Never Ending Food

Kamp Kwacha was a week-long camp that was organized by Peace Corps Volunteers to focus on small-business skills (i.e. product development, budgeting, marketing, record keeping, etc)  “Kwacha’ is the word for the Malawian currency, so Never Ending Food was invited to the camp to give a sesion on ‘Income Generating Activities’ using local resources.

There were about 20 secondary-school students who were selected from across the country to attend the camp, and each of these participants had to write an essay about the reasons for wanting to attend such a training.  Kristof set up a display of local food products, medicines, handicrafts, and other ideas for using Malawi’s vast array of natural resources towards economic gain and poverty alleviation.  He focused a great deal on the differences between a “resource” and a “waste,” since in Malawi it is extremely common for local resources to be overlooked, ignored, stigmatized, and otherwise ‘wasted’.  He also used a quote that he had seen written on the wall of a church while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica, it read: “It is a terrible thing to be born with sight but lack vision.”  There was a good conversation with the participants about the meaning of this quote and how Malawi can begin to restore its ‘vision’ for a healthy, wealthy, and sustainable future using what Malawi already has available.

Recently our Permaculture Manager, Luwayo Biswick, has been taking ideas for recycled products and introducing them to people in and around his village.  Right now they are just beginning to experiment with these new ideas but already there have been some very creative and exciting things happening.

This picture shows two different styles of handbags made out of recycled plastic that has been knitted together.  The small bag has a recycled zipper-top that was taken from a worn out garment.  There is also a small bowl and a pair of children’s sandals, both of which are made from hand-made sisal string (a plant similar to agave) and corn husks.  The bags were made by Luwayo’s sisters and the bowl and shoes by Jacob Jumpha, a 15-year old boy that lives near Luwayo’s village.

It is just wonderful to see people being creative and starting to see that the very things that have been surrounding them are the same things that can be used as resources to meet their needs.  If these projects take off we will hopefully, in the near future, be helping these young entrepenuers to identify markets and sell their products for profit.

September 6:  SUCCESS!   The Permaculture Association of Britain  has sponsored the Malawi candidate to attend IPC 10.  We are working right now on helping Eston Pembamoyo to get his tickets, visa and other logistical arrangements in order.  The support that you have provided will go towards transport costs in Malawi and incidental costs along the way, which are sure to come up.  Thanks to you all for your good wishes and support!

We are assisting to raise funds so that at least one Malawi candidate can IPC10 in Jordan.   The different people who had originally applied to attend talked together and picked the best option for Malawi and all efforts are going into supporting the one candidate.   That candidate is Eston Pembamoyo who can be reached on EsjoPembamoyo@gmail.com.  He is the acting Administrator for the Permaculture Network in Malawi since 2007 and helping to get the network registered in Malawi.  He’s been practicing Permaculture for the past few years and integrates sustainable designing into hi

s work as a Reverend in the Anglican Church.  If you are able to assist, please visit our donations page, we only have a month to raise the remaining amount he needs:   2,500 dollars, so if you are able, please do so in the next few days.  Thank you!

The next International Permaculture Conference and Convergence, IPC10, will be held in Jordan across September 2011.  The theme is “Plan Jordan ~ Water”. The theme of IPC10 is highly appropriate given the United Nations have just launched their Decades for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification. We have the solutions!

The 1-day IPC10 Conference (open to all) and 4-day IPC10 Convergence (open to Permaculture Design Certificate graduates only) will be held in Jordan (Amman and Wadi Rum, respectively) and will be coordinated by Nadia ‘Abu Yahia’ Lawton.   Prior to the start of the Conference and subsequent Convergence, a two-week International Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) coursewill be taught by  a team of respected permaculture educators and pratitioners, and all three events will be followed by tours and permaculture site visits.

Nadia has a You Tube Video to entice you, it would be great to have you attend WITH the Malawi candidate!  The biennial International Permaculture Conference is the world’s premier permaculture gathering. Don’t miss it!

A Natural Planter

One of Permaculture’s main principles is to “use resources to their fullest potential.”  The following is a good example of what that means…We recently had to remove an old papaya tree from one of our garden beds, so we chopped it down to the level of a stump.  Papaya trees tend to be very soft or hollow on the inside, so instead of trying to remove the stump, roots and all, we left it in the ground and turned it into a natural planter.  We hollowed out the middle, filled it with compost and planted an eggplant.  By doing this, we will be able to allow for the natural decomposition of the papaya’s roots that will leave small ‘tunnels’ in the soil to let air and water penetrate deeply.  It will also allow the stump to feed the soil around the area of the planter as it decomposes, adding carbon and essential nutrients back to the soil.  This whole process also helped us to “conserve energy” (another Permaculture principle), since we didn’t have to go through the back-breaking process of trying to remove a large tree stump from the ground.

July – The Natural classroom is DONE!

It took a few meetings in June with the school and building team, then just a week to do the actual building process once all the materials were in order.  The lead builder took magnificent pictures with my camera and you can see the  process  on our Never Ending Food Facebook page.

THANK YOU to all that provided support!  We will be raising funds to: assist some local entrepreneurs, teach sustainable building in our village and re-build houses at the same time, hold training sessions, build composting toilets and more, so please visit our donations page if you are interested in supporting activities.

26 April:  We’ve reached the goal! There was a meeting with the school last week and I met briefly with the lead builder. We’ll start our detailed discussions and keep you posted on progress.  Thanks to all of you who provided support, financial and/or morale, both are appreciated!

Those who are still interested in providing financial contributions are welcome to do so for the other projects that we have coming up which will include:  Sustainable buildings at Never Ending Food for the 6 families who live with us; Composting toilets;  Sponsorships for education – and much more! Please visit our donations page to make a contribution.

15 April:  The first few days of our campaign have been very successful!  We are now only 195 USD away from reaching our goal!  THANK YOU to each of you who have contributed thus far.  There is a meeting with the Nkhata Bay Education leadership on Friday and we hope to be able to tell them the funds are in and they can start implementing.

10 April: We are helping to collect funds to build a sustainable classroom for one of our best performing schools in Malawi.  The classroom will be built with mud and thatch technologies that are easy to maintain (to look like the picture here).  

The funds will pay for a team of builder-trainers to come to the school for a week to work with the school community to build the new classroom.

I visited the school with the Ministry of Education and Agriculture last week and we gave the school a score of 93 percent for School Health and Nutrition performance – the only school we’ve ever given such a high score in the short time that the School Health and Nutrition programme has been running.  We were AMAZED at their progress.

We need to raise 100,000 mk (approximately 700 USD) which means finding 10 people to contribute 10,000 (70 dollars) or 20 people to contribute 5,000 dollars (35 dollars).   We already have 5 people that have donated locally and we are 147 USD closer to our goal!

If you are able to contribute, we now have a Pay Pal system in place as well as other methods to send donation.  Please visit our donations page to make a contribution.