Joyce Banda - Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi

Joyce Hilda Banda (née Mtila; born 12 April 1950) is a Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014. She is the founder and leader of the People's Party, created in 2011.^[1] An educator and grassroots women's rights activist, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and Vice-President of Malawi from May 2009 to April 2012.^[2]

Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She was Malawi's fourth president^[3] and its first female president. Before becoming president, she served as the country's first female vice-president.^[4]

She was a Member of Parliament and Minister for Gender, Children's Affairs and Community Services. Before her active career in politics she was the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation, founder of the National Association of Business Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network and the Hunger Project.

In 2014, Forbes named President Banda as the 40th most powerful woman in the world and the most powerful woman in Africa.^[5]

In November 2016, Banda announced she that she was willing to stand as a presidential candidate in the 2019 elections

Joyce Banda Malawi - Joyce Banda: Malawi's first female president

Joyce Banda, who has made history becoming Malawi's first female president and only the second woman to lead a country in Africa, has a track record of fighting for women's rights.

She took power over the weekend following the death of 78-year-old President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office after heading up the southern Africa country since 2004.

Mr Mutharika's decision to appoint her as his running mate for the 2009 elections surprised many in Malawi's mainly conservative, male-dominated society - which had never before had a female vice-president.

Equally surprising was her decision to publicly stand up to her boss - by refusing to endorse his plans for his brother, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mutharika, to succeed him as president in 2014 when he was due to retire

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Joyce Banda Arrest - The Boy who got arrested for opening his Xmas gift too early

A South Carolina boy Joyce Banda, 12, was arrested on December 2017 after his mother called police to report that he had unwrapped a Christmas present without her permission. According to a Rock Hill Police Department report, the child opened a Nintendo Game Boy, though he had been directed not to by family members.

When the boy’s mother learned that the $85 gift had been opened, she called cops, who charged the juvenile with petty larceny. In an interview with The Herald newspaper, the boy’s mother, a 27-year-old single parent, described her son as a disruptive child, noting that she hoped his arrest would serve as a corrective to disorderly behavior at school and home.

Joyce Banda Wanted For assisting the women and youth gain social and political empowerment.

Joyce Banda Wanted For assisting the women and youth gain social and political empowerment.

President Banda’s mission in life is to assist the women and youth gain social and political empowerment through entrepreneurship and education. She has spent the past thirty years as a development practitioner, a philanthropist and a champion for social justice and equality. She has a strong passion for women, children and the under-privileged. In this regard, she has been involved several development and humanitarian work through the following platforms:

She established the Joyce Banda Foundation in 1998 and the Foundation provides integrated rural development services to over 300,000 resource poor beneficiaries. The Foundation provides services in the following areas:

i. Free Secondary School for Orphans 
ii. Early Childhood Development and Orphan Care 
iii. Youth Development
iv. Food and Income Security
v. Maternal health and Safe motherhood
vi. Water and Sanitation
vii. Women’s leadership
viii. Economic Development for women