They make for a depressing read, Malawi’s facts of life: a life expectancy of 38 years, an infant mortality rate of about 25 perc ent, unemployment at over 80 per cent and three quarters of the population living on less than a euro a day. It is the kind of crushing poverty that we in Ireland can barely imagine. But to witness it firsthand, as I did recently, is enough to make you weep. 

Malawi is a landlocked country in South-East Africa with the dubious honour of being ranked the fouth poorest country in the world. Along with the problems caused by endemic poverty, the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi has, in the past few years, claimed over 650,000 lives. Today, AIDS-related illnesses kill a dozen people every few hours. They are the leading cause of death amongst adults and a major factor in the country’s low life expectancy. Out of a population of just over 13 million people, 1.1 million people in Malawi live with HIV/AIDS.

Most Malawians live below the poverty line in the slums, shantytowns and rural villages that line the roads. But shantytowns are not unique to the landscape of Malawi. Over 187 million Africans live in slums and they, in turn, are only part of the 990 million strong group of people living in slums worldwide.

Shantytowns have no running water, no sanitation, no electricity and, often, little hope. Houses are constructed from scrap-board, mud and iron sheets, usually a tattered piece of fabric hangs in place of a door. Along the shantytown’s narrow streets and pathways wander the dogs, cats, chickens, goats and other vermin the residents share what little space they have with. Everyone is searching for something to eat.

In Nsanje, the southern region I visited, GOAL implements HIV/AIDS, nutrition, livelihoods, food and education programmes.

Arriving in Nsanje after an exhausting 36-hour trip was surreal. Behind me lay my family, my friends and the comforts of modern Irish life, ahead, a starkly different world. All the photographs and reports I had studied before I left could not have prepared me for what I was about to see.

In 2006, a deadly combination of chronic poverty, bad weather and yet another bad harvest left almost five million people in need of food aid. GOAL responded by distributing maize, oil and beans to over 34,000 affected families in the Nsange district. Today, GOAL’s wider programme aims to make Malawi self-sufficient, introducing winter cropping, growing techniques designed to increase crop diversification, small scale irrigation projects, soil and water conservation, compost-making and about 40 tree nurseries, which produce more than 500,000 saplings.