Chifundo Macheso is a 43-year-old woman from Kambenje Village, Traditional Authority Nkanda in Mulanje District.
Her husband died in 2005 and left her with five children. The firstborn brought another unexpected gift, bringing the total number to six.
Macheso was already struggling with the pangs of poverty while with her husband and his passing subjected her to more agony.
It was not until 2021 that, together with a group of other women, she decided to enroll in adult literacy through farmers’ field school which was being supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
She already could read and write but her quest was to be financially literate so that she should escape from poverty.
The farmers’ field school taught her how to save, manage savings and be financially independent. She also started saving from her low-cost farm where she was cultivating beans.
“I was not the same person and the change is because of the education we have acquired in our farmer field schools, which has enabled us to be financially independent,” Macheso said.
With proceeds from her farming, she joined a village savings group, popularly known village bank, where she teamed up with other women pursuing similar goals.
During the first year of the village savings group, Macheso received K98,000 and in the second year, she received K180,000 which she used to venture into commercial farming.
By last year, her commercial farm was giving her 65 bags of beans, whose proceeds she channelled towards building her own house and paying fees for two of her children in secondary school.
She says enrolling in adult education on farming and financial management is a decision she wishes she had made earlier than 2021.
“This group has women who are heading families but we do not look down on ourselves and my vision is to buy a motorbike next year and upscale my farm further,” she added.
Female-headed homes in Malawi are not new and research has shown that most of them in rural areas struggle to make ends meet.
However, adult education comes in as a probable solution to the problem if it is embraced by both state and non-state actors as figures show that more women are interested in adult literacy.
A public lecture by educationist Limbani Nsapato at the Catholic University in 2021 showed that the number of women in adult literacy schools always surpasses men.
In the 2018/2019 government year, 141,756 were enrolled into adult education and 108,837 were females while in 2019/2020, adult education enrolled 17,643 out of which 14,293 were females.
DVV International is an organisation that advocates for and supports adult education in Malawi and its Communications Officer, Dyson Mthawanji, emphasizes the need for specialized education rather than focusing on people just being able to read and write.
Mthawanji believes education should be tailor-made in line with the kind of economy of a particular area because, for example, what makes money in lakeshore districts is not the same in other districts.
“Financially literate homes are better prepared to weather financial shocks and uncertainty because they are more likely to have emergency funds and be covered with insurance,” Mthawanji said.
Malawi has a dream; to become an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant middle-income economy by 2063.
The fifth enabler of the development agenda is human capital development where, among others, it says the country shall promote inclusiveness in human capital development by promoting gender transformative approaches that aim to reduce gender power imbalances that hinder the economic empowerment of women.
The vision is being championed by the National Planning Commission.
The commission’s spokesperson, Thom Khanje, stresses the need to take everyone on board to achieve the dream.
“Those who are literate handle issues better in their decision-making processes such as in farming, for one to know and practice best farming practices they have to be literate therefore indeed, adult education is key to wealth creation,” Khanje said.
The Malawi Government introduced the National Centre for Literacy and Adult Education to make sure that adult literacy is not only accessible but bears desirable fruit.
The need for specialized adult literacy such as financial management is enormous and needs to be embraced if the country is to forge ahead economically.
