We are determined to encourage self-sustainabilty in the local area, and hopefully across Malawi to. We have funded previous permaculture courses which has resulted in the local school having their own permaculture garden and feeding their students, and we have created a community garden on the local scout camp for the village to use.

Permaculture education course for Mponda Village with Samuel Baluti 2017

When Jaine Raine, the youngest of the Belcher family to be born in Zomba, Malawi, returned to visit Makwawa in 2015, she was shocked to hear that a big argro-chemical company had been selling subsidised fertilizer through the Malawian government to the peasant subsistence farmers. That subsidy had now finished but now the farmers were dependant on the fertilizer to grow crops like maize. The fertilizer had depleted the soil of nutrients and maize would now only grow well with use of fertilizer. Permaculture is a way of breaking that cycle, with the use of manure and creating compost from food and other organic waste.

On returning to Malawi in 2017, Jaine and her sister Ramona Belcher, made it their mission to find a Malawian Permaculture teacher. Samuel Baluti began teaching the principles of Permaculture to staff at the Domasii Mission Secondary School (DMSS) and a week later to some of the villagers of Mponda village later that year.

The garden created at DMSS is still going strong, providing food for the school. However, the villagers were more reluctant to change their growing methods. Jaine then approached the Scout Association of Malawi for permission to use part of the grounds at Makwawa for a Community Permaculture Garden. The Garden was created during August 2018 and members of the Permaculture group are tending it and will be sharing the produce between them.

The Community Permcaulture Garden below Thompson Hall on Makwawa Scout Campsite (view of the hall from bottom of garden)

The Community Permcaulture Garden below Thompson Hall on Makwawa Scout Campsite (view from the hall)

Domasii Primary School’s new Permaculture Garden, making use of the playground water tap that permanently leaks as its water source.

Also in August 2018, Samuel taught another introduction to Permaculture at the Primary School, where pupils and staff learnt about design and created a garden within the Primary School grounds.

“Madzi de moyo”  which translates as “Water is Life” a Malawian Proverb.

Permaculture is especially useful for small holders and its principles are very easy to use. The most important principle is water harvesting, making the best use of any possible water source. Luckily at Domasii and at Makwawa there is water flowing from the plateau of Zomba mountain and therefore harvesting this precious water was the next step for the charity, with an Irrigation Project set up in 2017, where the pipes were laid from Makwawa river into the fields of Mponda village.

Irrigation pipes take water from Makwawa river to the fields so that maize can be grown during the dry season. Unfortunately this year there is a pest, a caterpillar that is devastating crops. The permaculture members are having to go out and collect them daily to reduce the effect on therir crops.

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Creating ‘swales’ holds the water in the soil for longer, especially on a slope. The brush had to be burnt away as it was full of a very prickly plant which hampered the clearance process.