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Author Biography: Philippa Croome

Philippa has taken her love of newspapers from j-school in Toronto, to conflict-zone reporting on a military exercise in Wainwright, Alta., to the National Post, to her current home at the Daily Times in Blantyre, Malawi.

Prison over prejudice

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome April 19, 2011
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By Philippa Croome I don’t know what I expected from my visit to a Malawian prison. Stern and menacing guards, perhaps, brandishing batons and demanding my credentials. Or having the contents of my bag dumped out and searched, my notebook read and confiscated. Or finding prison conditions so shocking they would continue to haunt me [...]

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Local politics meet gender politics in Malawi’s municipal elections

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome January 31, 2011
Thumbnail image for Local politics meet gender politics in Malawi’s municipal elections

Beauty Pillow is a rare woman in Malawi—she can afford to run for office. “I don’t have any donors but I use the little my husband sends from South Africa and from my own business—selling chitenjes (traditional garments), rice and sometimes beans,” Pillow says. Aspiring for local government is no easy task. Beyond campaigning costs and [...]

Tagged as: gender politics, local elections

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Chiefs struggle to find role in Malawi’s democracy

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome December 15, 2010

Chiefs in Malawi have a lot of sway. In rural areas, they solve customary disputes and are the connection for residents to governing district assemblies. They were outlined in the country’s 1967 Chiefs Act as gatekeepers of their residents and champions for local development. They are paid an honorarium by government, but are also expected [...]

Tagged as: Chiefs, Governance, malawi

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Queuing for Fuel in Malawi-again

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome November 11, 2010
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The fuel merchants carrying jerry cans on the backs of their bikes lead me and a colleague down a dirt road outside the town of Mangochi, near the southern point of Lake Malawi. We drive along its bumpy path past vendors and curious children’s eyes to find a standard brick house turned into a filling station. It’s a [...]

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Mobile Development

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome October 12, 2010

If you’re a cell phone owner in Malawi, you probably have not one, but two mobiles—one each for the country’s only networks, Zain and TNM. The duo has continued to enjoy an uninterrupted monopoly on the rapidly growing industry and charges Malawians more to call the other network; TNM customers pay more to call Zain [...]

Tagged as: Cell Phones, malawi

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Love and Marriage in Modern Malawi

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome October 8, 2010

There’s a running joke in my newsroom that our resident arts reporter denies being married. Like a lot of 28-year-olds, Sam Banda Jr. wasn’t ready to get married when his girlfriend moved in a year and a half ago. But she had lost both her parents, and it was only natural for him to take [...]

Tagged as: culture, Love, malawi, Marriage

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Building Homegrown Health Care, Brick by Brick

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome September 30, 2010
Thumbnail image for Building Homegrown Health Care, Brick by Brick

Thousands of freshly molded reddish-brown bricks lie baking under the hot Malawian sun. “Self-help project! Self-help project!” one young boy declares to me proudly. He holds a wet brick high over his head, smiling broadly from under the dripping mud. “We need to build here for medicine!” He’s one of hundreds of children, women and [...]

Tagged as: Decentralization, development, Health, malawi

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The Perils of Witchcraft

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome September 24, 2010

It’s been called a macabre mass suicide, a bizarre religious ritual, and hell on earth. Last week, the suicides of four and attempted suicide of another, added a new dimension to Malawi’s already complicated religious landscape. According to police, it was a belief in witchcraft that led to the five siblings throwing themselves into a [...]

Tagged as: malawi, Witchcraft

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Planes, Blame and Sedition too

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome August 31, 2010

In a single month, Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika has threatened to shut down “any newspaper that publishes lies,” faced backlash for the arrest of a cleric on charges of sedition and blasted international donors for condemning his purchase of a multimillion dollar jet. Blame. “If you continue consistently writing such stories with the aim [...]

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An Education in Child Labour

In IYIP Rights Media Internships, Malawi,
by Philippa Croome August 24, 2010

From under long stretches of fishing net that dry the tiny local fish, usipa, in the afternoon sun, we wait for the boats to come in from Lake Chilwa in Malawi. To my right is a colleague from The Daily Times, to my left a group of children all under 10, also waiting for the daily [...]

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