Learning from Namitembo

We arrived safely in Malawi on Friday, and were greeted by our friends from Dwankhozi.  After a wonderful meal, we set off for the six-hour drive to Namitembo, in rural Malawi. Leaving close to sunset made for quite an interesting journey – it’s not easy to find a rural school down a dirt road, in pitch darkness, without ‘google’ maps.

Traveling to Namitembo were Brad, Mark & myself, along with our Project Manager, Moses Masala, and the PTA Chairman from Dwankhozi Community School (DCS), Godfrey, who is a local farmer from Dwankhozi. Our purpose was to visit a Parish school that we had heard about from some friends in the states, establish connections, and learn how they have developed a trade school and agriculture program.

Our host Father Philip greeted us in the morning with breakfast and an insightful tour of their facilities – specifically their agriculture project and trade school. We were so impressed with their accomplishments that we hope to emulate both of these initiatives at DCS in the near future.

One of the most interesting things we learned about their agriculture program is inter-cropping. It’s a technique where you intersperse nitrogen-producing crops such as chickpeas and groundnuts, with staple crops such as maize along with a nitrogen-producing shrub call gliricidia. Yields have increased three-fold and they have enough food for the hungry season. With Godfrey’s help along with other local farmers, we hope to bring this technique to DCS.  We believe this can provide enough food during the hungry season to feed the kids, which was an issue we discovered during our last visit.

The trade school focuses on teaching brick building and carpentry.    Because so few students at DCS are able to go to high school or college, providing them with a trade will enable them to earn a living.  Building a trade school is now on our list of future projects.

Thanks for your continued support throughout our journey.  This is only the beginning – we have so much more to look forward to.

Blessings,

Matt