A Portrait of Poverty, 2nd Edition

"No one has ever assisted me neither my relatives nor the church where I congregate, my life has always been one of pain and strife"

Ms Albertina Mwewa on her life living as one of the blind beggars on the streets of Lusaka. Nancy Handabile's insightful piece Blind and Surving on the Streets chronicles her daily challenges. Her story is one in which poverty reinforces poverty - from birth to the grave. Ms Mwewa was born in a poor family of six in Samfya. When she was three, she suffered blindness. Due to her blindness she never went to school and instead got married at a very tender age to a fellow blind man with whom she had seven children. She has lost four children due to poverty and general illnesses which has compounded her sorrow in life. As if that is not enough trouble to add to her list of woes, Ms Mwewa is facing the odds of life all alone having divorced her polygamous husband who went and married another woman with sight. So now she is stuck on the streets begging to pay rent and children to support.

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A Portrait of Poverty