About Malawi and the village

About Malawi

Malawi is a country in East Africa that borders Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique. Approximately 60% of the people live below the poverty line of one and a half dollars a day, and of those, about 14% are ultra-poor and go hungry every day. There is almost no work; the country has hardly any natural resources, and many people are seriously ill with malaria or AIDS. Malawi borders Lake Malawi, the 5th largest lake in the world and up to 700 meters deep! To put this into perspective: if you were to pour all that water over the Netherlands, the country would be 250 meters underwater! Partly due to this, Malawi experiences major climate peaks: heavy rainy seasons followed by extreme drought, which often causes crop failure. Cyclones swept across the country in both 2023 and 2024, causing agricultural damage for two consecutive years.

The village of Mbamba Village Kande The village is situated by the lake and has approximately 1,000 families who live mainly off what they grow themselves on small plots of land, or they sell some food or charcoal along the road. The poorest sleep on the sand under a burlap sack or torn blankets. Almost no one has a bank account. And yet, the people share a lot within their community. Almost everyone is a small farmer with a small piece of land. Maize is widely consumed, but the harvest often yields only a few bales per year. Cassava is the easiest crop; some families eat it three times a day. We train farmers so that they no longer need to use artificial fertilizer but compost. Our foundation has since started its own food production on its own land.