A majority of people in Malawi, regard underlying mental conditions as a least concern which according to the Malawi Police Service (MPS) has led to a spike in suicide cases from 135 cases to 253 cases in the first half of 2022 and 2023 respectively. Survivors of psychological trauma induced by loss and damage due to climatic shocks, are susceptible to executing such thoughts when they fail to access psychosocial support in time.
Art and Global Health Center Africa (ArtGlo), engaged duty bearers and the youth from GVHs Mbalu and Makawa to unearth their lived experiences with regard to psychosocial support systems at their disposal in their communities. In these interactions, participants emphasized that it is the duty of everyone to take part in assisting people that find themselves mentally distressed due to climate change induced loss and damage to avoid execution of rational decisions which has far reaching implications to their immediate surroundings and the nation at large.
“It took the effort of some community members who upon noticing a change in the social behaviour of one of the survivors of loss and damage, to reduce the depression he was in. The farmer started self-isolatiion and was not cheerful in jovial moments as he was previously doing ever since his field of rice, ready for harvest, was submerged by flooding water.” Explained Mapiri, Thondwe Youth Club member.
He further said that some friends of the farmer approached duty bearers to summon their friend since he was not giving them a clear explanation for the sudden change. After the cause was identified to be loss of the rice field which was the source of his livelihood, he was also told that a majority of people are in a similar predicament but are living positively as each day passes. He finally accepted his fate and resumed his normal life.
Mapiri himself lost his field and house but did not let that loss overwhelm him for he was assured that it is not only him who lost the source of their livelihood. Some people in his community react by letting it out through crying, especially women, which sometimes call public attention whilst men suffer in silence. It was also shared that some men abandon their households when they face similar situations.
“After observing that he has overstayed at the lake, his wife sent his sons to check up on him but he bluntly told them that he cannot go back to a place where he has no reason to stay at.” Said Mr Jimu, a member of GVH Mbalu Village Disaster Response Committee (VDRC).
It has been the tendency of some men in the two GVHs to overstay in temporary shelters around the shores of Lake Chilwa as fishermen and not return back to their families. They do this either unwillingly or deliberately due to persistent climatic shocks that lead to loss of agricultural investments considering that the area is one of Malawi’s rice rich hotspots. This has had ripple effects to the abandoned families where the burden is left on women who are overwhelmed with the responsibility of raising children. This also translates to rising cases of school dropout due to lack of financial support towards educational needs especially among young girls who resort to forced or voluntary early marriages.
“One of the women in Jalasi village married off her 15 years old daughter to a young man citing that she cannot be able to pay for her secondary education when she gets selected. After learning about the matter, we consulted the Child Protection worker (CPW) and the Jali Police Officer to thoroughly investigate the issue since the mother was not forthcoming on the same.” Narrated Mr Saidi, Village Disaster Response Committee Chairperson for GVH Makawa.
Saidi added that the intervention led to the woman confessing that she indeed forced her daughter into marriage and the matter was taken to the police station. Upon knowing that the law enforcers are hunting for the young man who married the girl, he escaped to Blantyre and the marriage is no more. The girl is now back to school after missing classes almost the whole of 2023 and was able to seating for this year’s Malawi National Examinations Board’s (MANEB) Primary School Leaving Certificate Examinations (PLSCE).
It is therefore worth noting that the psychosocial training that some members of these communities received, is a step in the right direction as it will amplify and strengthen the community led initiatives on the same. Our implementing partner, in the Arts for Climate Action Phase II, CADECOM, provided the training to representatives VDRCs, Village Development Committees (VDCs), community and religious leaders in response to the findings that ArtGlo unearthed in the first phase of the project (2023).
