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As Madagascar gears up for local elections tomorrow every indication is that women’s representation is likely to decline as there are no female candidates fielded in the major cities where […]

Member of Parliament Grace “ObamaÀ Chiumi on issues of care work in Malawi and the region

In a race to win elections in her constituency in Nkhatabay West, northern Malawi, Grace coined herself ‘Obama’. Yes she can, and she did. Grace Chiumia is the first woman, a member of parliament to be in her constituency. Grace took the role of an MP seriously and as the first and only woman who ran for the post against 8 other men she did it.
Grace attended the VSO-RAISA MP training in Pretoria to assist members of parliament to be more articulate on the issues pertaining to HIV and AIDS policy implementation with the current policy frameworks in the context of care work. Grace is the second deputy chair person for the health and population committee in Malawi.
She has found her grounding and in her first months in her position as an MP, she has found that there is need to have a voice for the women and children in communities that are most vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. These include children who are heading house holds in most communities of Malawi. Families in Malawi are slowly come to terms with the understanding of stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). She informed GEMSA that there has been a greater response by the government to educate and mobilize people to understand that PLWHA are just like anyone else; thus Malawi is in the process of making a legal stand on such discrimination. In Malawi, if a person makes rude and offensive comments towards someone they think might be infected, the law would then deal with them accordingly-this Draft Bill is in process with the Malawi Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (MANETPLUS). The network’s executive Director, Safari Mbewe indicated that the draft of this Bill will be taken to parliament for reviewing by parliamentarians. Safari hopes that the government will make this a legislative document that also looks at the not giving rights to HIV+ women to bear children.
Grace also feels the law might be good in some cases as it will help make it possible for people to be more open to discussing their status. ÀCurrently there are cases of partners in her home who to do not know each other’s status. Men in particular and women perhaps practice the in ‘closet ‘treatment; this is where by a couple is taking antiretroviral treatment and the other does not know of this. The man keeps his tablets in a locked drawer in the house and takes this when there is not anyone in that space to avoid being seen for fear of discrimination; this applies to women as well who take medication in private. There is no communication of the happenings and thus there is high risk of re-infection for both partiesÀ, she said
She also was concerned about the rights of people being taken away as in the case of women who are HIV+ and sometimes women might get infected later in their pregnancies and then what choice do they have? Perhaps the Bill needs to be relooked at from another angle to keep women safe and also encourage voluntary testing.
She is looking forward concerns she hopes to tackles since being an MP, Grace says that she hopes that parliamentarians can be used as a tool to access information of issues such as the burden of carers and also reduce the infections and prevent HIV and AIDS in Malawi.