Thondwe
Thondwe (sometimes Thongwe) is a small community near Zomba which is a major city in southern Malawi, in the Shire Highlands. The community is close to Lake Chilwa which is the second largest, but very shallow, lake in Malawi.
Thondwe | |
|---|---|
town | |
  Thondwe Location in Malawi | |
| Coordinates: 15°30′18.5″S 35°26′15.2″E | |
| Country |  Malawi |
| Region | Southern Region |
| District | Zomba District |
| Time zone | UTC+2 |
| Climate | Cwa |
Description
Thondwe is fifteen minutes drive from Zomba on the paved road that goes to Blantyre. It has both secondary and primary schools, health centres and a rank of bicycle taxis.[1]
Thondwe is one of the top ten trading places in the Zomba region but many of these have no permanent structures.[2] In 2006 the market happened twice a week. The normal spoken language is Chichewa.[1] It has a poor population. In 2018 the local member of parliament, Charles Tikhiwa, estimated that there were tens of thousands of people in the district requiring food. He made an appeal to the government. Irrigation schemes were being created but communities around Lake Chilwa were struggling.[3]
Medical centre
Thondwe has a medical centre with 19 maternity beds. The centre covers a catchment area of over 50,000 people.[2]
Primary school
Thondwe Primary School has been open since 1924. In 2013 the school had over 1,700 students from year 1 to year 8. The large number of students means that some are taught in temporary grass roofed classrooms which leak when it rains. The school has encouraged its students by awarding text books for good work. In 2013 they took to rewarding students with shoes in a scheme supported by the head teacher Gosten G. Makwinja. In the second term tests are set and the first fifteen in every class gets a pair of shoes.[4]
In 2017 the school opened a solar powered library which was funded by a group in Scotland who have also twinned their local businesses with their counterparts. The twinned businesses include opticians, cafe owners, hairdressers and a craft group.[5] The twinning has resulted in loans that enable entrepreneurs and women in particular to launch businesses.[6] The two communities have been working together since 2008.[7]
Climate
In 2022 Tropical Storm Ana hit and the whole of Malawi was badly damaged.[8] The replacement of some roofs in Thondwe was funded by the Scottish twinned community of Innerleithen who arranged for metal roofs to replace the damaged thatch roofs. Metal roofs have health benefits as they do not encourage malarial mosquitoes.[8]
| Climate data for (nearby) Zomba in 2011 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 27 (80) |
27 (80) |
26 (79) |
26 (78) |
24 (76) |
22 (72) |
22 (72) |
24 (75) |
27 (81) |
29 (85) |
29 (85) |
27 (81) |
26 (79) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 18 (65) |
18 (65) |
18 (65) |
17 (62) |
14 (58) |
12 (54) |
12 (53) |
13 (55) |
15 (59) |
18 (64) |
19 (66) |
18 (65) |
16 (61) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 310 (12.1) |
250 (9.9) |
260 (10.1) |
69 (2.7) |
18 (0.7) |
10 (0.4) |
7.6 (0.3) |
7.6 (0.3) |
5.1 (0.2) |
25 (1) |
110 (4.3) |
280 (10.9) |
1,340 (52.9) |
| Source: Weatherbase[9] | |||||||||||||
References
- HMG (2006). "CHILDREN, MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: REPORT ON THE MALAWI PILOT, 11th – 18th November 2006" (PDF).
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - "ZOMBA DISTRICT SOCIO ‐ ECONOMIC PROFILE 2009 ‐ 2012" (PDF). Zomba District Assembly. 2009. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
- Kholowa, Holyce (24 December 2018). "Zomba Thondwe MP pleads for relief food". The Nation Online. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
- Project, Malawi (5 August 2013). "Shoes for Grades - Thondwe Primary School". Malawi Project. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
- "Malawi News: Latest from the Thondwe Community Forum". Peeblesshire News. 28 October 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
- "January News from the Thondwe Community Forum". Peeblesshire News. 20 January 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
- "Borders performers to raise the roof at charity concert". Peeblesshire News. 15 October 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
- "Malawi, Africa | Tropical Storm Ana 2022 - Emergency Appeal n° MDRMW015 - Malawi | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. 3 February 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
- "Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Zomba, Malawi". Weatherbase. 2011. Retrieved on 24 November 2011.