Conservation
Renewable Resources, Enduring Results
With widespread deforestation throughout Southern Malawi, we aim to do everything we can not to add to the problem.
Feeding more than 3,000 children each day brings its own challenges and we are constantly striving to offset the consumption of firewood by using alternative fuel sources and more efficient cooking methods.
We build cooking stoves that use a third less firewood than traditional open fires. Here’s one of our girls demonstrating her culinary skills!
So, what is an alternative to firewood?
Bamboo!
We have planted giant bamboo around our centre at Namisu and it’s getting huge! Very soon we will be running comparison experiments to see how burning bamboo for fuel compares with firewood. We are very optimistic that bamboo will be the future fuel of choice. And….another great thing about bamboo is that you can coppice from the original plant and transplant to other areas.
Tree Nurseries
At Support Malawi, we want to spread our knowledge far and wide to help as many people as possible. We have now planted more than 20,000 indigenous trees around our centres and communities. We have also trained local people to start their own tree nursery projects with great results.
Pictured below is our tree planting project at our Umodzi centre.
The children had an amazing day learning about the importance of trees, how to care for them and then each child received their own tree to plant themselves.
Gracious, our farm manager, teaching the community farmers about the benefits of composting. This is hugely important as the price of fertilizer is now far too expensive for rural farmers to afford.
In a year when many farmers were unable to harvest anything, these cobs of maize are an incredible testimony to the new methods of farming being taught.