Agri-Impact Malawi

Agriculture accounts for the majority of Malawi’s economic activity, employing 64% of the workforce and accounting for 80% of national export earnings. Despite this, the sector - which is dominated by small scale farmers - struggles to provide enough food for the country’s population.

Agri-Impact Malawi is being supported by Egmont to work with 100 small holder farmers living in the rural environs of south-west of Lilongwe. Agri-Impact aims to support these families to improve their agricultural production so that they are able to move from merely surviving to thriving. The project will provide training to households in economic and financial planning and understanding of risk, to help them prepare for the future. It seeks to change the mindset of project participants from dependence to empowerment through foundational mindset change training.

The project also focuses on increasing productivity and profitability, providing training on crop diversification, vegetable production and poultry management. With the average distance from small holder farm to main road being 23km, Agri-Impact will also provide training in post-harvest handling, storage and micro food processing practices so that families are able to access markets with their produce.

Community Partnership for Relief & Development (COPRED)

In Malawi, over 67% of people live below the poverty line of $1.90 a day. Without having enough money to afford a variety of food, families suffer from malnutrition with only 8% of children between the ages 6-23 months meeting a minimum acceptable diet. This can lead to children being more vulnerable to diseases and infections, especially if they are HIV+.

Working across 20 villages, COPRED will directly support over 2000 orphaned or vulnerable children. These are children that have been directly impacted by the HIV epidemic, either though losing their parents or from the economic impact it has had on their communities. COPRED will be supporting these children with psychological support services, school equipment and materials as well as early childhood development centres. The project will also support the carers and guardians of these children with business training and village lending schemes to enable them to better support themselves through creating their own business or increasing their farming output.

Development Concept

Over the last 20 years, 917,000 people have lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses in Malawi. This continuing death toll amongst communities across the country means that there are now hundreds of thousands of households that are headed by widows, grandparents and other relatives or by siblings – many still young children themselves – struggling after the loss of the main breadwinner of the family.

Development Concept Malawi is an Egmont Partner working in the eastern part of the country in Machinga. Here they support 150 families that are headed by either a widow or a child, with educational and income support programmes. They provide business training and a variety of seeds and technical advice to their farms, to help them maximise their profits. Development Concept also supports the 240 children that the families care for with regular health check-ups, nutritional supplements and educational performance monitoring. In addition, Development concept is also working to support increased adherence to ARV treatment among 100 HIV+ children and adults in the families, by setting up local support groups to share the responsibility to collect and distribute ARVs from the clinic and regularly meet to support one another. These groups are being educated on HIV treatment and care and also supported and monitored by trained Community Volunteers. 

Foundation for Community Livelihood and Development (FOCOLD)

Malawi has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world Malawi at 7.2% of the 20 million strong populace infected. In the southern region of the country, near the commercial hub of Blantyre, the situation is worse with close to one in ten people infected. Poverty exacerbates the problem, pushing young girls into early marriages or transactional sex to support their families. 

Egmont has supported Foundation for Community Livelihood and Development (FOCOLD) to work with 150 female-headed households and 300 children affected or infected by HIV living in 20 rural villages around Blantyre. They aim to enhance their food security and income generating potential, increase access to education for the children, and promote safe behaviours and practices through sexual and reproductive health education. 

Household heads receive seeds and farming training to enhance yields and learn post-harvest techniques to improve income. Diverse nutrition benefits HIV+ family members and helps children concentrate in school. Women's Business Hubs will be established, groups that provide women with access to credit and saving facilities, and training in business management and entrepreneurship. They can then set up small businesses using a loan from a revolving fund, aiding their families with food, essentials, school fees, and learning materials. Through these interventions, FOCOLD aims to address both the drivers of HIV infection and improve the lives of those impacted by AIDS. 

Future 4 All Malawi

In Malawi, almost 1 in 10 adults across the country are HIV+ and many hundreds of thousands of parents and caregivers have died as a result of AIDS-related diseases in the last decade. This combined with a struggling economy, Malawi has consistently posted amongst the lowest GDP per capita figures in the world in recent decades, makes it extremely difficult for HIV affected families to support the children in their care.

Future4All are an Egmont Partner working in the rural Ntcheu District of Central Malawi. They work to improve the incomes of families who have been affected by HIV, so that they can support themselves and their children. Future4All are currently supporting 100 families with farming inputs such as seeds and livestock as well as financial training. They are also supporting many of them to access credit for the first time, by enrolling them into village savings and loans schemes where they can pool together their income with other local farmers and pursue new business opportunities. The project will also support local early childhood development centres with agricultural training and inputs so they can start small-scale farms to provide free meals for the 300 children in their care. Future4All will directly support the cost of educating 20 of the most vulnerable children from amongst the families they work with.

Girls Empowerment Network (GENET)

Primary education is free in Malawi, and although the costs of school uniforms and the large distances children have to travel can prohibit some from attending, most are able to complete their primary education. The cost of continuing beyond primary education, however, is often beyond the means of most households; only 37% of secondary school-aged children across the country are enrolled in secondary education.

GENET are working with 360 children (240 girls and 120 boys) who live in poverty, are victims of sexual abuse or are living with HIV. They are working to improve their future opportunities by supporting them holistically to achieve better results in school and by supporting their families to earn a sustainable income. All of the children will receive mentorship and academic support as well as mental health care from trained counsellors. They are also supporting 200 of the most economically vulnerable children by paying for their school fees, securing their education in the short term. To ensure that parents can continue to pay for school in the longer term, GENET will provide busines training and capital investment to 60 caregivers, enabling them to start businesses which can support their families.

God Cares Rights Foundation

In Malawi, the impact of the high number of deaths from AIDS-related illnesses over successive decades has resulted in a very young population; 53% of Malawians are under 18. The breakdown of family units - as breadwinners and parents have succumbed to the disease - has led to 16.7% of those children under 18, either orphaned or vulnerable. Many of these children end up living on the streets.

The God Cares Rights Foundation is supporting 300 children (240 primary school aged and 60 secondary school aged) who are highly vulnerable, many of whom have previously lived on the streets or are at risk of doing so. They provide them with the educational materials and fees that they need to access an education. They are also supporting the families of all 300 children with a variety of economic programmes aimed at empowering them to support themselves through business ventures and improved incomes. God Cares form the caregivers into village savings and loans groups where they can pool their resources to access low interest loans to invest in businesses. They are also providing a range of seeds and pigs to improve their agricultural incomes.

HIV & AIDS in the Workplace Intervention (HAWIP)

HAWIP began as a way for the staff of Rumphi District Hospital to support the orphaned children of colleagues who had died as a result of AIDS. In 2008, when the number of orphans was too many for staff to support, Egmont funded a project to deliver nutritional support to these children.

HAWIP provides voluntary testing, counselling services and AIDS education programmes to the communities of Rumphi. Vulnerable children are supported into education with the payment of school fees and AIDS-affected women are given start-up capital to pursue home businesses that provide sustainable income for their families. Since Egmont funding began, the HIV prevalence rate for Rumphi District has dropped to 6.9% among adults - well below the national average of 10.5%. HAWIP has also now expanded its operations to two more areas, Mhuju and Chitimba. By improving the understanding that the people of those areas have of HIV & AIDS, the programme aims to reduce the infection rate further.

Life Concern (LICO)

Based in the rural north of Malawi, LICO’s work focuses on mothers-to-be and young women to help prevent the occurrence of mother to child HIV transmission, which currently accounts for 10% of new infections in the district.

Cultural practices, low literacy levels due to high school dropouts, and early marriages put young women and girls particularly at risk of HIV in this region. In its current Egmont-funded project, LICO is working to increase access to HIV-related services for children and girls including those living with HIV in schools across Bumba zone. LICO is also working to reduce incidences of sexual violence against women and children in Mayembe ward. By reducing sexual violence, LICO can also reduce the likelihood that women are infected with HIV as this is another vector by which the virus is transmitted. Additionally, by engaging and collaborating with influential leaders from local civil, faith and community organisations, LICO aims to strengthen the provision of HIV and sexual violence support services at both the community and district level.    

Kwithu Community Based Organisation

Over 60% of the population of Mzuzu, Malawi, live in unplanned settlements and 34% of families live on less than $1.25 a day. As a result, many children are unable to complete their education; less than one-in-five of children aged 14-17 are attending secondary school.

Kwithu is a voluntary organisation which provides vulnerable children and children orphaned by AIDS in the Luwinga Ward of Mzuzu with early-years educational support. This project will identify and fund 35 academically gifted, vulnerable children from Kwithu’s programme to attend secondary school, four of which will be funded to attend the Mzuzu International Academy, a prestigious local boarding school. They will also support 26 HIV+ out-of-school youth to attend vocational courses at a local technical college. Counselling and youth club services will be provided to children in the local area that have been impacted by HIV & AIDS, including the children on the scholarship programme.

Small Producers Development and Transporters Association (SPRODETA) 

Across Malawi, over a million people live with HIV and 470,000 children have lost one or both parents to AIDS-rated illnesses, leaving family networks fractured and increasing the burden on already economically struggling families. In Malawi’s Mzimba District, many young men migrate to South Africa in search of work each year, further reducing the capacities of families to care for the many children left behind. When almost 70% of the population lives on less than $2.15 a day, many women and girls face resorting to transactional sex in order to generate enough income to support their families, increasing their risk of HIV infection. 

In their Egmont-supported project, Small Producers Development and Transporters Association (SPODETA) is aiming to increase the incomes of 700 women-headed households caring for AIDS-affected children. Caregivers receive training in business management, entrepreneurship and vocational skills so they can set up their own businesses, and are enrolled in Village Savings and Loan groups so they can access credit and invest in their income-generating ventures. 

To further improve the wellbeing of the children across the 700 households, SPRODETA, is also providing training in home- gardening techniques, distributing cassava and sweet potato cuttings and demonstrating how to cook nutritionally balanced meals. 

While, in schools, gardens and orchards are being established to provide fruit and vegetables for school meals and vulnerable children are provided with learning materials. Outside of school, SPRODETA is running a campaign encouraging out-of-school girls to resume their education.