Dedza police to launch ‘No To Suicide’ campaign as suicide cases alarmingly rise

* Suicide cases have become rampant in our district and more especially here at the boma

* We therefore need to join hands in order to avoid further occurrences on the same

By Steve Chirombo, MANA

After recording 10 suicide cases from January to April 2024 — which is an alarming increase as in 2023 just four were recorded in the same period — Dedza Police is set to launch a ‘No To Suicide’ campaign.

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Making the announcement, Dedza Police Station’s Officer In-charge, Mwiza Mose Nyoni calls on various stakeholders in the district to render their helping hand towards their campaign.

Speaking at the end of the district executive committee meeting on Thursday, Nyoni said her office suicide cases have become rampant in the district and thus the need to join hands in order to avoid further occurrences.

“As police, we are set to launch a campaign called ‘No To Suicide’, which is aimed at disseminating preventive messages on suicide cases. We will go across the district and for this to be achieved, we need your support, she said while asking support such as fuel for her officers to move around in their message dissemination exercise.

She said of the suicide figures registered, men were taking lead, with contributing factors being marriage disputes and debts and she further disclosed that her office has started confiscating drugs commonly known as ‘Chim’bulu’ which most people take in order to end their lives.

Officer In-charge, Mwiza Mose Nyoni

“Please, let’s learn to open up when we have issues affecting our lives,” she said. “Let’s speak out whenever we are hurt. There are no issues we can’t sort out hence no need in rushing to take our own lives.”

Commenting on the same, Dedza District Social Welfare Officer, Edward Chisanga noted that suicide cases are not limited to a specific group of people and that anyone can fall in that trap and he urged the general public to seek timely assistance and also practise issues that reduce depression for a healthy psychological well-being.

Chairperson for Dedza civil society organizations, Heston Nalikole has since called for collaboration among stakeholders and stringent measures to curb the presence of Chim’bulu and other harmful drugs on the market.

“To us, every soul is precious and the development is a concern. However, there should be enforcement measures on the sale of these drugs. Those selling should be registered and there should be designated places to sale these drugs.

“We can do the campaign and provide support but if these drugs are not regulated, it is like we are fighting a losing battle,” stated Nalikole.

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Last week, during the zonal Women’s World Day of prayers at Chinkhuti CCAP under Nkhoma Synod in Dowa, Lumbadzi Police Station Officer In-charge, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police (SACP), Micklina Medi hinted that loans women take through Bank-Nkhonde cooperatives are some of the factors that are fueling suicide cases among married men.

These Bank-Nkhonde (village banks) are mostly unregistered cooperatives, which groupings of women who mobilise shares and provide loans amongst themselves.

SACP Medi said in most cases, women do not tell their husbands about their shares and loans that they get from Bank-Nkhonde, which later becomes a burden to their husbands.

In most instances, women engage in these community cooperatives without the knowledge of their husbands and they are never registered with the financial services regulator, the Reserve Bank of Malawi as per the law.

National Bank of Malawi trying to sanitise the banki-mkhonde concept

When it comes to taking loans, the wives bet, as collateral, some household items such as TV plasmas, refrigerators, home theatres, their husbands vehicles among other matrimonial valuables — without consulting their husbands.

When the wives fail to repay the loans — after even not notifying their husbands that they took such loans — the Bank-Nkhonde managers come and confiscate the valuables that were used as collateral.

The husband is forced to dash around looking to raise the money needed to repay the loans and in several incidences, when they fail to raise funds as they are mostly huge loans, they become mentally disturbed and resort to suicide.

Thus Medi advised the women present — and those across the country — “to always engage their husbands when joining and obtaining loans from Bank-Nkhonde”.

As cases of suicide kept rising, reportedly due to financial failures, the Malawi Police Service had been advising the public to desist from suicide whenever they face challenges, saying they should seek counseling or share problems with colleagues.

By the end of 2022, statistics from the National Police Headquarters revealed an alarming increase of suicide cases in the country, which  stood at 168 people committing suicide from January to October last year and 58 cases were registered in the month of October alone.—Editing by Maravi Express

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