Gogo Anita was chased away from Thom Allan village in Zomba when she was suspected to be a witch in 2010.
Her sad story gave birth to a rapport with Chancellor College students, through the community of Saint Egidio, who went to visit the elderly in the village after Anita’s fate.
Through the visit, the Chancellor College community of Saint Egidio identified the suffering of the elderly in the area.
“Just like what happens in many other places, when we came to visit the village following the story that we heard, we noted that stigma to the elderly was a big problem in the village, their relations were not doing enough to take care for them.
“And many had no hope that there could be someone to be to their side and be that good friend that one could always admire,” said Lawyer Alexious Kamangira, a student then who visited the village in 2010.
Since then, the community of Saint Egidio at Chancellor College started to visit the village to meet the elderly every fortnight, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to provide material needs to the elderly.
“These children are like our grandchildren, we are proud for them, they do come and visit us every fortnight with word of God and basic needs they buy from the very same money that their parents do give them for upkeep.
“We pray that God should continue protecting, guiding them as they are doing their studies at the college,” said Village headman Thom Allan in an interview with Malawi24.
One of the responsible people from the Community of Saint Egidio, Salome Chimalizeni, applauded the students from Chancellor College for the support to the elderly.
“We came to join our friends at Chancellor College to witness what they do towards caring for the elderly here in Zomba, we are happy for the efforts they are making to ensure that the elderly from Thom Allan are living a happy life,” said Chimalizeni.
She further condemned attacks on the elderly people in the country on allegations of practicing witchcraft, especially accusations that they prevent rain from falling.
“We are forgetting that the climate has changed and we no longer have that normal rainfall patterns that we had then, but we put blame dry spells on the elderly and attacking this has stop,” she warned.
At what age does one become a witch? Because it seems its only old pipo who r accused of withcraft
Blessed iz de hand that feed than those mersed to vomit
Should we say its good to die young than become old and suspected to a witch?
Vuto la m’Malawi ndi limenelo, kodi kukalamba ndi vuto? Do you mean that you’ll be a witch mukadzakalamba?
utsi sufuka opanda moto she was a witch bt anyway thanks for the student
Nawenso usazakalambe aise,uzadzizimuka akukutchula mfiti, nde udzakhalenso opanda kanthu, uzazindikira pamenepo. Kupusa!
No sometime sangangokutchulayi,ifeso kumudzi takhalako kumakhala akuluakulu ambiri y choosing mmodzi kuti ndi mfiti? Sikuti anthu amangotchulapo poti munthu wakalambayi sometimes zimakhala zoona. Ufiti is real thats the devil’s work