MHPF South leader lauds SDI-7 Cities Project

Malawi Homeless People’s Federation (MHPF) has hailed the Slum Dwellers International 7 Cities project stressing it has strengthened their relationship with Blantyre City Council (BCC) and other slum dwellers abroad.

MHPF Southern Region leader Loveness Chimatiro said the project has fostered mutual partnership between BCC and slum dwellers while also giving the latter a voice in various development projects.

“We have managed to support slum communities and their leadership in the City to be organised and have a voice with which to engage with the City, politicians and other development partners,” said Chimatiro.

She further said through the project, the Federation has supported over 15 settlements to do enumerations and profiles adding communities are using the data to demand services from their MPs.

“What I have liked about this project is that it has linked the slum communities to their local authority. For ages, the relationship between the two was acrimonious,” she said.

“The City believed they knew better about what communities want and communities on the other hand did not like the Council imposing its priorities on them. This lack of consensus was costly because projects never worked and if implemented people shunned them or just vandalised equipment.”

Chimatiro described the present relationship between the City and the people as “very open and cordial.”  

“The local leaders could not even dare to come to the City in the past, but today they come to share their plans, hopes and dreams with their Council. This is amazing,” she said.

Chimatiro added the SDI-7 Cities project has cemented MHPF relevance arguing communities now look at the grouping as an agent of change, a status which has led to sprouting of new centres in all settlements where Federation works.

“However, we are facing a lot of pressure from the communities that have developed their implementation plans. I wish there were resources to support the small projects like footpaths, drainage and bridges that are featuring highly on the community-shopping list,” added Chimatiro. 

Apart from Blantyre in Malawi, the SDI-7 Cities project is also being implemented in South Africa (Cape Town and Stellenbosch) Zimbabwe (Harare), Uganda (Kampala), Kenya (Nairobi), India (Pune) and Ghana (Accra).