Malawi Union for Informal Sector (MUFIS) had, on Tuesday, 16th April 2024 conducted an organizing activity in Lirangwe for the vendors of Lirangwe market, in Blantyre district rural.
This has followed the visiting of the place by the Organizers who were trained recently, Esnart Ching’amba and Eunice Nankhwema who also happens to be Chairpersons for Chirimba and Blantyre Markets respectively and found out that many people in the aforementioned market are showing interest in the activities of Mufis.
Ken Williams Mhango, President for Mufis, said during the opening speech that it is the right of everyone to be in the union because by doing so, they secure their rights as business people as well as having chance to learn new things.
” Since every sector has its own union so Mufis is a union which generally deal with people who are doing small businesses for them as well to have voice”, He said.
Speaking in an interview with Nankhwema, she said that they thought of starting to organize in the markets which are outside Blantyre city in the sense that many people in those places do not know about the unions.
“I started by asking people from some of the markets in the district when I came up to discover that in many of the markets there is no union members, so for all the places we planned to visit, we thought to start with Lirangwe market which I can happily say over 20 new members paid their membership fees”, said Nankhwema.
She also said that they have started very well according to their expectations even though it is challenging, for they are like introducing something which seem to be new to some people reaching the point that some people thought that they are scammers or some political party members.
“As we reach the markets, we sometimes found it hard to be welcomed because it is not easy for people to understand what we brought to them of which some of them, it is their first time to hear such message. But fortunately, we find some people who once heard about union but they did not know what procedure to follow for them to be part of the group, so our visit gives opportunity to them”, Nankhwema explained.
Agreeing with Nankhwema, Esnart Ching’amba, said that they were encouraged to organize in different markets after discovering that many people knowledge about their rights, among others, so there is no place to get the knowledge other than encouraging them to join union.“We are planning that by the end of this year, we have to reach all the markets in Blantyre, Mwanza, Zomba, Chiradzulu, Mulanje and Thyolo.
By the end of this, we are targeting to have about 15,000 new members”, said Ching’amba.
On the other hand, Matthews Widman, Chairperson for Lirangwe Market, said that with the coming of Mufis in their market, they are very happy since they are seeing potential of changing their lives according to the organization’s objectives.
“Based on what we have heard today about Mufis, our minds are now opened up and we are seeing ourselves changing in different perspectives as well as learning new things from them. I can even ensure the President, Ken Williams Mhango that I will tell people what I have learn about the organization and they should expect more people to join as well”, said Widman.