Empower Projects
  • Menu
    • HOME
    • ABOUT US
    • OUR IMPACT
    • PROJECTS
    • EVENTS
    • BLOG
    • CONTACT
    • Home
    • About Us
    • Our Impact
    • Projects
    • Blog
    • Contact
    • Donate
Empower Projects
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • OUR IMPACT
  • PROJECTS
  • BLOG
  • CONTACT
  • DONATE

Returning to Malawi (2023)

Homepage Cooperatives Returning to Malawi (2023)
Cooperatives, Education, Malawi, People, Permaculture

Returning to Malawi (2023)

February 24, 2023
By Shanil
0 Comment
1580 Views

Our Co-Founder and Executive Director Dr Shanil Samarakoon shares some highlights from his recent visit to Malawi. 

It’s been over 3 years since I’ve been to Malawi! The pandemic disrupted my annual visits, quality time on the ground during which I’d connect with our team, partner communities, and partner organisations.  As has been the case for many of us, much of this work has been since relegated to emails, calls and WhatsApp chats. While I’m grateful for this technology as it has enabled us to continue our work with schools and communities on the ground …there’s no substitute for being there in person.

It was why it was such a pleasure to connect with our Project Manager Bright Msuku after this long pause!

It’s customary for us to spend a lot of time in the field together and once I touched down in Lilongwe, we forged plans to visit all our projects in the Districts of Mchinji and Lilongwe.  More specifically, this involved visiting 3 partner schools and 5 partner cooperatives in the rural depths of these districts. While the distances aren’t great, heavy rains in the months of January and February make travelling a real challenge -a 4×4 was essential.

It was a very fruitful trip and we did a A LOT…so I’ll confine this post to my Top 3 highlights.

 

1.  Visiting Mphanga Primary School in Mchinji

It was really thrilling to visit this school as I’ve never been here before and their progress has been remarkable.  Our collaboration with this school resulted in the launch of a school meal program that provides 1,400+ pupils with breakfast at least 3 days a week. This is especially important between Jan-Apr as these are known to be the periods during which hunger is particularly acute.  The buzz around the meal program was very clear to see with several students voicing their appreciation – many mentioned being able to concentrate in class as they didn’t feel hungry. This occurs in a context where farmers contend with a 400% increase in fertilizer prices over the last 12 months.

This meal program is a massive operation that is entirely managed by the local community. Our coordinator Joel Smitten has supported this school over the last 2 years  by training community members in permaculture methods – from designing gardens to composting and intercropping. The results are phenomenal, over 12 acres of communal land are now dedicated to growing food to drive the school’s meal program. There are plans to expand it even further!

https://www.empowerprojects.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WhatsApp-Video-2023-02-24-at-17.21.41.mp4

 

I also got to see the school’s solar system in action (courtesy of Zuwa Energy). This means that both teachers and students get access to good lighting at night. The key impact here is that it enables the school to host night classes in a safe space that allows senior students to get the help they need for high school entrance exams.

 

2.Cooking Oil and Honey Co-ops in Mchinji

While in Mchinji, we visited two enterprising cooperatives that are making some great progress with our support. Mthirasembe (115 members) produces cooking oil from sunflowers and peanuts, while Mtenjemanga  (56 households) produces honey. Incidentally, most of the members of these cooperatives have children that attend Mphanga Primary School!  We met with members of each of these cooperatives and got detailed updates on how they are progressing with the interest-free loans that they were given in May 2022.

It was great to note how upbeat each of these cooperatives were about their business and their capacity to boost their levels of production despite challenging economic conditions in Malawi. Mthirasembe have invested in a new location for their factory that frees them from rent and a lack of access to electricity. Meanwhile, Mtenjemanga has diversified its operations to grow soy. They intend to use these proceeds to replace old bee hives and increase honey production – a commodity that is in high demand in their local community! Both cooperatives will receive extensive business, governance, and agricultural training from our team this year, news that was met with great appreciation as these organisations have had a surge of new members come in over the last 12 months.

https://www.empowerprojects.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WhatsApp-Video-2023-02-27-at-12.36.56.mp4

Mtenjemanga’s honey processing machine

Members of Mtenjemanga insisted on a picture together 🙂

https://www.empowerprojects.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WhatsApp-Video-2023-02-27-at-12.36.44.mp4

Mthirasembe’s cooking oil processing machine

Labels for the bottles of cooking oil that Mthirasembe produce

 

3. Demera Cooperative in Lilongwe

My final highlight was in Lilongwe, were we met with Demera Cooperative, an agricultural cooperative with 215 active members.  This cooperative has benefitted from both interest-free finance and training from Empower Projects since 2019. They’ve gone from strength to strength, with their members citing major improvements in income and their capacity to send their children to high school as a result of being members of the cooperative.

The next chapter of our support for this large cooperative centres on a great collaboration with SoPowerful, a solar-focused NGO. Through their generous technical contribution and a loan we provided to acquire additional land, Demera Cooperative now has their own solar irrigated 1.5 acre farm! They also have access to a new communal tap that households in the area can use. The cooperative is already starting to grow a range of cash crops that will boost revenue all year round as they are no longer tethered to seasonal rains. We will be providing this cooperative with additional training and permaculture design support to ensure that this space is used with both short-term and long-term crops in mind. Overall, our collective goal is to ensure that the cooperative’s output goes towards addressing food security in the region.

A meeting with members of Demera Cooperative 

A view from the top. The solar system is complemented by a 5,000L storage tank.

 

Well…that’s just a few of the major highlights from an extremely rewarding trip to Malawi.  It was so good to be back and I hope this marks a return to regular visits. We’ve made a lot of ambitious plans for 2023 that we hope to deliver on with your support 🙂

 

Director (Finance) Runil Patel and Project Manager Bright Msuku dropping me at the airport

 

 

Tags: 2023 Africa Cooperatives Malawi Permaculture Schools Shanil Samarakoon Solar

Previous Story
Our Impact in 2021

Related Articles

Our Impact in 2021

The second year of the pandemic was no less challenging...

Mphanga Primary and Kakoma Primary set to launch breakfast programs

Greetings! We hope you are having a positive start to...

Leave your comment Cancel Reply

(will not be shared)

Recent Post

  • Returning to Malawi (2023) Friday, 24, Feb
  • Permaculture in Schools – Our Approach to Improving Student Wellbeing in Malawi Monday, 20, Jan
  • Why we love cooperatives! Wednesday, 26, Sep
  • Kapita Primary School – A Five Year Journey Tuesday, 26, Sep
  • Our Impact in 2021 Tuesday, 1, Mar
  • Mphanga Primary and Kakoma Primary set to launch breakfast programs Monday, 17, Jan
  • Haswel Filiton of Demera Cooperative Monday, 5, Apr
  • Our Impact in 2020 Tuesday, 9, Feb

Categories

Archives

About Us

We enable rural communities in Malawi and Sri Lanka to achieve self-reliance.
#

Contact Info

General Inquiries: info@empowerprojects.org

Media Inquiries: media@empowerprojects.org

Connect With Us

Privacy statement
Empower Projects
ABN 58 164 937 982
Australia
We are a registered charity with Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status, all donations made to Empower Projects over $2 are tax-deductible within Australia.
Copyright ©2023 Empower. All Rights Reserved · Terms & Conditions · Privacy Policy | Built by SPi
SearchPostsLogin
Friday, 24, Feb
Returning to Malawi (2023)
Monday, 20, Jan
Permaculture in Schools – Our Approach to Improving Student Wellbeing in Malawi
Wednesday, 26, Sep
Why we love cooperatives!
Tuesday, 26, Sep
Kapita Primary School – A Five Year Journey
Tuesday, 1, Mar
Our Impact in 2021
Monday, 17, Jan
Mphanga Primary and Kakoma Primary set to launch breakfast programs
Monday, 5, Apr
Haswel Filiton of Demera Cooperative
Tuesday, 9, Feb
Our Impact in 2020
Tuesday, 15, Dec
Sowing Seeds of Change at Mphanga Primary School

Welcome back,