Zomba feels the loss of tourism brought about by COVID-19

Earlier this month, one of WMP's committee members got in touch to see how our partners in Zomba are managing the Covid-19 outbreak. Thanks to Tom and Petal for their detailed and moving account of life in the mountains:

Dear Sally

It is indeed difficult, we are not going to lie! We have kept all our staff on full wages but it is taking its toll. After consulting with the staff, we have decided to re-open on a 50% capacity basis. I think they understand that without the business running, many others are suffering as we have no extra work, we are not buying as much produce (hardly any at all) etc. The trickle down effect from the loss of tourism is huge. 

We are not expecting business to be booming any time soon. Most of our resident guests have left so we need to develop a new market for ourselves. The tourism sector in Malawi had lost 35,000 jobs as of April, I am not sure how many it is now. Many lodges have retrenched staff and re-employed on lower wages. Many have not re-employed at all.

On the plus side, the virus does not seem to have taken off like it has in Europe and we remain positive that it will progress slowly rather than explode. We had a wobbly moment when the government announced we would go into lockdown; an impossible situation for the standard Malawian who finds food on a daily basis and who would not have the funds to buy or the capacity to store enough food for a month. The Human Rights division took out an injunction against it as they understood that under lockdown many would starve!

Since then, there are tippy taps (buckets with taps) and soap outside most buildings and shops. Many people are wearing masks and social distancing is only laughable: Inside the bank for example, markers have been placed so that everyone keeps the correct distance, but outside the bank there is a crowd of 100 people who are all trying to get inside, and who are not keeping any distance at all.

To make matters a tad more stressful, we have had hardly any rain since mid Feb so everything is already really dry, meaning that we have to organise the fire prevention work much earlier.

TREEZ continues however and, like I said, will be organizing firebreaks any time from now :) We will be hindered by the fact that the Forestry Department doesn't have any vehicles, as all government departments have been required to return their vehicles to HQ and to work from home… How a forestry officer is supposed to work from home is baffling! But this means that there are more people on the Plateau cutting wood illegally as there is no one to enforce anything. Truly frustrating!

I realise that this emails sounds a bit depressing, but one thing I should add is that at a time like this, there is no place I would rather be than here. Life has barely changed for Malawians, the harvest for most has been good and were it not for the tippy taps and masks that some people are wearing, life goes on. Everyone is far more interested in the elections than they have been in the virus and over all, people continue to smile. We keep our fingers crossed that this won’t change.

Thanks so much Sally for your continued support, it is good to know that Malawi has friends out there

Sending you all warm wishes from an increasingly cool mountain,

Tom and Petal

For more information about Zomba Trees, click here.