Wonderful news from the Gumbi villages in Malawi – young men trained in permaculture to transform agriculture and end hunger

Last August ACAN organised a fundraising event with the Gumbi Education Fund http://www.gumbieducationfund.org.uk/ and the Permaculture Paradise Institute in Malawi (which is on Facebook @permaculturetraining ) – featuring the Institute’s founding director, Luwayo Biswick, talking about his work to transform agriculture.  Here is our short film –  A Vision of Paradise Sustainable agriculture in Malawi – YouTube   Many people’s generous donations made a major contribution to sending 3 young men from the poverty-stricken Gumbi villages for 6 months’ training with Luwayo.  They are now back home and raring to go – they have identified some land which will be purchased or rented and tools have been funded. 

Five young women now want to go for training at the Paradise Institute!   The original plan was for 3 girls but 5 want to go!  This is excellent, as girls are culturally quite retiring in rural Malawi.   We want to support them all, so we are launching an appeal to raise £2,000 to contribute to the costs of 3 months training for them (not 6 months, because they can learn from the lads already trained). If you are able to help, please donate via our website – see the donate button – please state GUMBI on the form. 

Below is a moving letter of appreciation we’ve received from the students we’ve supported.  Do read it – they describe vividly what they have learned at the Paradise Institute …   They conclude, “Now it’s our responsibility to teach people how … We promise you that we will do this for the people here, and by two to three years we want people here to have enough food for them to survive throughout the year.   Lastly we beg you, please to still be with us by providing with fund and whatever we need to be successful here.  We have a lot to do but we rely on you.  Let us join the hands together we can.”

Properly-managed agriculture in Malawi’s subtropical climate is so productive of verdant, year-round abundance, that money spent promoting a possible permaculture revolution there will cause a much larger CO2 reduction than the equivalent in the UK.