Background
She was born in 1935 in Malawi.
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Catherine Chipembere
Edit ProfileJazz artist minister politician deputy
Education
Chipembere attended secondary school during a time when education was not considered a priority for Malawian girls.
Career
She currently works with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome orphans and runs twelve pre-schools, serving more than 1,000 Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome orphans. She also runs a women"s knitting cooperative in Mangochi. Masauko Chipembere died in the United States in 1975 from diabetes.
Chipembere went on to pursue and earn a bachelor"s degree in early childhood education from the University of California at Los Los Angeles
Political In 1994, after the end of Banda"s rule, she returned to Malawi as a hero. Later she served as the first deputy minister of education, science and technology and then as deputy minister of health and population.
She was able to use her degree to oversee primary and secondary school education. She retired from her political career in 1998 and started the "".
In a widely puiblicised move, she decided to keep her husband"s surname in spite of remarrying, as a political statement.
She was sued by the Chipembere family for maintaining her Chipembere surname. Although ultimately winning the case, Catherine was removed from her post and residence in the government sector in 1998 by the Muluzi government. Most of the children are between two and six years old.
Several of the orphans are Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome orphans.
Achievements
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She won a scholarship to study domestic science in England. The (WIN) is a non-profit network of Malawian women that holds empowerment workshops for young women which are led by her. The network collaborated with non-profits like Global Soles in the United States to bring shoes for orphans in Malawi in 2009 WIN Malawi operates in rural Mangochi and has built and sponsored twelve primary schools that educate, feed and care for over a thousand orphans. She won this case and she was able to keep the surname as a political widow.
Membership
She was elected as the first female member of the Malawian parliament.
