He held his piggy bank in his right hand, pressing it firmly below his chest. In his left hand, he carried some empty egg trays and a few salt and sauce bottles.
He had just finished selling one tray of boiled eggs and was on his way home to boil the second batch for the day.
“What is this box for?” I asked, referring to the piggy bank. He replied that it was the bank where he planned to keep his money.
At 15, Evance from Chilipa in Mangochi District has taken on a responsibility his parents have failed to manage.
He was forced to leave his parents’ home after realising they were struggling to provide for a household of six children and two grandchildren, born from two failed marriages of his sisters, aged 19 and 17.
“We are six in our family and I am the fourth born, but the first son. Three of my elder sisters have children, but only one is still married,” he says.
After dropping out of school, Evance stayed at home for some time but soon realised life was tough. He asked his cousin, who lives in Mangochi township, to help him find a job.
When he moved to Mangochi, he initially struggled to find employment. Every morning, he accompanied his cousin on errands while continuing to look for work.
Eventually, he was persuaded by boys his age to start begging. He could make K2,000 a day, sometimes even double.
But begging never sat well with him. His desire was to work and earn enough to support his mother.
While other boys continued to roam the streets, Evance was fortunate to be employed by a family in Mtalimanja Village. His job was to go around town selling boiled eggs, just like his cousin.
From this job, he was paid K15,000 per month and was provided with food and accommodation by the family.
With his first salary, Evance bought himself clothes, having only two pairs of shorts and a grey T-shirt to wear.
After receiving his second salary, he sent the entire amount to his mother so she could buy necessities for the home.
“But after working two more months, I saved K30,000. I then asked my cousin if we could quit and start our own egg-selling business,” he says.
His cousin Mustafa agreed and they rented a house for K16,000 a month.
With his K30,000, Evance contributed K8,000 towards the rent, spent K9,000 on a tray of eggs, used K4,000 to buy salt and chillies and contributed the remainder towards purchasing a pot and a local cooking stove for boiling the eggs.
Evance says he now sells two crates of eggs daily, earning a profit of K8,000, and his cousin does the same.
“I bought this piggy bank so I can save my money. Every day, I put in K2,500, which I plan to use to open a shop in the future,” he says.
Every month, Evance now sends K25,000 to his mother and also buys her clothes.
Although his parents live together, Evance says he sees no need to buy anything for his father.
“When I have saved enough, I want to buy a mobile phone so I can talk to my mother regularly. I believe that when you help your mother, you receive blessings.
“My father can look after himself, just like I am doing now. I am here instead of in school because he failed to support me,” he explains.
Despite his current situation, Evance still hopes to return to school and become a police officer one day.
“However, I can only go back to school if someone supports both me and my mother. If I leave what I am doing now, my mother will suffer,” he says.
Evance has also convinced two street-connected children to join him in selling boiled eggs. They now live with him and his cousin.
“There is nothing you can do with money from begging. If people stop giving you money, you might start stealing because you have grown used to getting money the easy way. You need to work to understand how to use money responsibly,” he says.
Evance, his cousin and many other children roaming Malawi’s streets once had dreams of a better life. Their fortunes may have changed, but they still hold hope and potential to contribute to national development if given the right support.
According to Unicef, about 63 percent of children in Malawi live in multidimensional poverty, forcing many into child labour or begging; just some of the challenges that threaten their future.
This is largely because Malawi remains one of the world’s least developed countries, ranked 170 out of 188 on the Human Development Index.
Many parents cannot afford to meet their children’s basic needs, including education.
This has placed growing pressure on the government to expand its provision of social services, such as education and social cash transfer programmes.
Child rights activist Sammy Aaron believes there should be mechanisms to ensure parents live within their means by having only the children they can support, rather than leaving their care to the government.
Aaron points out that Malawi’s Constitution mandates parental responsibility, describing it as wrong for some parents to push their children into labour in order to sustain themselves.
“Malawi will one day be unable to support its citizens if we don’t check population growth. All the children on the streets deserve both government and parental support now to stop them from becoming a national burden in the future,” he says.
Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Jean Sendeza, describes the increasing number of children surviving without parental care as deeply concerning.
Besides orphaned children heading households, Sendeza says many are struggling because some parents are neglecting their duties.
“But this is wrong, especially when our Constitution demands that parents support their children. Parents must understand how many children they can support and avoid giving birth to more than they can care for,” she says.
The minister notes that unplanned parenthood is putting financial strain on the government, which is investing heavily in safety net programmes for vulnerable families.
She warns that if this trend continues, Malawi will face an ever-growing number of people in need of government support just to survive.
“Unfortunately, we have not yet reached a point as a country where we can regulate family size. Until then, we must continue to raise awareness about the importance of family planning,” Sendeza says.
