The Big Issue, a street paper project, was launched in Malawi on January 24, 2009. This project is being implemented by Culture Awakening Society (CAS) in partnership with the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) in Scotland with funding from the Scottish government and Ubuntu Trading Company in the United Kingdom.
Big Issue Malawi Launch
This project is affiliated to the Big Issue, London. It has the same objective of working as a social enterprise to fight poverty and homelessness by providing business and creative solutions through selling of The Big Issue magazine.
Big Issue Vendor selling magazines at Nandos in Blantyre City
The Big Issue is just one of the street papers in the world giving economic power to less privileged citizens but all street papers come under one network of INSP.
INSP has just finished conducting a comprehensive training programme for Big Issue Malawi which was delivered by Chief Executive Officer of Big Issue Australia Steven Persson from October 30 to November 4, 2009.
Big Issue Malawi Vendors
On October 15, 2009, one of the founders of Ubuntu Trading Company, Philippe Sibaud, visited the project and was impressed with efforts being made to transform lives of some needy people in Malawi .
Besides, on October 26, 2009, the Scottish International Officer at Glasgow City Council Gillian Walsh and Strathclyde University Professor Brian Kelly went to Malawi to visit the project.
The Malawian street paper project has so far published four editions of The Big Issue magazine and the next issue will hit the streets this Thursday, November 12, 2009.
Working with over 300 vendors in Malawi , most of them women, Big Issue Malawi is fast transforming the lives of jobless and marginalized Malawians in the cities of Blantyre , Lilongwe , Mzuzu and Zomba. The project is also working in other districts like Kasungu, Ntcheu, Salima, Mulanje, Thyolo and Chiladzulu.
The top most selling vendor Willy Bukhu has managed to sell 126 copies of the fourth edition of The Big Issue magazine, thereby earning MK25,200 profit from sales of one issue. This may look like peanuts to other people, but for less privileged vendors in Malawi, continuous sale of this magazine will ultimately go a long way in improving their standard of living.
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- Equitable Access To University Education in Malawi: A Social Justice Unicorn – Part 1
- Buy the World AIDS Day Calendar to support the Malawi AIDS Assistance Project
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- The December 2009 earthquakes in Karonga, Malawi
8 users commented in " The Big Issue Malawi: Fighting poverty with social enterprise "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIt’s always good to se efforts fighting poverty. If people think MK25,200 isn’t much money, they should remember that dollars are very strong against kwachas, and with 7,000 kwachas you can buy a pair of goats and earn money from them. Hope there are more issues of Big Issue Malawi!
Torquato´s last blog ..Go Green The Easy Way
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I’d be interested in knowing why (if there is a knowable why) most of the vendors are women.
I agree that it’s easy for outsiders to see the numbers and not be impressed, even though the numbers require the proper inside perspective to appreciate.
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[...] writes about The Big Issue project in Malawi: “This project is affiliated to the Big Issue, London. It has the same objective of working [...]
Love this idea, seen it also where some of the vendors do the writing.
It is a bit surprising that a periodical would sell, but the proof is in the success.
Darryl Noble´s last blog ..Go Sooners!
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Bobbert says:
December 25th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Agreed. Glad to actually see a newspaper that is giving information and promoting something important at the same time.
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You may be interested to know that Beehive Centre for Social Enterprise – http://www.beehivecse.org is also doing it’s bit in Chilomoni, Blantyre.
Austin Madinga´s last blog ..Power all day, party all night!
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Clement Nyirenda says:
November 11th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Wow! This seems to be very interesting as well. Thanks Austin for pinging me on this one. I surely was not aware of it.
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very attractive and informative article
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