It is hard to believe that it has only been 7 days since we have arrived in Malawi. It seems like a lifetime ago that we boarded the plane in Toronto. Some things are being adjusted to very easily, others not so much. The weather is probably the easiest to adjust too, as it is unimaginable that it is winter back in Canada. Here it is warm everyday, and it rains every other, and the thought of snow actually doesn’t cross any of our minds. The slow manner in which things are done around here definitely does take some getting used to.
Boarding the plane
So, what has this week been like? A few examples I suppose. We landed at Chileka airport in Blantyre last week Wednesday, and were completely shocked to find that all 17 suitcases, 8 hand luggages, the stroller, and the booster seat had all made it on our plane!!! Out of the 4 previous times that I have visited Malawi, 3 times the luggage was missing, so you can understand that now we were very surprised. We were warmly greeted as Wim Akster and Charles Paundedi came to the back to help organize the visa’s and to load up all the luggage. It was nice to see some familiar faces. We also had a surprise as we walked out of the building, to see a couple from Tillsonburg, who attend our church in Ontario, standing there to greet us and say “welcome to Malawi”. This couple was visiting his family in Malawi. When we came “home” (the guest wing at Wim Akster’s house is our temporary home) we had coffee, followed by a meal which we ate together with Wim Akster and Thera Verdouw. Shortly after this we went to bed, exhausted after 21.5 hours of flying, plus driving, and waiting at the airport. We had an interesting night of sleep. Or rather, lack of sleep. Half of the kids could not sleep until 2:30, while the other half slept really well until about 2:30. Thankfully that has all straightened out after 2-3 nights. Thursday was spent exploring some of the city of Blantyre. We did some groceries, bought some SIM cards for our phones, and took a quick stop at our rental house in Mpemba, which is just south of the city of Blantyre. On Friday I went with Clement Gopanikufa, the secretary of Timotheos Malawi, to immigration and put in the paperwork for the Employment Permit. This was all accepted, and we should hear back within a month. This was a very positive outcome, as that process can take many trips and papers, etc. Also, on Friday, a container arrived from Holland with donated school furniture and many shoeboxes filled with gifts for the orphans and students. The container was supposed to be at Wim’s place at 8 a.m. but didn’t show up until 1 p.m. The container also could not be unloaded unless a government official was there, for customs and duties purposes. This government official was supposed to be there at 1, but didn’t show up until 3. During this time there are many people sitting around, waiting, waiting, and waiting some more, but no one is upset, no one is impatient, and no one is worried. Waiting is part of life in Malawi. On Sunday we went to church in Mbulumbudzi. This is a village where one of the Dutch projects is located. (In the Reformed Presbyterian Church they have church at 10 a.m. and have two services following each other.) There was a translator there, as there are also two of the Dutch employees attending. Church was good, although we had a fairly difficult time trying to understand the translator. His English was quite good, but he had a very Malawian accent. On Monday we went back to our patience training, as we had to go for curtains (curtains are a necessity for security). This included arranging to pick up a tailor who then measures the windows of your house, going to a store to pick out material, measure it, cut it, and then to bring it down to the tailor who works on the front porch of the store; all this took more than 5 hours, and that’s just normal. That’s what Malawian life is about. Everything takes long, and if you accomplish something in a day, that’s great! So after a week even though it feels like we haven’t gotten a whole lot done, we still have immigration arranged as far as we can; we have a duty waiver arranged for the container, whenever that shows up; we have arranged curtains; we have arranged a painter for our rental house; we have made some headway in looking at cars; and we have made many contacts.
NewsThe Blantyre court in Malawi failed on Thursday to start the case against Dutch national Wim Akster, who is accused of abuse. At the start of the hearing it was discovered that the case file was missing.The former development worker has been charged with sexually abusing students and employees of Stichting Timotheos.Victor Jere, the lawyer representing the victims, said that senior magistrate Andrew Mmanga could not find the case file. ‘This morning the magistrate said he did not have the file. The case was adjourned to 2pm to give him time to contact the Chief Resident Magistrate (CRM), but that also failed. So we will contact the CRM to discuss the next steps,’ he said.
Senior Resident Magistrate Wanangwa Nyirenda has reserved his ruling to 1 September 2022 on the application to discharge Dutch national Wim Akster on charges of being found in possession of firearms.
Akster was arrested in November 2021 after police found that the firearms did not have any legal documentation.
State Prosecutor Levison Mangani told the court that Akster’s discharge application is baselessly aimed at delaying the case.
However, the defence lawyer, Gimeon Nyanda, insisted the case dates back to 2020, hence applying for discharge.
Meanwhile Child Rights Activist, Memory Chisenga, asked the court to deport Akster arguing he is a total threat to children and national security.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The High Court sitting as Constitutional Court in Blantyre on Tuesday, July 18, 2023 afternoon completed hearing of the same-sex law case and has adjourned the case to August 28 and 29 2023 for hearing of submissions.
Joseph Chigona, a lead judge of a three-member panel, directed that written submissions by parties be filed with the court by close of business on August 4 2023, ahead of oral presentations of the submissions on August 28 and 29.
Claimants in the case, Jan Willem Akstar from The Netherlands and Jana Gonani from Mangochi, want the court to declare some provisions in the Penal Code that criminalise same-sex unions unconstitutional.
The State, supported by faith groups who joined the case as friends of the court, has been objecting to the claimants’ demands.
In the article “Financial director Timotheos arrested again”, the Reformatorisch Dagblad reported biasedly on the complainant by stating without proper grounds that he had been arrested on suspicion of indecent acts with several underage girls and by giving the impression that he was actually guilty of this. Although the later article “New case against ex-employee Timotheos” presented a more balanced picture of the matter, it suggested – again without proper grounds – that the complainant might have abused several underage girls. Furthermore, the mention of the complainant’s name constituted a disproportionate infringement of his privacy. The Reformatorisch Dagblad therefore acted journalistically carelessly. The Dutch Press Council recommends that the Reformatorisch Dagblad publish this conclusion generously.
Conclusion of the Council for Journalism regarding the complaint of
Parents and relatives giving consent to foreigners in adoption do not fully understand the meaning and its implications of adoption, a situation that permits manipulation in the adoption process.
This is one of the key observations of a 2025 Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) study amid escalating reports of alleged unprocedural international adoptions by parents and guardians.
Part of the report, shared with Nation on Sunday, states that lack of awareness and knowledge on adoption is dire among poor families.
Faced resistance to adopt: Madonna with her children. I Nation
In 2006, United States pop-star Madonna adopted David Banda from Home of Hope Orphanage in Mchinji District.
This was the same year the “Queen of Pop”, as she is fondly referred to, together with Michael Berg, co-founded her charity called Raising Malawi.
Banda was placed in the orphanage as his father, Yohane, was failing to provide for him and his mother had, unfortunately, died soon after giving birth to him.
Madonna, who at the time was in Malawi with his then-husband Guy Ritchie on a humanitarian trip, found David at the orphanage, then battling with malaria and pneumonia.
David was only 14 months old by then. But adopting David was a struggle for Madonna.
Jason Carney texted his client early one Friday morning with exciting news.
“Can I talk to you both again today please?” he wrote. “I have a baby.” Up popped a photo of an infant girl in a blue knit cap, beautiful brown eyes and two tiny fingers in her mouth.
It was April 2015, and Carney was working as an American missionary in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. The malnourished girl was Mwayi Siyambili. Carney said the girl’s family wanted to give her up for adoption.
His clients—a pastor at an influential megachurch in Arkansas and his wife—promptly flew to the small nation in southeast Africa, and a few weeks later, they left with little Mwayi.
Klaus Chikufenji, a prominent businessman, music promoter, and aspiring Member of Parliament, is at the center of a sprawling scandal involving human trafficking, forged documents, and the illegal adoption of vulnerable children. A damning investigation by the Investigative Platform-MW (PIJ) reveals how Chikufenji, in collusion with the Good Samaritan Children's Home, orchestrated the theft of children from their living parents, falsified death certificates, and profited from unethical international adoptions.
The investigation uncovers a chilling pattern of criminality, implicating Chikufenji in a network of corruption that preys on Malawi's most vulnerable. At the heart of the scandal is the case of Agness (name changed to protect her identity), a mother from Mulanje District whose three children were stolen from her while she was hospitalized.
The Stolen Children
In 2016, Agness was admitted to Mulanje District Hospital for an illness. When she returned home, her three children were gone. Her grandmother informed her that the children had been taken to the Good Samaritan Children's Home, allegedly at the behest of former Minister of Gender, Community Development, and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati.
Agness later discovered that her children had been declared orphans, with forged death certificates claiming both she and her ex-husband were dead. The certificates, obtained by Chikufenji, were used to facilitate the illegal adoption of her children by an American couple, Priscilla Garner and her husband.
