access to their members. They can email, visit schools, make phone calls and hold information meetings. They pay for printing of their own flyers and are responsible for distributing them using our inter-office courier. Flyers are printed in colour and black and white depending on the candidate’s personal preference and budget. Here in Toronto we have 14 executive officers representing 11,000 teachers. These officers are supported by volunteers in schools and in families of schools. They have the difficult job of constantly defending our collective agreement, clarifying our rights and supporting teachers through a variety of challenges including allegations of abuse, teacher performance appraisals and transfer procedures.

In Malawi, things are a bit different. No candidate would ever consider flyers or emails during their campaign. Few teachers in Malawi have access to a computer, let alone email. The mail system is unreliable and printing costs are outrageous. I once had snapshots printed at a cost of 75 cents each. Candidates would not think of calling their members as calls cost up to 30 cents a minute when the network is actually working. Many teachers live in areas with no cellular network. Travel within Malawi is becoming increasingly more expensive. Members can not attend meetings as it would cost some, a month’s salary to get to the meeting.

In Malawi 14 officers are elected to represent 66,000 teachers. These officers are faced with the challenging tasks of fighting for teachers’ rights. They have no collective agreement. The government has refused to implement such a binding contract, instead they work on good faith. Last year the Teacher’s Union of Malawi (TUM) was faced with the challenge of ensuring that all teachers were paid on time. Those teachers without bank accounts and even many with accounts, were made to wait up to 6 weeks for their monthly pay cheques. This happened for several months in a row. TUM also fought and won the battle to get a remote living allowance for those teachers living in the most rural areas of Malawi. Also, a battle was waged to get electricity in the houses of primary school teachers. I believe that battle has not yet been won.

Here in Ontario teachers are placed on a salary grid depending on their years of experience and education. As of now, teachers can easily move to the top of the grid by taking courses at their own expense. Each year of service, up to 10 years results in a teacher moving up the grid to a slightly higher wage. Teachers make a good salary and do not need to hold a second job in order to make ends meet. During my 14 years as a teacher I’ve received a small pay raise each year as part of our negotiated contract to address the increase in cost of living.

In Malawi, teachers are placed on a similar grid using similar grid. Their education and experience is counted to place them appropriately. Malawian teachers can move up the pay grid by applying foa promotion. They must only apply after being at a stage for a minimum of 4 years. If their application is accepted they can attend an interview and explain why they are a valuable member of the profession who deserves a pay increase. Few teachers are granted interviews, so a 5th year teacher may compete against a 12th year teacher for the same promotion. Malawians, like Canadians, are given a cost of living increase each year. Sadly, their increase amounts to an increase of approximately 75 cents a year.

I’ve written often of the differences in the working conditions here and in Malawi. Our schools here have electricity and glass in the windows. Our students are provided with supplies, textbooks and desks. Our schools are cleaned by professionals. We have gymnasiums, musical instruments, computers, libraries full of current and relevant materials, access to resources and time to prepare lessons. Our class sizes are manageable. None of this exists in Malawi. With classes of up to 120 students with one teacher, no furniture in classrooms, no resources for teachers and libraries of English books written in the 1950s donated from churches in the western world it is a wonder Malawians ever choose to be teachers.

I think we are very lucky to work in the environment in which we do. We need to fight for the rights we have earned so that ours can continue to be hailed as a strong and valid system.

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On Thursday of last week I received an email from a friend in Malawi stating that there were strong rumours that the president had died and his body was being transported to South Africa. At the time, Malawians were told that their leader had suffered a cardiac arrest and was being rushed to Johannesburg for treatment. Almost two full days later the government officials announced his death. The announcement appears to have been a reaction to threats from citizens and leaders of donor countries to be forthcoming with information.

According to the constitution of Malawi, which has only been a democracy since 1994, in the event of the presidnet’s death, the Vice-President is to assume his duties and fulfill the term. Unfortunately, Malawi has undergone some political unrest in these past few years. Although the late Bingue wa Mutharika won the election as part of a team that included Joyce Banda as his running mate, the two had a falling out two years ago. The dispute between the two leaders resulted in the VP being stripped of her membership in the ruling DPP party. Many of her rights and privileges were removed but she remained in her elected post as VP. She formed her own party and carried out her duties to the best of her ability.

In the mean time, Mutharika, knowing the constitution did not allow him to run for a third consecutive term in office, was advocating that his brother, a cabinet minister, should be the next president. Many Malawians have become disallusioned with the ruling DPP party as a result of fuel, food and foreign currency shortages over the past few years. Few would look favourably upon another Mutharika as leader.

It seems that the delay in announcing the President’s death last week was in part due to the fact that the government was in meetings trying to change to constitution to allow the deceased’s brother to take power. The Law Society of Malawi, along with Human Rights Watch, put pressure on the government to say that if they followed through with this plan the result would surely be civil unrest.

On Saturday afternoon, Malawi’s first female president was sworn in. Joyce Banda has been a strong advocate of women’s rights. Malawians have great hope that she will restore Malawi’s relationship with donor countries and begin to facilitate the political freedoms that were slowing slipping away. It is also hoped that she can rectify the shortages that have caused this tiny country to suffer greatly in these past few years. She definitely has a big job ahead but the transition was peaceful and by all accounts will remain so.

This is definitely an exciting time to be “in” Malawi.

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As tax time nears I want to remind everyone that Itatu is now in a position to issue tax receipts. Our donations are really down this year. We’ve reached less than 10% of our annual operating budget. If you can help, we’d really appreciate it. In order to get a tax receipt, donations must be filtered through the Canadian Council of the Blind. Donations must be mailed to them at:

CCB National Office 20 James St. Suite 100, Ottawa, ON K2P 0T6, Canada. Make the cheque payable to them with Itatu Orphan Care in the memo line.

Itatu helps girls aged 9 to 12 in the Central Region of Malawi. We provide meals, school uniforms and school supplies to these girls who are either orphaned or abandoned and are living in extreme poverty. Malawi is a developing country among the poorest in the world. The best hope for a bright futture for these girls is an education. In order to be well educated, the children need to have a nutritious diet to sustain them.

Thank you everyone.

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