Baking

Supported by WFP, ADRA Malawi identified and trained, a total of 150 people, in baking, in the last year in the Phalombe district. A total of 17 bakery shelters with 23 ovens have been constructed in 13 GVH. On their part beneficiaries provided some locally available construction materials such as sand for plastering, flooring, and labor such as collection of bricks and sourced funds to pay for the builders.

The bakeries are managed by a community committee, and the profit realized by the bakeries is supporting in average 24 orphans or vulnerable children, per bakery and within the community.

The ADRA Country Director, Emanuel da Costa comments: "These interventions allow us to avoid short term solutions, empowering communities to respond to the needs they identify in their communities. We are thankful for the partnership we have established with these community elected committees, not only in Phalombe district, but through out the country."

Partially based on Project report from: Hastings Lacha Project manager

Goat Rearing (Pass on strategy)

As, United Nations - World Food Program funded, Sustainable Livelihood Intervention, in the Phalombe District, is coming to an end, it is now time to look at what has been achieved and learned. One of the successfully implemented interventions was the Goat Rearing - Pass on strategy.

ADRA employed a pass-on strategy in order to improve goat production, and increase household income, from goat sales by providing targeted vulnerable households with hybrid goats. A total of 300 households beneficiaries were reached under this activity, upon producing offspring the parent stock would be passed on to next beneficiary after a period of 4 months reaching another 300 households.

To date a total of 22 goats have been passed on to 10 additional villages. As the project is winding up, there are 168 pregnant goats and 114 new kids have been produced by 105 goats (refer to appendix 1: tables showing goat reproduction and beneficiary list)

20 groups comprising of 15 beneficiary households were formed and trained in the initial stages of the project to manage the pass on project. The idea behind the pass-on strategy was that in each circle, several members would be given initial inputs and as they start generating returns, they would pass these on to other circle members so that after a period, the whole group will have benefited. Once all original circle members have benefited they would be encouraged to pass-on to other HIV/AIDS targeted villages to generate new circles. The circle members would discuss the criteria to be used in identifying initial members to benefit from the initial inputs.

At GVH level, a project committee was put in place to manage the project activities with the support from government extension workers, CBOs and VDCs.
The Ministry of Agriculture extension workers and the District Social Welfare Office in collaboration with ADRA Malawi trained the targeted households in leadership, business management and group management skills.

The first group of beneficiaries is keeping the goats together with the off springs (kids) waiting for them to reach a stage when they can survive independently. The second group of beneficiaries is preparing the kraals for the goats to be passed on to them.

Based on final report prepared by: Hastings Lacha - Project Manager.

Chisitu ushered in a lot more than just a new year

The beginning of January, 2010, at Chisitu ushered in a lot more than just a new year; it saw the birth of the site’s first calf which was born on 2nd January. Chisitu is one of the many locations in Mulanje District, Southern part of Malawi, where ADRA Malawi is implementing one of its projects fighting against HIV/AIDS. As part of community empowerment especially for households infected and affected with HIV/AIDS, the project distributed grants in kind for Income Generating Activities (IGA). In Mulanje the community choose milk production which has seen the birth of a calf there of. This perfect start to the year was made sweeter by the fact that the calf is a female and is very healthy. Out of the two cows, the remaining one should be giving birth before the end of the month if all goes well.

A sample of the milk was sent to the selling point five days after the birth of the calf for assessment and it has been found to be of acceptable quality. This means that milking and selling starts on 10th January. As the project draws to an end, January end, the early birth of the calf, just before the end, will give the office a chance to assess production levels and have an idea of expected performance.

It was very encouraging to see how enthusiastic the Committee is and how the whole Community is taking part in the care of the animals when I visited the khola yesterday. The community is really keen to see the project succeed and, hopefully, there may be a second khola put up by this time next year!

Reported by: Stanley Mpasa, District Coordinator.