Balaka is too hot

The Balaka District is home to over 250,000 people, and the Balaka township is home to approximately 15,000.

Many American development workers, missionaries, and Malawians themselves consider Balaka to be the country's armpit.  "Why would you work in Balaka?" a few American development workers and missionaries inquired of us when learning we were setting up to work there.  

We began to ask ourselves that same question. Balaka has a lot to deal with. This southern town is set in a valley which often retains oppressive heat, even more than its neighboring towns to just the east or west. Electricity (available to only 1% of the district) and running water are not rights, but privileges. Medical care is sorely lacking as the district hospital operates without trained doctors.

Balaka is not really a place that anyone would need to go to. It is simply a "place to pass through," and many attribute this as a factor in the district's high HIV/AIDS rate (1 in 4 adults infected). Because Balaka is located a short distance off the main road that connects Malawi's capital and its largest city, many travelers stay the night here and end up engaging in casual sexual relationships that put them at great risk.