SCOTS CANS TAKE OLD BIKES TO GHANA SIR BOB VERDICT ON … · Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh,...

S P E C I A L G 8 S C O T L A N D – A F R I C A E D I T I O N

Africawoman

SCOTS CANS TAKE OLD BIKES TO GHANA l GEORGE REID: MAN BEHIND

SIR BOB l ANN GLOAG’S AFRICAN SURGERY SHIPS l MEET MALAWI’S

UNIQUE MIDWIFE l FIGHTING THE BRAIN DRAIN l AFRICAWOMAN’S

VERDICT ON JACK, KILTS, GLENEAGLES AND SCOTSMEN l June 2005

2 AFRICAWOMAN – Special G8 Gleneagles Edition

EDITORIAL

P.O. Box 6064, Nairobi 00200, Kenya

Tel: 254-2-2721429 Tel/Fax: 254-2-2721439

Email:[email protected]

Website:www.africawoman.net

This special edition has beenwritten by Scottish andAfrican women journalists. Its aim is to explore thepeople and projects that linkScotland and Africa ahead of the G8 summit atGleneagles where Africa willtop the agenda

G8 Edition Editor: Lesley Riddoch ([email protected])

Regional Coordinator:Florence Machio ([email protected])

Editor: Lucy Oriang ([email protected]@yahoo.com)

Picture Editor, Scotland:Kelli Abdoney (with thanks tothe Herald)

Design: NDA Inc.www.newsdesign.net

Africawoman is produced by 80women journalists from Uganda,Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana,Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia andNigeria who meet in a virtualnewsroom once a month. Theinformation produced is thenlinked to community radiosthroughout Africa to reachgrassroot women.

Scotland’s First Minister visited Africa in May – and world leaders are comingto Scotland to talk about Africa in July. Will anything we can say affect thosetalks? It seems some powerful people have already made up their minds. TheUS President and his hawkish head of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz havealready given Gordon Browns ideas for doubling aid to Africa a thumbsdown.

Japan also does not sound keen. This should not be an excuse for British or Scottish resolve to weaken. The Kyoto

treaty survived without America’s signature. The war against Iraq was begun without afinal UN resolution. For better and for worse, where there is a will to act world leaderscan find a way.

Tony Blair must demand that Europe leads where America fears to tread. BecauseEurope is at the heart of Africa’s biggest dilemma – unfair trading rules. The CommonAgricultural Policy deprives Africa of an annual US$20 billion in trade, twice Kenya’sentire economic output. An average European cow gets a daily subsidy of US$2.50 —three billion humans have to live on less.

Tony Blair must talk tough on trade – and doubling aid. He must talk tough toAfrican leaders too.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathi has spoken for many when she saysAfrican leaders have betrayed their own people for too long. Their corruption andgreed, she says, is being used as a great excuse for non-intervention by the developedworld. This has to change. And women are at the forefront of every important issue.

Young African women are now the biggest single group contracting the death sen-tence of HIV/AIDS. Educating girls has always been a low priority – now it must cometop. Popes and western leaders preaching abstinence make great headlines – but don’thelp when men have the right to sex with their wives, even when they are so youngthey suffer serious internal damage. Nothing short of full legal and property rights forwomen will restore this appalling imbalance of power in the home.

In war zones, rape has become commonplace. Where soldiers are HIV+ that sexualassault is often a death sentence too. Rape in war must be made a war crime to attractthe heavy sentences that will let women live. An international campaign to cut thenumber of women dying in childbirth needs world leaders backing — better transportand telecommunications links would cost little and save half a million women in 5 years.

Most of these issues are beyond the power of Jack McConnell to change. ButAfricawoman believes Scotland’s First Minister will himself be changed by his forth-coming trip to Malawi. Not just by the massive schools – one holds 9500 pupils. Not justby the shocking lack of basic resources in hospitals. Not just by the areas where HIVand Malaria mean coffin manufacture is the only growth industry. But by the sheer zestfor life of the people – despite everything. Asked to sum up what Africa can teach thewest in five words, a Member of the Scottish Parliament recently returned from the con-tinent said, “the absolute joy of living.”

If Mr McConnell has a sincere intention to help Malawi transform he should alsoencourage Scots to turn out in massive strength for the Make Poverty History rally inEdinburgh on July 2nd. Scots have the capacity next month to surprise G8 leaders – wemay also surprise ourselves

Lesley RiddochIssue Editor

Europe must lead on Africa

S P E C I A L G 8 S C O T L A N D – A F R I C A E D I T I O N

Africawoman

Lawyers fight for rights of girls l Dorothy Logie: Life’s work after life’s loss

Scots cans take old bikes to Ghana l George Reid: the man behind Sir Bob

Funding ship-based surgeries l Meet Malawi’s unique midwife June 2005

Africawoman

POLITICS

Special G8 Gleneagles Edition – AFRICAWOMAN 3

First Minister JackMcConnell has pledged to support Malawi’seducation system and“stick with” the countrylike a friend.Caroline Somanje,Malawi, reports

Scotland’s First Minister will tellthe people of Malawi he hopesthey will receive the lion’sshare of his new InternationalDevelopment budget duringhis visit to the “warm heart of

Africa” in late May.His government has pledged £3 million

for aid projects with an emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. In an exclusive interviewwith Africawoman in his office at theScottish Parliament in Edinburgh,McConnell made clear he would likeScottish-based NGOs to work in Malawi.

And he talked about his Fresh TalentInitiative – attracting foreign workers tocombat population decline and skillsshortages in Scotland – which has wor-ried some African journalists, who areconcerned that the UK is already recruit-ing too many Malawi workers.

“We are conscious not to drain pro-fessionals from African countries andpeople in Scotland will do what they canto support Malawi in building longerterm partnerships for as long asMalawithinks it helpful. We chose Malawi as arelatively small country to which weshall stick and make our pledge consis-tent. Scotland will help with training.

“We have expertise in medical train-ing that is admired in the developmentworld,” said McConnell. He said he wasnot going to Malawi with a view that hehad all the answers but to listen and offerhelp where he could.

Scotland’s interest in Malawi dates to

the time of the Scottish missionary, DavidLivingstone who is revered in the countryas an icon who fought the slave trade inwhat used to be know as Nyasaland.

In 2000, Glasgow’s Strathclyde Univer-sity (where Livingstone was a student)launched the Malawi Millennium Projectwith Bell College in Hamilton and theUniversity of Malawi. It trained teachersand nurses, built and equipped a materni-ty clinic and provided civil engineeringand environmental health expertise.

Africawoman journalists attended acelebration of the project in Glasgowwhere the Lord Provosts (civic leaders) ofEdinburgh and Glasgow together with 90Scottish aid organisations – pledged todevelop Malawi in the next 20 years.

Jack McConnell – who heads adevolved parliament within the UnitedKingdom which has no direct control overInternational Development policy and lit-

tle power to end the massive brain drainthat is plunging Malawi into economicinstability – said he was determined tomake sure British politicians would followthe example set by British musicians inLive Aid and British comedians in ComicRelief by delivering Fair Trade for Africaat this years G8 summit of world leadersto be held in Scotland this July.

Africawoman co-ordinator FlorenceMachio from Kenya asked if MrMcConnell would appear at Gleneagleswearing the African braided kilt – takento Africa for braiding by James Gillespie’sSchool, Edinburgh – that she presentedto him in the Scottish Parliament.

McConnell promised to wear the kilt –sometime! u

http://www.scotland.gov.uk

Details of Malawi Millennium Projectat: www.strath.ac.uk/projects/malawi

SCOTTISH First Minister Jack McConnell accepts “lucky” Africawoman kilt to wearat G8 summit. PHOTO: PA

ScotlandbacksMalawi


HEALTH

Scots businesswoman Ann Gloag ran a bus operation in Malawi, set up hospitals there and in Kenya and donated cash. But her patiencewith delays, problems and corruption ran out – now she’s donatedmillions to Mercy Ships. Can this fully equipped floating hospital work when onshore clinics have often failed? Beth Pearson reports

With Mercy Ships, thefigures speak forthemselves. TheAmerican-basedcharity has helpedmore than 5.5 million

sick people in its 26-year history. That’smore than the population of Scotland.

It has provided $21 million of medicalequipment and medicines and visited 53of the poorest countries in the world. Itshospital ships moor alongside the poorestcities in the world to offer a range of oper-ations for people who wouldn’t get treat-ed by their own governments. The chari-ty’s goal is to treat one million people peryear.

Scotswoman Ann Gloag is one of thecharity’s biggest supporters. She hasdonated £4m of her fortune from theStagecoach bus company to buy the thirdin the Mercy Ships fleet, African Mercy,which is currently being refitted inNewcastle and will help treat 450,000 peo-ple every year in Africa.

“Highly skilled surgeons from acrossthe globe perform thousands of opera-tions to remove tumours and cataracts,straighten crossed eyes, repair cleft lipsand palates, correct fistulas and providewide range of orthopaedic procedures,”says Gloag. “Mobile medical and dentalteams establish field clinics in nearbycommunities to offer vaccination pro-grammes, dental care and minor opera-tions. Mercy Ships provides all of theseservices free of charge to the patients.”

And yet, the charity attracts questions.

Is it right to create a floating mini-statewithout formal responsibility to the gov-ernments whose citizens it treats? Or isthe efficient, western style operation theonly reason Mercy Ships succeeds? Doesreligious conviction play a part in therecruitment of volunteers or is the freework performed by world class surgeonssufficient testimony to the spirit behindthe project?

In 2000, Gloag volunteered onboard theAnastasis while it was moored offCotonou, Benin. The second richestwoman in Britain - the first is the Queen –she shared dormitory bunks with the

other volunteers and ate the same blandfood.

“All ships are crewed entirely by volun-teers, from the Captain to the surgeonsto the deck hands,” she says. ”Each vol-unteer pays monthly crew fees for theduration of their time on board, as well astheir own airfares. This allows MercyShips to make sure the donations to thecharity go directly to those in need.”

“Approximately, 25% of the volunteersare medical. The other 75% of volunteersrange from engineers, to constructionworkers, to cleaners, to cooks, to account-ants and much more. The ships haveschools for the children of volunteers andthere can be as many as 20 families onthe Anastasis at one time. If you think ofthe ships as small towns, with the needsof small towns, this gives you an idea ofwhat the different people do.”

Gloag’s metaphor of the ships as self-contained towns is apt.

When patients board the ship, they areconfronted with a little piece of theWestern world. This has benefits. Theefficiency generates the impressive treat-ment statistics and avoids local problemsthat might jeopardise crew safety anddelay or obstruct treatment. But is therea missed opportunity to improve local,onshore, state health systems?

An anthropologist with experience inWest Africa worked in Sierra Leone whenthe Anastasis visited. He accepts MercyShips does enormously important workbut believes there is a “band-aid”approach that isn’t sustainable.

ANN GLOAG: “Mercy Ships have foundsolution.”

$4m donation fundsship-based surgeries


HEALTH

Why shipboundmedicalservices workBy Fiona McWhirter

Ann Gloag first becameinvolved in Africa whenher bus companyStagecoach expanded

there.“The big problem was that many

officials were corrupt and oftenyou were expected to bribe peopleto do business. We point blankrefused to do this and instead fund-ed medical projects.

“We funded a burns unit in ahospital in Malawi for a number ofyears and, in Nairobi, I becameinvolved in funding an orphanageafter discovering that babies werebeing left on our buses.

“Often the mothers were veryyoung and believed their childrenwould be better off in an orphan-age. I wanted to make sure thatwhere the babies were taken wassomewhere well-funded and home-ly with education on offer. I stillfund the orphanage in Kenya,which has been transformed overthe years. We have built a schooland encourage the children to setup small businesses which theyreally enjoy.”

Ms Gloag’s cash also fundedimprovements at the QueenElizabeth Hospital and St Ann’sHospital in Malawi, ThomasBernardo House in Kenya and theVelgma Leprosy Mission in Bidda,India.

But she often found the supply ofmoney and tools was not enough.

“When I heard about MercyShips and the work of the peopleon the ships, I knew right awaythey had found a solution to thechallenges medical projects canface in Africa.” u

“It’s sad that such medication and pro-cedures are deliverable now only fromsuch ships and their irregular arrivaltimes rather than through skills and sus-tainable development,” he says. “If MercyShips is making that kind of expenditure,why not use it for sustainable purposeswithin the existing national system?”

Judy Polkinhorn, the UK chairwomanof Mercy Ships has an answer. “We workto build partnerships with local medicalorganisations or doctors to improve long-term sustainability of projects,” she says.“Mercy Ships also has land-based proj-ects which focus on long-term sustainabil-ity, such as the VVF (vesico-vaginal fistu-lae) clinic in Freetown.”

The clinic in Freetown, Sierra Leone,treats women with VVF, a conditioncaused by obstructed childbirth, violentrape or severe injury and which results inincontinence and social stigma, as well astraining local doctors and midwives.

But before the ship’s last visit there,rebels destroyed many of the projectsthat Mercy Ships established 10 years agoand the crew of the Anastasis had to re-establish many of these facilities as wellas developing new ones. Obviouslymoney spent onshore is less secure than

money spent on the floating ships. Polkinhorn adds: “With the completion

of The Africa Mercy, we will double ourcapacity to treat and train in Africa andthis will help enormously in the effort tohelp build long-term healthcare services.”

Mercy Ships has a Christian ethos —some have referred to the ships as “float-ing Sunday schools” — but the extent ofevangelism onboard is not clear. MercyShips say “many volunteers areChristians or of other religions, but theirfirst priority is providing humanitarianservice. Volunteers do not preach topatients.”

One woman who volunteered with theAnastasis for eight months in 1999 saysdaily life of the ship revolves aroundChristian lifestyle. Another woman whoattended a volunteer recruitment talkwas told volunteers can’t preach beforemedical care, but spiritual aftercare isquite legitimate.

Whether the Mercy Ships are quickfixes or long-term, secular or evangelist,the fact remains that without them, 5.5million people in the developing worldwould be crippled, in pain or dead. u

www.mercyships.org

ANN GLOAG: Nurse, granny and Scottish bus tycoon on a Mercy Ship shift in Benin.


COMPETITION

Five pupils from Sanday school in the remote Orkney Islands have won the Scottish SchoolsAfrica Challenge. The prize – a trip to Malawi with the First Minister in May. The reason – letters to the African children they hope to meet – like this one from Michelle Dearness

How do we compare?

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CIVICUS is an international alliance dedicated tostrengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world and its World Assembly is being held in Glasgow.SCVO is excited to be welcoming the event to Scotland.

Exchange your experiences, challenges,successes and ideas for a more equitableand just world, with civil society activistsfrom all over the globe.

is coming toCIVICUS World Assembly 2006

SCOTLAND21-24 June 2006

C

Dear Friend,

Ihave been trying to find out aboutyour way of life so that I can compareit with my own. We hear a lot aboutAfrica from the television, but it’s dif-

ficult to know what it is really like. I live on an island called Sanday. Only

530 people live here, many of them havecome into the island. Sanday is renownedfor its high quality of life and its security.My Dad is Orcadian and my Mum movedhere to work. She feels that it’s a very se-cure place for children to live that is whyso many people move here. Is there muchof a difference between the rich and thepoor in your country?

I found out that most people in Malawilive in houses with brick walls andthatched roofs. I also found out that mosthouses have 1 or 2 rooms with up to 8 peo-ple living in them. Is this true aroundwhere you live? This seems quite a lot in

such a small house. I live in a bungalowwith 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living roomand a bathroom. I live with my mum, dadand brother. My house is actually on asmall farm which my parents own and Ilive near my grandparents who own a big-ger farm.

I found out that Malawi has been sweptby floods and parched by drought. There-fore the crops don’t grow if there isn’t wa-ter and if there is a flood they get washedaway. I think that this must make it veryhard for Malawian farmers to manage toproduce enough food.

This is probably why there is poverty inMalawi. Do you grow your own food or doyou buy it locally at a market for example?What do you enjoy eating? Are there tra-ditional foods in Malawi? 49% of under 5’shave chronic malnutrition. Is that a prob-lem where you live? Do you have to walkfar to get water? If yes, how many times a

day? How much water do you use eachday? I was surprised to find out from aScottish paper this week that we actuallyuse 150 litres of water each, per day. Is thewater fairly clean? In Sanday we have afreshwater loch with a Pump House be-side it which cleans the water before it’spumped through to our taps. So we neverhave a shortage. Do you play traditionalAfrican songs or dances? Here we have arecorder club and a fiddle club. We alsohold ‘Dances’ where a majority of the is-land get together and dance and singalong to traditional music.

We would like to come and stay in yourhouses and live in exactly the same wayas you do every day of your life. We invitea pupil to come and stay with our families.We welcome you with open arms and wel-come you into a different culture and wayof life.

Love, Michelle (Age 14)


WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Safiya Husaini was not stoned todeath for having a child out ofwedlock. But her sentence was-n’t overturned because the localNigerian court heeded the cam-paigns of women’s groups – the

alleged adultery was committed beforeSharia law was instituted in Sokoto, thearea where she lives. It was a matter oftechnicality, not principle.

When Glorie Etim, an experiencedlawyer, remembers cases like this she iskeener than ever to get back to Nigeria tojoin other female lawyers like HauwaIbrahim, who argued successfully for theacquittal of Amina Lawal, sentenced andthen reprieved from death by stoning forcommitting adultery.

Glorie has been studying for a post-graduate degree at Dundee University forthe past two years, but regards the workshe started before she left to be far moreurgent.

Since 2000, she has been working with

the Girl Rights Initiative – in Eket in theNiger Delta. It is still local, but Gloriehopes the GRI will eventually go national,and legal aid will be widely available forwomen who find themselves in situationslike Husaini and Lawal.

“I was part of a group of friends andlawyers, who decided to come togetherand offer free legal advice to young girls.Where we are based girls are gettingmarried too young to give birth, and theirbodies are being severely damaged. Insome cases they can end up with VesicoVaginal Fistula [breakdown of vaginalwall tissue, resulting in incontinence]. Amissionary hospital exists for them, andwe go there and offer legal advice. It isvery difficult to get help in that conditionand generally the men abandon them.”

Nigeria is considered to be the up andcoming African state asserting women’srights. But according to Glorie, “In ruralplaces women don’t know about theirrights, and the traditional system still

operates. You can’t speak up in your fami-ly situation and you don’t know aboutinheritance rights. Genital mutilation stillgoes on.

“Some women don’t have propertyrights, and there’s especially problemswhen a marriage breaks up.”

The north of Nigeria is mostly Muslim.There, women dying in childbirth as aresult of VVF is particularly high. Out ofan estimated 150,000 cases in Nigeria,almost three quarters occur in the North.

The legal situation is not hopeless – theConvention on the Elimination ofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW)has been signed by most African states,but it’s not implemented.

“A woman’s life is very restricted. Manywomen’s rights are laid down, butbecause of the traditional setting, it oftendoesn’t work out that way” u

www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/nigeria

The threat to stone to deathNigerian mother AminaLawal shocked the world.And even shocked Miss World contestants into fleeingthe competition in Lagos two years ago. Now femalelawyers fighting thesesentences from Nigeria andScotland want legal change to enshrine the rights ofwomen and girls. Abigail Wild reports

Lawyers fight forrights of girls HAUWA IBRAHIM – the Nigerian lawyer who saved Amina Lawal from stoning, will

speak on womens rights at an Africawoman conference on June 23rd in Edinburgh

HEALTH


African women face a 1 in 13 chance of dying inpregnancy and childbirth. Almost all of these deathsare preventable. Onemidwife in Malawi is aminor miracle. And a Scottish University isplanning to help her By Marie-Claire Jones ,Scotland, and PiliraniSemu-Banda, Malawi

It’s five am and a newborn baby isbeing placed in the arms of itsmother for the very first time. Ithas been a long labour for themother and midwife, who deliveredin pitch darkness, had to cut the

baby’s umbilical cord with a razor blade,and tie it with a strip torn from a curtain.Like the thirty other babies that will bedelivered in the next month by one of themost famous Traditional Birth Attendantor TBAs in southern Africa – NayeleJekete.

Nayele lives in Mbewa, a village 30kmfrom Lilongwe, Malawi. Born over 60years ago, she has delivered so manybabies she has lost count.

“I examine up to 70 pregnant women ina month and I help deliver between four

to eight babies a day,” says Jekete.She has such a good reputation that

patients come in from neighbouringZambia and Mozambique and her typicalday starts at 6:30 AM with a quick bath,followed by breakfast before she startswork.

“There are some days when I don’tsleep at all if I have women coming in todeliver. I make sure the pregnant womaneats warm porridge to warm her womb assoon as I know she is ready for delivery.”

In a country where AIDS affects one inten of the population, her job puts her in aposition of extremely high risk.

Siti Kachingwe, lecturer in Communityand Mental Health, says, “Nayele knowsshe must sterilise her equipment andwear gloves when she is working, but if

African women do heavy labour till days before childbirth. PHOTO: NANCY DURRELL MCKENNA

The unique midwife


HEALTH

she has no gloves to wear that day, shedelivers the babies anyway.”

Behind her workplace/ home, it’s hardto miss the dirty well shared with ani-mals where Jekete draws water. Everyday girls scrape a layer of scum from thesurface to get to the fresher liquid belowand Jekete boils the water over an openfire before using it.

Her “labour ward” is a two-roomeddilapidated house . The “theatre” holdsone wooden bed with a thin mattress.Most of her patients and newly bornbabies sleep on reed mats.

Jekete’s own health failed last yearwhen she developed cataract in her lefteye and had problems focusing. But shehas recovered. Her reaction has been totrain members of her own family to takeover. Jekete’s grandson assists with regis-tering patients and prescribing drugs andher niece is being trained so the girl cantake over when the midwife dies.

Jekete is not rich – she is a widow andfour of her six children have died – butshe has generated enough money to payschool fees for her extended family mem-bers who include nephews, nieces andgrandchildren. Jekete charges K250(£1.25) for consultation and K150 (75pence) for delivering a baby.

On quieter days, if there are no deliver-ies, Jekete kicks off her work with familyplanning lessons which are followed byantenatal check-ups before venturing intoother duties.

She administers family planning meth-ods which are exclusive to her. Jeketeuses herbs, which she gets from a nearbymountain to her home, to help womenplan their families.

Foretelling the sex of unborn childrenis another skill Jekete claims to possess.She applies herbs on a pregnant woman’swomb and says she can view the foetususing a mirror to tell whether it is maleor female.

“It’s not magic. I am able to tell the sexof the baby because its legs are oftenapart when it is in the stomach.”

Jekete heaps all the credit she gets onher late mother, who was a TBA andtaught her most of the skills she knowsexcept for those derived from dreamswhen she is asleep.

But though some of her practices areunconventional, Nayele recognises whenshe must send expectant mothers to hos-pital. Disabled women; the ones needingcaesareans; those who have been inlabour for more than 24 hours; and thosewith more than three children are eitherblessed or cursed, depending on how you

Jekete – the Malawi midwife about toget a Scottish mobile phone connectionto emergency aid

look at it. Blessed because they can givebirth in the relative comfort of a hospital,or cursed because the journey is far,ambulances are few and the telephone tocall them, 2km away.

Nayele has only lost one patient inchildbirth since January of this year, andthis was due to difficulties calling anambulance in time. That situation at leastwill change thanks to the MalawiMillennium Project at StrathclydeUniversity in Scotland.

In recognition of her amazing lifetime’sachievement in maternal health they aregoing to supply Nayele with a mobilephone and charger, and install a newwater pump and a solar powered genera-tor to provide electricity.

Nayele’s reaction? “If I have these facilities more women

will live, and I will die happy.”

EMPLOYMENT

Is Africa paying to trainnurses for Britain?

Africa has lost 20 000 professional people a year since 1990. It’s the top story in Africa at the same time African poverty is set to become the top story at the G8. How ironic. Because it’s the rich G8 nations who aretaking African professionals away. Report by Sandra Nyaira, in London

Everyone knows the brain drainfrom Africa is happening. Butis there a fair and effective wayto stop it? The government inZimbabwe think its has found

one. “Professionals trained using stateresources in universities, polytechnicsand colleges will have to work in the civilservice for some time before they can beallowed to join the private sector or legal-ly work in other countries,” the state-controlled Sunday Mail reported.

Workers in the health sector, lawyers,engineers and technicians are likely to beaffected. No wonder — so many doctorshave left Zimbabwe in recent years onedoctor must now do the work of seven,according to the local Daily Mirror, andZimbabwe has had to hire doctors fromCuba and the Democratic Republic ofCongo (DRC).

In South Africa, government officialswill use the carrot not the stick. Localhospitals are considering a scheme to payhalf the study debts of doctors and otherhealth workers in exchange for an under-taking they will work at the hospital for anumber of years.

According to Dr Percy Mahlati, deputydirector-general of health, between 100and 150 doctors and 400 to 500 nursesleave South Africa to work in developedcountries every year –many to repay theirstudent debts.

Western leaders are fond of quotingNelson Mandela on many issues – buttend not to repeat his call on the West tostop this brain drain immediately.

As politicians in the West continue to

wring their hands over the HIV/Aids pan-demic in Africa, their employees continueto take the much-needed nurses and doc-tors away from Africa without any hint ofconscience. The problem is widelyacknowledged but the unethical recruit-ment of health professionals from Africais leaving the health sector in dire straits.

A recent BBC programme showed oneof the major hospitals in Lilongwe,Malawi’s capital, was without a singlemid-wife, doctor and trained nursesbecause most of them had been recruitedto the West, especially Britain. Newly-born babies were being delivered byuntrained midwives and the infant mor-

tality rate was very high. In effect Malawiis investing its scarce resources to trainstaff for the rich West.

Industrialised countries want two typesof immigrant labour – those willing to dopoorly paid, dirty and dangerous jobstheir own nationals scorn, and highly spe-cialised professionals, such as softwarespecialists, engineers, doctors and nurses.The US has 126,000 fewer nurses than itneeds and faces a shortage of 800,000 by2020. Without a change in policy at home,rich nations will continue their massiverecruitment drives without shame.

But are laws to ban African recruit-ment the right answer? Dr KwadwoMensah, from Ghana, argues in AfricaFocus that attempts to control mobilityare ineffective and questionable in termsof human rights. “The objective of policyshould be equity in health care as soon aspossible.The migration of health serviceprofessionals is an aspect of rapid inter-national integration and commercialisa-tion of health service labour markets.These processes are cumulative, self-rein-forcing, and hard to reverse; policy mustwork with, not against their grain.Coercive measures to prevent departure,work poorly; worse, they can intensifypressures to leave. Conversely decentworking and living conditions, and poli-cies that value skill and commitment dowork – health service financing and gov-ernance needs to improve in countriesthat are losing staff.”

Countries like the UK have come upwith “ethical recruitment” codes, but theyare implicitly discriminatory along thelines of ‘race’, affecting mainly Africanand Caribbeans, hence predominantlyblack, staff. In any case, private agenciescan and do continue to recruit from hightraining African countries. But leavingfor a better life in the rich west is not aguarantee of happiness.

Fortune Tadya, a 32-year oldZimbabwean, is one such professionalregretting the day she ever set sight onthe UK. Armed with a bachelor’s degreein Business studies and five years of expe-rience after working for one of the mostprestigious banks in Zimbabwe, she set

Western leaders are fond of quoting Nelson Mandela on many issues – but tend not to repeat his call on the West to stop this brain drain immediately


EMPLOYMENT


REBECCA BREW is a senior staff nurse from Ghana work-ing in a medical rehabilitation ward at Liberton hospitalin Edinburgh. “Many Africans complete their trainingand leave to find better opportunities. It would take threemonths in Ghana to earn the equivalent of one month’ssalary here. My family feels strongly about me workinghere and wants me to return, but if you can’t earnenough money to support your family it affects yourmorale and you can’t do your job effectively.”

In Ghana nursing vacancies doubled about the timeRebecca left, with 50% of jobs not filled in 2002. That yearalmost 3000 nurses left Ghana, and three quarters of thework permit applications were for the UK.

Rebecca is on the steering group of the OverseasNursing Network, launched in November 2004 by theRoyal College of Nursing (RCN) to alert overseas nursesto services make it easier for them to adapt to a differenthealth system and culture.

In the UK, overseas nurses seem to have become part of

the government long-term health strategy. One in fourBritish nurses drop out of training and while the reasonsfor that are ignored, the African brain drain will go on.The RCN wants the NHS to monitor African nurses.

– Jolene Campbell

SANDRA NYAIRA is 32, born in Harare, Zimbabwe but nowexiled in the UK. She was Political Editor of the DailyNews in Zimbabwe but has been unable to return afterthe arrest of other senior staff while she was in the UK tocomplete a Masters in International Journalism at CityUniversity, London. Sandra also has a degree in MediaStudies from Zimbabwe Open University and was award-ed The International Women’s Media Foundation(IWMF) Courage in Journalism Award. Despite this CV,Sandra has been unable to find work as a journalist out-side Africawoman, and is working in care homes inLondon to survive till a change of government means shecan return home.

A tale of two exiles

REBECCA BREW: “It would take three months inGhana to earn the equivalent of a month’s salaryhere in Edinburgh.” PHOTO: PAUL WILLIAMS

SANDRA NYAIRA: Has been unable to return toZimbabwe after the arrest of senior colleagues atthe Daily News in Zimbabwe.

out in 2000 to join the great trek to thefirst world.

She gained a scholarship to study foran MA in Business Studies at a Londonuniversity. But after graduating she haslost count of the number of interviewsshe has attended in search of a job thatmatches her qualifications. Now she haslost hope and joined the thousands beforeher doing the most menial, dangerous

and unwanted jobs in the UK. Fortune works full-time job in a fast

food shop and at night does care work inhospitals and old people’s homes.

Most of those leaving Africa are hard-working women. They send pay back toAfrica regularly to fund the education ofchildren, and building houses in the hopethat one day they will go back home.Whether the menfolk who receive the

cash always use it wisely is another mat-ter. In the UK, child benefit is paid tomothers only – and there is a good reasonfor that. The worry that men back homecould be squandering hard earned cash isanother burden for the African womenworking in the UK. u

www.rcn.org.uk/scotland/news_events/news/overseasnurseconference2005

PERSONALITY


PERSONALITY

Sandy Logie was a doctor inthe Borders of Scotland whotook early retirement in1991 at the age of 52. The fol-lowing year he traveled toKatete in Eastern Zambia to

work at the St Francis hospital in east-ern Zambia .

It was there, while helping a nursecontrol a woman who was thrashingviolently, that Sandy was accidentallyinjected with a needle carrying herblood.

The following day the woman diedand when Sandy returned to the UK hewas diagnosed as HIV positive.

Dorothy remembers, “It was a worryfor us; Sandy had been ill in Africa witha high fever. We were worried when wefound out and because no one reallyknew much about it, we were scaredwhat the public reaction would be.

“It was 1993 and there were no drugsavailable to treat the HIV virus, soSandy had nothing except tender careand attentive medical support for thefirst three years. He became ill quicklyand picked up other illnesses over theyears. He did start taking anti-viraldrugs from 1996 and they had a posi-tive impact for a while, but he wasnever completely well.”

One of the biggest problems for thecouple came when they were told tokeep Sandy’s illness a secret fromeveryone around them, including theirthree children.

“It was the stigma that came withbeing HIV positive. It was an illnessspreading across the country yet noone wanted to talk about it,” saidDorothy.

“We were told that, in the past, doc-tors with AIDS were pilloried and even

driven out their houses.“We kept it from our children for a

year. One of them was working abroadso it made sense. They were annoyedwhen they found out we had kept infrom them, but I think they did under-stand the reasons why we did it.”

Sandy’s illness was monitored by anexpert committee in the UK, who saidthat he could continue working as aphysician in Scotland but not carry outany surgical procedures. Sandy contin-ued to work in Scotland and Africabefore the family made the decision toannounce his illness in 1996.

“We called the press conference andtook a panel of experts with us to

answer all the questions that would beasked about Sandy’s health,” saidDorothy.

“We wanted to dispel all the stigmathat surrounded HIV at that time.Some of the press said nasty things butit general it is was ok.”

After the news of Sandy’s illnessbroke, Borders NHS set up helplinesand organised for his patients to speakto someone if they were worried, butthere were hardly any calls and thosewho did phone asked how Sandy wasand expressed their concern.

Dorothy added: “That’s the nature ofthe Scottish and Borders people I thinkthough. For the most part they are sen-

s

Sandy Logie is known by HIVsufferers across Zambia. For themit’s the name of their clinic, thesanctuary to which they return forhelp and medicine. For DorothyLogie it’s different. Sandy is thename of her husband, whose deathfrom AIDS four years ago haschanged her life completely

DorothyLogie

Life’s work after life’s loss

ByCaroleErskinewithresearchbyBarbaraKalunga,Zambia

PERSONALITY


DOROTHYLOGIE:“I hear people saying‘SandyLogie’ allthe time. At first Ithinkthey’retalkingabout myhusband.”

sible and understood the situation.”Dorothy was regularly tested for HIV

and says it was through practicing safesex that she did not put herself at riskof catching the disease. Sandy andDorothy returned to St Francis hospitalin 1999, a small delight for the man whohad planned to spend his later yearsworking in Africa.

“It was very strange to be there,”said Dorothy. “I was frightened in caseSandy caught TB or some other dis-ease, but he was so keen to work hewent straight off to the wards when wearrived. He was so distressed when hebecame infected with HIV because hecouldn’t go to work in Africa in a long

term capacity.”The illness slowly took hold on

Sandy over the coming years and hedied in February 2001.

The Sandy Logie clinic now cares for900 patients and has 60 community-based workers paid by grants fromSBAAG (the charity formed byDorothy after Sandy’s death).

Dorothy also backs the LothianZambia partnership – the idea of BrianCavanagh, chairman of NHS Lothian,the Edinburgh health board. Duringthe 1980s his area was the first inScotland to see a big rise in HIV cases,mostly drug users and African people.Personal and organisational links with

Zambia developed and in May 2004 aformal agreement was signed. Lothianhas given advice on anti-retroviraltherapy, clinical problems, diseasemonitoring and data management.Zambia has clarified community valuesthat shape the development of HIVservices for Africans in Scotland.

For Dorothy Logie all this workkeeps her husband’s memory alive. “Ihear people saying ‘Sandy Logie’ all thetime. At first I think they’re talkingabout my husband but then realisethey’re talking about the clinic. For me,hearing his name in a foreign languageis such a tribute. I know he will alwaysbe remembered.” √ u

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RECYCLING

Aluminium cans in Glasgow are being recycled toprovide reconditioned bikes for Africa. There’s even a specially designed water bike to help girls forced to carry water for miles. But will the bikes stay in their hands once delivered? Jo Macfarlane on the re-cycling challenge

Scots canstake old bikes to Ghana

When Jim O’Donnellwas seven, he rodehis first bike. It wasbought for him by analcoholic aunt andcost £2 from a flea

market in Glasgow. For Jim, owning thebike was owning a freedom he’d neverfelt before. Raised in poverty the bike wasa means of escape from “being broughtup the hard way”. Because, Jim insists, ifyou’re riding a bike you’re not thinkingabout anything else. And now it’s Africa’sturn.

Community Can Cycle, which fundsbike repairs using the proceeds from alu-minium can recycling, has been so suc-cessful it is to open a new branch inGhana.

Jim says : “I’m a great believer in help-ing your neighbour – Africa is our neigh-bour. Why shouldn’t I help them in thesame way that I’m helping the people ofCastlemilk?”

Under the provisional title AfriCANAid, Jim wants to send thousands of bikesdonated to Community Can to Africa,along with tools and parts, to set up arepair centre staffed by local volunteers.The idea is that once an African volun-teer has repaired five bikes, they will getone for themselves.

Jim was motivated to act after hearinga missionary say that some African chil-dren must walk ten miles a day to get toschool. He’s now designing a ‘water bike’with benches on either side to hold waterand children for the daily trip to a water-hole. If it works, it will clearly be a hotbike.

Ironically, the reason he can send bikesto Africa is because the kids of Castlemilkrefused to accept them. “Some are justnot cool enough for them. Scottish kids –even poor ones – want the top brands notold hand-me downs or mended bikes. Andsome bikes were in colours used byopposing football teams! My dream wouldbe to see a kid in Africa sitting on a Celticbike wearing a Rangers top!”

Two thousand bikes now await ship-ment to Ghana from an enormous ware-house. They will go with the help ofScottish International Relief (SIR), whohave been taking container loads of aid tothe continent for years and originallysent Community Can bikes to childrenwith HIV in Romania. Ghana has becomethe latest destination simply because SIRis able to get them there – otherwise, itwould cost them a fortune.

Jim is a man of great vision. HisCastlemilk project began when a wid-owed neighbour asked him to fix her chil-

dren’s bikes, and his reputation and gen-erosity grew.

“I really wanted to be able to do it foreveryone for free,” he said. “I thought, allkids drink juice so there must be lots ofcans. The first unit only had four barewalls but I had a dream – and every-thing’s been built on that.” The projectnow operates with six full-time staff and28 volunteers.

His African dream is not without itsproblems. He initially wanted to send outthe donated bikes in their original formalong with a team of volunteers to teachlocal Ghanaian people how to repairthem. But SIR have insisted that the bikes

RECYCLING


are repaired before they are shipped, forease of distribution.

Andrew Parker from SIR explains,“Jim’s ethos is to teach people to repairbikes, so we’ll then send out volunteerswith parts and supplies. We’ll refine it aswe go along.

But one big worry is that free distribu-tion of bikes will not work in a countrywhere a bike is so desirable it’s “like hav-ing a Mercedes”. Neither Andrew norJim can guarantee the bikes won’t bestolen from their intended owners.Especially the water bikes. Andrew says;

“From our side of things, we workclosely with partners to make sure goods

are distributed to the right people for theright reasons – both charities are workingtogether closely on this – and it wouldn’tbe a free lunch.”

And the story won’t end here. Jim tellsa story about a man he knows who wasgradually going blind. When his eyesightfinally failed, he called Jim and told himhe’d like to be able to cycle again.

“I told him that things can happen atCommunity Can. So we did this appeal onClyde FM for a tandem bike. Of course wegot one, so now his brother steers and hesits on the back – a blind man riding abike.”

A current volunteer at Community Can,

a Nigerian called Sonny, wants to startthe project in Nigeria. Jim has no ideahow the bikes will make it there, or if it isat all logistically possible. But his enthusi-asm for it is unfaltering.

“We’re trying to be humble about it –we don’t know all the answers. It’s allvery well for us to turn up with aid andit’s possible it won’t work. But we have totry,” says Andrew Parker u

www.communitycancycle.org.uk

JIM O’DONNELL: Glaswegian mechanicturned fundraiser and Africa water-bikedesigner.PHOTO: CHRIS JAMES

EDUCATION


The cost of one Scottish school would build 770 Malawi schools – this one has 9500 pupils.

The silent tsunami. This was thephrase whispered in my ear byone of the many volunteersworking here in sub-Saharan

Africa. As our CPA (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association) ScotlandBranch travelled hundreds of milesthrough Gauteng, the Eastern CapeProvince and Malawi, these words rangmore and more true – a tragedy on amassive scale is waiting to happen here.

In this area, opened up by Scottishexplorers and missionaries, 315 millionpeople live on less than 50 pence each aday; 184 million suffer from malnutrition,the average life expectancy is 41 and onein six children dies before the age of five.

I came prepared to see poverty, but thescale was overwhelming.

I think my lowest point was when Ivisited the strangely named BottomHospital in the capital Lilongwe. Thename stems from the fact that in 1937 theBritish built this hospital – one site forthe Malawians and another for theAsians. Later a different hospital wasbuilt for the whites higher up the roadand it became known as Top Hospital.

We are greeted by Dr Tarek Meguid.He, one other consultant and threemidwives are responsible for 11,000deliveries per year. Infant mortality isover one in ten and is rising.

Imagine a high dependency unit where19 beds are crammed into one ward,scarcely three inches apart, with twoadditional mattresses on the floor. Thereis only one incubator, which worksintermittently. If it is in use when anothertiny mite is born, there is no option but togive the baby back to its mother to beallowed to die in her arms.

When we visited, they were runningout of sterile gloves. Only three pairswere left and they had to be reserved fordelivery only – thereby denying otherroutine tests.

Next door is the TB unit – hardly asuitable juxtaposition.

Tarke says his best news is that he nowhas a fridge and is receiving 40 units ofblood a week from the distant city ofBlantyre.

From here a silent, shocked delegationheads up to the Nkhotakota Project,which is fighting hard to relieve the

malnutrition which affects 60% of theunder fives.

Veena of Concern Worldwide takes uson a tour. Here are children so skeletalthat they are almost transparent. Manysuffer from oedema, leading to swolledankles, and their skin has red, weepingsores. A staff of 10 makes a productknown as flumpynut. This is a mixture ofpeanut butter, icing sugar, dried full-cream milk, a mineral and vitamincompound all blended with vegetable oil.

Some mothers walk up to 60 kilometresin the searing heat to acquire weeklysupplies.

The beauty of flumpynut is that itrequires no water for mixing, therebyavoiding possible contamination. Thecommitment of the staff at both centres issecond to none.

All this takes place in temperatures ofclose to 37 degrees celsius, over 98degrees fahrenheit, which even theMalawians admit is unseasonably hot.

The rainy season, which lasts fromNovember to May, ended abruptly inFebruary. Although the countryside lookswonderfully green, with avocado trees,

Malawi: Nation on the brink

Famine, poverty and the west’sindifference are killingchildren in theirthousands. But Scots canhelp, urgesMargaret EwingMSP in this eye-witnessaccount, fromGlasgow’s‘Herald’newspaper

EDUCATION


mango groves and endless fields of tea, ithides the harsh reality.

The truth is that the endless miles ofmaize, the staple food are withering anddying. Even the occasional thunderstormsand heavy rain can no longer save thecrop. As one of our drivers said, pointingto yet more crops lost: “That meanshunger and famine”.

In this republic with all its beauty andits friendly people, I find a chill runningup my sweat-soaked spine.

This truly is a silent tsunami.In Malawi, almost half the population is

under 14-years-old, with only 2.8% over 65.It has been devastated by HIV/Aids, withthe official prevalence rate at 14.4% – butfigures vary according to whichever per-son you spoke to last.

Youngsters – usually teenage girls – arethe orphans left struggling to supporttheir younger siblings. Some are forcedinto prostitution to try to find money.

We visited a school where there are9,200 pupils – the headteacher has earneda reputation for good results. They havejust 12 computers. The youngsters wantto learn and they are disciplined andreceptive. This encourages their equally enthusiastic teachers – the deter-mination to succeed permeates all the

schools we visit.In our hotel one of the workers is called

Jimmy and asks if he can join me as Ichill out with a guava juice.

He tells me his brother once went toScotland where he saw white men clean-ing the streets and collecting rubbish.Was this true, he asked in all seriousness.Um, yes.

This visit has been a kaleidoscope ofsensations. We’ve seen the good workbeing undertaken and the progress beingmade, and we’ve seen the bad side wherelittle hope exists.

Above all, the impression I leave with isthat simple actions could make a huge dif-ference. This is not about throwingmoney in every direction nor is it aboutimposing western values at the expenseof cultures which are different from ours.

We cannot wait until disaster happens.The silent tsunami is already with us. u

Margaret Ewing is Scottish NationalistMember of The Scottish Parliament forMoray in North East Scotland www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/margaret_ewing

Reproduced with kind permission of the Herald

ScotlandsupportsAfricawoman.

“30,000 children across

the world are dying needlessly

from preventable diseases

each day because of poverty.

I urge Scots to be part

of the global movement to

make poverty history.”

Rt Hon Jack McConnell MSP

First Minister of Scotland

16 May 2005

Take a fresh look

at life in

Africawww.africawoman.net


INTERVIEW

George Reid is best known in Scotland as the Presiding Officer who finally got the Scottish Parliament building finished. But as the man behind the film from Ethiopia that inspired Live Aid and Band Aid, coping with the problems of an over-budget parliament building and a group of rowdy politicians must seem like a walk in the park. Rachel Lamb interviewed him

Man behind Sir BobW

hen the Scotspolitician GeorgeReid lost his seat in1979, he went backto his old job as ajournalist and

made a series of BBC documentaries onrefugees displaced by war. On thestrength of these films, he was headhunt-ed by the Red Cross and for the next 14years, his job would take him to war-zones and disaster areas across theworld. As director of public affairs for theRed Cross, he dug survivors from therubble of the Armenian earthquake, borewitness to the atrocities of ethnic cleans-ing in Eastern Europe and worked at thefront line of famine relief operations insub-Saharan Africa.

His team arrived in Ethiopia in 1984, atthe height of the disaster and wereshocked by what they found. “About fivemillion people were going to die unlesswe got food to them and it had been lefttoo late by the African authorities, partic-ularly in Ethiopia, so a lot of people weredying,” he sighs.

In Desé, 150km north of Addis Ababathey set up the first feeding station withsupplies to feed 6 thousand. By the end ofthe second week 200 thousand stavingpeople had arrived, many of them travel-ling distances of four or five hundredmiles on foot. Unable to cope with thestaggering numbers, Red Cross workershad to decide who lived. Twenty years on,many still struggle to come to terms withthe decisions they were forced to make.

“If people are famished you feed themsix to seven times. You decide who’sgoing to live and who’s not. You build awall and you have one side of the wallwhere people are doing nothing but eat-ing and the other side of the wall where

people are quite clearly starving to death.This is not easy.”

Frustrated by failed attempts to negoti-ate with Ethiopia’s corrupt leader, whosesoldiers were stealing food meant for thestarving, Reid turned to the skills he hadlearned as a journalist and politician.Using Michael Buerk and his BBC filmcrew, he focussed the eyes of the worldupon what Buerk was famously todescribe as, “the closest place to hell onearth.”

“A lot of the coverage was pretty horrif-ic,” says Reid, “What I was doing wasshowing a contrast – starving child sitting

in a Red Cross camp screaming, and sixweeks later fat happy child. We were try-ing to get money raised so we could putfood into mouths. You’ve got to say to thedonor, we can turn this situation aroundand your dollar, your pound brings quickresults.”

Buerk’s images had the desired effect.Shocked by the footage of starving,swollen-stomached children and skeletalmothers, swarming with flies, Bob Geldofand Midge Ure joined forces determinedto do their bit to feed the world. Band Aidwas born and the money started pouringin.

George admires men like Geldof andUre who use their status to speak up andengage in the political process. “They’vestuck the course and they’re still going,”he says, “They’re not frightened to get ina jeep, go 600 miles down the road andrough it.

“There are humanitarian tourists whofly in and pick up babies as soon as theysee a camera,” he adds. “I’m not particu-larly keen on them because I don’t seeany enduring benefit from that. We needGeldof and the commission for Africa,pushing away at prime ministers. Hedeserves his knighthood, I rate him.”

I ask Reid if there is a possibility thatpeople may eventually become desensi-tised to the images of death and destruc-tion flooding their TV screens.

“No. I don’t think so,” he replies, “Lookat the Tsunami in Asia; people respondedextraordinarily. But that might mean it’snot an easy year for Africa.”

Many African countries, he tells me, aregoing through a triple transition: from warto peace; from one party state to multi-party democracy; and from planned econo-my to so-called free market. It’s no wonderthey are struggling to cope, particularly in

BAND AID: Midge Ure, left and Bob Gel-dof joined forces to help feed Africa.PHOTO:YUI MOK/PA


INTERVIEW

GEORGE REID: “I sometimes wish that in this building (Scottish Parliament), we could do what we did in Africa when it comesto problem solving, all sit under a tree for three days until we’ve cracked it PHOTO: GORDON TERRIS

areas of Eastern and Southern Africawhere up to 30 percent of the populationare HIV positive.

The infrastructure in large parts ofAfrica is poor. When Reid was workingthere it was worse. Pitted dirt roads, sear-ing heat, aging vehicles and a lack ofrepair workshops to deal with break-downs made travelling the enormous dis-tances required difficult and often dan-gerous. A second-rate communicationsnetwork did not help. Working with theRed Cross has made Reid an admirer ofAfrican women and it is on their shoul-ders he believes the continent will be re-built. “I come out with this enduringmemory of the strength of Africa being inits women. If there is to be any sustain-able development in Africa, women willdo it, not men.

“If you have a famine operation and yougive the food to a man he’ll eat the bloodystuff. If you have a woman in charge, par-ticularly with giving out seeds, she’llshare it and she’ll keep some for nextyear. They’re the great sustainers of life.If you can give women the self confidenceto take control of their lives and to con-tribute to the decision making process,you can free them from debt.”

Often, Reid found that for plans to beeffective, they had to be worked aroundcultural taboos. “In Ethiopia a large partof the disease problem was caused bypeople and animals using the same water,so cows shat in the water which peoplewashed in and drank,” he says. The solu-tion was a pump separating water for ani-mals from water for people.

“In terms of child death rates, the

results were utterly staggering and thesethings cost about £100 each to make. Butbecause the village had done it a differentway for a hundred years you couldn’t justgo in and open a pump, you had to getthem to buy into it and that was a longand difficult decision — but once itsagreed it is agreed.”

“I sometimes wish that in this building(Scottish Parliament), we could do whatwe did in Africa when it comes to prob-lem solving, all sit under a tree for threedays until we’ve cracked it. Just talk andtalk and talk. It can be a slow process butby and large you come to almost univer-sal consensus and it’s not a bad way ofdoing business.” u

www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/george_reid

HEALTH


It’s make or break year for doctors trying to end polio in Africa. But one Scottishsculptor has found such strength and artistic flair among polio victims, she callsthem the “Wonder Welders.” Natalie Marchant reports

When Heather Cum-ming went to Tanza-nia to teach eight po-lio victims to weld,she probably had abetter idea of what to

expect than most other Scots.After all, the Perthshire artist and

sculptor had grown up with her grand-mother Margaret Leighton, 88, who hashad a twisted leg since she caught thevirus at just 14-months-old.

But nothing prepared the 22-year-old for meeting someone herown age who had suffered thecrippling effects of the virus.

“ It felt very strange. It should-n’t happen. There shouldn’t besuch a young polio victim, espe-cially for something that can soeasily be vaccinated against.”

Heather comes from a family ofblacksmiths, and got into theartistic side of the skill by follow-ing in her mother’s footsteps.Using mainly agricultural scrap,she creates everything fromsmall mice, to horses and drag-ons in her Perthshire workshop,and is currently making a five-metre high structure for a newart gallery.

In January, Heather travelledout to the Tanzanian capital Dares Salaam to give artistic guid-ance to the Wonder Welders – eight dis-abled men who make sculptures out ofscrap metal.

The project was set up by British pho-tographer Paul Joynson-Hicks, after see-ing polio victims begging on the street byhis office. Although many were unable towalk, he noticed their tremendous upper-arm strength and guessed they would begreat welders.

A workshop was soon set up behind his

own offices with four men. Each man gota wage of 70,000 Tanzanian shillings ($70)a month. They began making animalsculptures, by cutting out shapes from oldoil drums and welding them together.

When Heather arrived she encouragedthem to use different materials to bringmore life and shape to their models. Localbusinesses donated scrap metal to theproject, and she showed them how to useold nuts and bolts to make small orna-

mental elephants. Now onto bigger projects like nine-foot

tall giraffes, the sculptures are particular-ly impressive because of the sculptorsdisabilities. All of them, bar one, lost theuse of both legs to polio as children. Somecould remember being in hospital at theage of four or five, others were too youngto remember.

Polio can strike at any age, but mainlyaffects young children. Entering the body

through the mouth before multiplying inthe intestine, the virus spreads throughpoor sanitation, when faeces infects localdrinking water.

Paralysis is the most obvious sign ofinfection, but that happens in less than 1%of cases – so without signs of infection thevirus can spread through communities.

The experience proved a challenge forHeather too. She had to find new ways ofworking without machinery. Instead of

using a fly-press, she learnt to bendmetal using a hammer.

Her computerised plasma-cutterwas replaced by hand-cutters. Shesaid: “They had to learn how to doit without the equipment. I had tothink ‘if I can’t do it without themachine, can I do it? ’That made iteven harder.” But there werealways ways round the problems –the giraffes were fully constructedwhile lying horizontally on theground.

Heather says she was alwaysamazed by her colleagues’ determi-nation and physical strength.

Ernest, 33, suffered paralysis inboth legs after birth. His legs aresmall and thin, curling up behindhim. Heather remembers him rac-ing her across the car park usinghis arms — he won every time.

By the end of Heather’s twomonths, the Wonder Welders had

accumulated enough work to hold anexhibition where they sold enough toinvest in two new welding machines.

Heather has returned to her home inScotland but misses her friends inTanzania. Her lasting impression: “I’minspired by how happy they are. Howexcepting they are, and by how muchthey do with such limited activity. u

www.wonderwelders.org

Make or break year for polio treatment

The wonder welders of Tanzania thank Scottish sculp-tor/trainer Heather Cumming

HEALTH


Africa needs community care,not orphanages, says doctorBy Laura Harrison

Dr Josephine Munthali’s ChildSupport Project in the Dedzaarea of Malawi was a direct re-sult of her PhD, in Edinburgh.

Her work looked at girl’s education be-cause although the government wereproviding free primary schooling, manygirls were dropping out.

The approach of Josephine’s projectwas to let Aids orphans remain in the vil-lages where they were brought up. “Wedon’t encourage orphanages at all,” sheexplains, “the thing with orphanages isthat they create divisions in the family.

The great granddaughter of David

Livingstone, Diana Harryhausen, is one ofthe project’s biggest supporters. MsHarryhausen first got involved with workin Malawi in the 1980’s when she decidedsome relics she inherited from her greatgrandfather should be returned to theirhomeland. “They were lovely people and Igot to know a lot of them and a lot aboutthem.”

The main benefit of this personalapproach is that the children are givensupport and protection at a difficult timeof their lives Anne Munthli said that it isimportant because they are “providedwith love, spiritual and other needs.”

Without this they are vulnerable to sex-ual abuse from men who take advantage

of orphans. Up to 100 families have takenin children so far but Josephine is awareof the social problems and burdens.

“These people already have childrenthat they are not able to feed; we cannotsay that we will just provide a bag ofmaize for the orphan, so you have to feedthe rest of the children as well.”

The Child Support Project – with 5trustees in Scotland and 4 in Malawi –believes education of girls and women isthe key to such fear. Scottish womenrecently donated 13 sewing machines so300 women in Dedza can acquire sewingskills. u

www.childsupportproject.org

UMBEYA (SWAHILI FOR GOSSIP)

Africawoman verdict on Jack, kilts, Gleneaglesand ScotsmenBy Susan Naa Sekyere, Ghana

Africawoman journalists had agood time in Scotland althoughwe came not knowing what toexpect of Scotland and her peo-

ple. And we came with a dilemma. Wehad an agenda. It was to make the pointthat if the G8 is meeting in Scotland inJune, it has no business discussingAfrica if Africa is not represented. Everyone of the seven Africawomen fromKenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Malawimade it their business to drive home thatsingle point at every opportunity.

That could have made us come acrossas self righteous bores. So apart frombeing overwhelmed by the warm welcomeof the Scots, we were pleasantly sur-prised this strong point we drummedhome so loudly was taken calmly and ingood faith. This tolerant attitude, saidGrace Githaiga from Kenya, was evident

in the attitude of the Scottish firstMinister, Jack McConnell. In the full glareof the Scottish media he allowed sevenopinionated African women to tell himhow to pose for the cameras with anAfrican-styled Scottish kilt we had justpresented to him.

No African leader would allow journal-ists to be so familiar.

Jack McConnell’s warmth was univer-sal. We were smiled at in the streets orgreeted by anybody we came into contactwith. This made Africawomen appreciatethe fact that the famous “AfricanHospitality” might not be unique toAfrica, after all. The Scottish are equallyfriendly people.

Perhaps the biggest surprise thoughwas the shyness of Scottish men. Theyhave the courage to wear tartan skirts orkilts – and we had the courage to posewith many of them during our trip toGleneagles – but we completely failed to

pull any Scottish men because they are soshy and would rather talk to womenthrough the bottom of their beer glasses –what a contrast to men at home!

Gleneagles Hotel – where the G8 will beheld – is a five star hotel and golfingmecca. It was beautiful but hard to getinto. Our government guide was told itwould not be possible for us to see thestate rooms where the world leaders willsit. So we had to be content with a trip tothe ladies to see where Cherie Blair andthe other First Ladies will sit!

Emboldened by posing with a kiltedpiper, our speed-loving Zimbabwean,Sandra Nyaira, accosted a young manwaiting for a friend in an expensive look-ing open-top sports car. She asked thisgood looking stranger if she could haveher picture taken sitting in the front seatof his car.

In fact, this bold behaviour was reallycaused by one generous act by the visit


COLUMNIST, Sandra Nyaira in her latest “borrowed” sports car.

UMBEYA (SWAHILI FOR GOSSIP)


organisers. Sandra is effectively exiled inLondon until a change of governmentmakes it possible for her to return home.She is almost penniless, but was pickedup from her home to come to heathrowairport for her Scottish trip in a huge,black Mercedes Benz. That act has nowmade her think she can get into anyexpensive car!

Anyway, before the young Scot couldprotest Sandra was in the front seat smil-ing and waving like Grace Kelly!

If only the immigration officials atHeathrow could have been so accommo-dating. They questioned us for hours ask-ing why the Scottish First Minister wouldwant to speak to us, even though we hadofficial letters of invitiation.

In Scotland it is Spring. Beautiful flow-ers adorn the parks, which are green andclean. The air is fresh and not as pollutedas cities back home. And the streets ofEdinburgh and Glasgow were not as con-gested with people or cars as London,Nairobi or Accra. There were also not asmany black people and few Africans.Perhaps that explains the big welcome.

Africawoman journalists had to shop.As the Ghana proverb says “beautifulgoods are those brought home from ajourney”.

After roaming for a while, theAfricawoman delegation ended up inASDA Wal-Mart, a huge 24- hour super-store on the edge of town. It’s a UK-runstore, owned by Americans, selling most-ly cheap but well-made Chinese goods –everything from clothes to mobile phonesand perfumery to household items.

At home, Chinese goods can be shoddy.But not here. Quality looked so high with

prices so low it was hard not to be suspi-cious. How can poor Africans be shoppingin the UK – the world’s fourth wealthiestcountry – and afford to buy? Basically,how could we have the same purchasingpower in British shops as the British per-son? For a moment we were heartened.There must be poor people in Scotland,too. Then we realised the explanationmight be different. Prices in Africa arekept high and in the UK are kept low.

We often say back home that BritishAfrican papers are better than FrenchAfrican ones. And that is because we arebetter at words, and the art of argument.Anyway we had a loud argument in agreat Glasgow restaurant and no-one toldus to be quiet. Perhaps that is becauseScottish eaters are really drinkers – theyspend more on alcohol at meal times thanon food! So by the end of the night, druinkScots became as noisy as sober-ishAfricans!

Our tours were whistle-stop! It was great to spend time at Holmlea

School in Glasgow where the childrenknow more about Malazi than some of themale journalists who plan to accompanythe First Minister to Malawi in May.Holmlea’s classes were small. The wholeschool was about the same size as oneclass in Malawi. The children were fasci-nated by us. I don’t think they see manyAfrican women – especially not treated asimportant and respected guests.

Finally we would like to thank all theScottish Executive staff and JackMcConnell for making us feel that wematter and that our views may find anairing at the G8 – even if our beautifulbraided, beaded, sequinned and miniaturebell ringing Africa kilt does not! u

“If only the immigration officials at Heathrow could have been so accommodating. They questioned us for hours asking why the Scottish First Minister would want to speak to us, even though we had official letters of invitiation”

CAROLINE, Grace, Susan, Pilirani and Sandra go where G8 FirstWives may fear to tread – the Ladies Loo at Gleneagles!

EDITOR Lesley Riddoch on a quick exit from the latestAfrican shopping tou,

LIVING HISTORY


From Dundee to a place in Africa’s heart

Seeing a map of his Nigerianvillage on a Scottish banknotewas a shock for Francis ItaUdom, when he arrived inScotland for a course at Glas-gow Nautical College. He

turned the note over and was astonishedto find a picture of his great, greatgranny in a place reserved for TheQueen.

He is Mary Slessor’s biggest fan: “sobrave to go to Africa on her own. To headup river and into the forest – withoutknowing the kojo” earns his admiration.And if she hadn’t saved his great-grandmother Annie from the hor-rible death then visited on twins,he wouldn’t be having this conver-sation, with his own two toddlerslistening in.

Francis knew he was related toMary Slessor, but says it was onlywhen he told his mother thatNigerian Liquified Gas wantedhim to train in Scotland that shetold him ‘Scotland’s where Macame from!’

Mary Slessor was funny, and outspoken– arguing against alcohol, the demondrink that made her own father (a shoe-maker) beat up his wife in front of thechildren. By the age of 14, Mary hadbecome a skilled jute worker. Up before 5 a.m. to do the housework, Mary workedfrom 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with just an hour forbreakfast and lunch. She sought refuge inthe work of missions where she volunteered as a teacher and first heardtales of West Africa from Scottish missionaries.

After a brief period of training inEdinburgh, Mary set sail in the S.S.Ethiopia on 5th August 1876, and arrivedat her destination, Calabar in West Africajust over a month later. She was 28 , redhaired with bright blue eyes shining inenthusiasm for the task ahead. Some ofthe old hands in Calabar might have beenexcused for questioning whether shewould last a year.

Human sacrifice routinely followed thedeath of a village dignitary, and the ritualmurder of twins was viewed by the newmissionary with particular abhorrence.

Her efforts to forestall this irrationalsuperstition were a huge success.

In Calabar, women were treated aslower than cattle, and Mary was so suc-cessful in raising their standing in societythat many consider her one of the pio-neers of women’s rights in Africa. Shealso became fluent in the Efik language,so that she might use humour and sar-casm to reinforce her arguments. Unlikemost missionaries, she lived in nativestyle and became thoroughly fluent withthe language, the culture and customs

and also became a local magistrate. She also became very familiar with the

mosquito. Recurring malaria and generalhardships took their toll and by 1915, herstrength had declined, and the womanwho had once thought nothing of all-nighttreks through the rain forest was reducedto travelling in a hand-cart pushed by anassistant. On the 13th January 1915, afteran prolonged bout of fever, Mary Slessordied. But her legacy lives on.

According to a recent report inNigeria’s Daily Sun, a turf war is loomingbetween the newly created Nigerian state

of Akwa Ibom and Calabar for own-ership of the Mary Slessor brand.

Governor Victor Attah of AkwaIbom hopes to change the region’simage with help from the Slessormagic. “She lived here. I’ve been tosee the foundation of her house andeverything else and even her grave.What you have in Calabar’, he says,‘is just a monument to her’ – albeitone visited by Queen Elizabeth II.

He’s even written to “The ScottishGovernment” about this “because

her image is still on the Scottish currencytoday”. Calabar has fought back with apottery and ceramics project and projectsfunded by the Mary Slessor Foundation –a Scottish charity based in Dundee.

A Dundee school raised £1000 to fundThe Foundation’s Skill Centre in Calabar.A musical “Mother of All The Peoples”pulled in big, enthusiastic audiences inAberdeen and Dundee to provide a staffhouse for a new Medical Clinic. u

www.maryslessor.org

Some Scots recognise her as ‘the barefoot missionary’. To others she’s the woman on the£10 banknote. In Nigeria, two governments are fighting over her legacy and Scots are stillfunding development in her name. Neil Robertson reports

Africawoman would like to thank everyone who made the Scottish visit stimulating, important and fun: Jack McConnell, Susan Dalgety,Rachel Gwyon, Christina Kelly, Angela Hughes, Gerry McHendricks, Victoria Robertson, Holmlea School, Martin and Gordon at theStrathclyde Journalism School, the fabulous Bob Calderwood and Sheila Robinson. Many thanks to First Scotrail and Cal Mac for

distributing Africawoman. For more info about activities see www.africawoman.net or contact [email protected]

MARY Slessor’s image on the Scottish £10 notre.

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