Many men in Malawi are silently carrying heavy emotional and economic burdens, often suffering in isolation until the pressure becomes unbearable.
This culture of hiding emotions has contributed to a worrying trend where more men are dying by suicide than women, highlighting the urgent need for safe spaces where they can speak openly, seek help and support one another before it is too late.
Now, a Blantyre-based events management company, Prestige Events Malawi (PEM), is stepping in with a timely intervention aimed at changing that narrative.
The company has organized a men’s conference dubbed “Man in the Mirror”, scheduled for July 3, where men will be encouraged to open up, confront personal struggles, and speak freely about mental health challenges affecting their lives.
According to PEM Director, Chrispin Bondwe, the conference to be held at Apollo Auditorium in Blantyre, is designed to break the culture of silence among men, promote mental wellbeing, and strengthen families and communities through honest dialogue.
“This is not an ordinary conference. It is a high-impact, thought-leadership platform designed to confront the most pressing yet least discussed challenges facing men in Malawi today which include declining mental health, failing marriages, chronic work-related stress, reproductive health crises, financial fragility, and legacy planning.
“These are not peripheral social issues — they sit at the heart of organisational productivity, family stability, and national economic resilience. So, this conference is about encouraging men to look into the mirror, confront their realities and find support from fellow men who may be facing similar challenges,” said Bondwe.
He said ‘The Man in the Mirror’ conference emerges from a growing recognition across corporate boardrooms, health institutions, and civil society that Malawi’s men are navigating extraordinary pressures in near-total silence.
“Rising rates of prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction, and infertility sit alongside epidemic levels of work-related stress, marriage failure, financial insecurity, and mental health collapse. According to documented research, 88% of all suicides in Malawi are by men, and men are globally up to three times more likely to die by suicide than women,” he added.
He attributed these to not private tragedies, but organizational crises that demand a national conversation — structured, evidence-based, expert-led, and action-oriented, hence the conference.
Other speakers at the conference include High Court Judge, Justice Allan Hans Muhome who will make a presentation on ‘Wills, Estate Planning, and the Legacy Men Must Not Leave to Chance’ while Moses Chipemba Soko, a Radiology Technologist and Head of Radiology Department at Zomba Central Hospital will make a presentation on ‘Prostate Cancer and Men’s Reproductive Health: What the Scans Are Telling Us’.
There will also be another presentation from Dr Duncan Goche, a Urology Physician and Head of Urology Department at Zomba Central Hospital ‘Erectile Dysfunction, Infertility, and Enlarged Prostate: Answers Men Are Afraid to Seek’.
“We believe that these are the topics that will help men to open up and seek help where necessary and these presentations will help give answers to the many questions and thoughts that bother men but they do not talk about them,” added Bondwe.
He said they have organized the conference to be in a more relaxed environment so that men should free up.
He said they plan to have similar conferences in the central, east and northern regions of the country.
This culture of hiding emotions has contributed to a worrying trend where more men are dying by suicide than women, highlighting the urgent need for safe spaces where they can speak openly, seek help and support one another before it is too late.
Now, a Blantyre-based events management company, Prestige Events Malawi (PEM), is stepping in with a timely intervention aimed at changing that narrative.
The company has organized a men’s conference dubbed “Man in the Mirror”, scheduled for July 3, where men will be encouraged to open up, confront personal struggles, and speak freely about mental health challenges affecting their lives.
According to PEM Director, Chrispin Bondwe, the conference to be held at Apollo Auditorium in Blantyre, is designed to break the culture of silence among men, promote mental wellbeing, and strengthen families and communities through honest dialogue.
“This is not an ordinary conference. It is a high-impact, thought-leadership platform designed to confront the most pressing yet least discussed challenges facing men in Malawi today which include declining mental health, failing marriages, chronic work-related stress, reproductive health crises, financial fragility, and legacy planning.
“These are not peripheral social issues — they sit at the heart of organisational productivity, family stability, and national economic resilience. So, this conference is about encouraging men to look into the mirror, confront their realities and find support from fellow men who may be facing similar challenges,” said Bondwe.
He said ‘The Man in the Mirror’ conference emerges from a growing recognition across corporate boardrooms, health institutions, and civil society that Malawi’s men are navigating extraordinary pressures in near-total silence.
“Rising rates of prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction, and infertility sit alongside epidemic levels of work-related stress, marriage failure, financial insecurity, and mental health collapse. According to documented research, 88% of all suicides in Malawi are by men, and men are globally up to three times more likely to die by suicide than women,” he added.
He attributed these to not private tragedies, but organizational crises that demand a national conversation — structured, evidence-based, expert-led, and action-oriented, hence the conference.
Other speakers at the conference include High Court Judge, Justice Allan Hans Muhome who will make a presentation on ‘Wills, Estate Planning, and the Legacy Men Must Not Leave to Chance’ while Moses Chipemba Soko, a Radiology Technologist and Head of Radiology Department at Zomba Central Hospital will make a presentation on ‘Prostate Cancer and Men’s Reproductive Health: What the Scans Are Telling Us’.
There will also be another presentation from Dr Duncan Goche, a Urology Physician and Head of Urology Department at Zomba Central Hospital ‘Erectile Dysfunction, Infertility, and Enlarged Prostate: Answers Men Are Afraid to Seek’.
“We believe that these are the topics that will help men to open up and seek help where necessary and these presentations will help give answers to the many questions and thoughts that bother men but they do not talk about them,” added Bondwe.
He said they have organized the conference to be in a more relaxed environment so that men should free up.
He said they plan to have similar conferences in the central, east and northern regions of the country.
