What is the aim of the new project in Malawi?

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and has major economic problems. In many areas there is a lack of important infrastructure such as the kind of irrigation systems that enable sufficient crops to be grown even during periods of drought. In Malawi the majority of the population lives on subsistence farming, which means that people mainly grow and harvest their own food. When harvests collapse in times of drought, food prices rise because of the shortage of water and people are acutely threatened by hunger. Children under the age of five are particularly at risk. Almost 40 percent of them are affected by nutritional underdevelopment.

The DPD Foundation has been supporting the Plan International project "Strong in times of climate change" in Malawi since January 2022. The aim of the project is to train men and women within two and a half years in the sustainable cultivation of food as well as its processing and preservation. In order to cultivate their fields more successfully, people learn how to practice forms of agriculture which are adapted to the climate. In addition, existing irrigation systems are being renovated and new ones built, so that sufficient water is available even during periods of drought. In a further project, community training for disaster preparedness is taking place. In this programme people learn construction techniques so that their houses can withstand storms or floods and provide them with a safe home.

Participants in the various training sessions act as ambassadors for food security, agriculture and disaster risk reduction in their communities. They pass on their newly acquired knowledge and thus around 12,500 people in Mulanje and Machinga districts benefit.

Through these measures, we secure the livelihoods of the local people and make them more independent of extreme weather conditions.