Image above – an elderly widow in Gumbi village, photographed by Chief Edwin

Join ACAN’s briefing meeting on Zoom on Tuesday 9th December 6.00 – 6.45 pm, with James Gomani and Chipiliro Chimazileni from the Gumbi Alton Permaculture Community Training Centre in Malawi. Please email Altonclimatenetwork@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

At the request of the Gumbi Chief Edwin Mponela, and the Group Village Headmen in the surrounding villages, ACAN has launched an emergency appeal for funds for maize distribution to 500 households in the Gumbi villages who are running out of food, after a very poor harvest in early 2025 due to drought. £30 will feed an extended family for 3 months until the April harvest.

There are at about 15,000 people in the 19 villages surrounding Gumbi.  Chief Edwin is carefully targeting food aid on older people, mostly widows.  The worst months will be January, February and March 2026, so the maize will be distributed in early January.  Each elderly person and their family will receive one 50 kg bag of grain costing Malawian Kwacha 65,000 or about £29.  Money is also needed for transportation.

The Malawian government has declared a state of disaster in all 28 districts and four cities in the country amid severe food shortages caused by prolonged drought.  The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee report (October 2025) states that Malawi is facing the worst food insecurity crisis of the past 7 years.  In addition to the impact of the climate crisis, the 2024/2025 growing season was significantly disrupted by La Niña weather patterns.  The rains were late, sparse and erratic.  And international aid has been greatly reduced this year.

But surely the Gumbi Alton Permaculture Community Training Centre (PCTC) should be providing plentiful food by now?

ACAN donors have given about £45,000 to PCTC over the last 4 years (including an amazing donation of £15,000 from one donor).  £5,000 has also been raised from grant-giving trusts.

But transforming the living standards of an entire community with a population nearly the size of Alton, from perennial food shortages to “Food Every Day” (our mission), takes time.  It requires intensive training and follow-up support in sustainable farming methods over a period of years.  The goal is that the community will be self-sufficient in nutritious food by 2029, i.e. another 3 years. 

ACAN now works closely with the PCTC management team, in near-daily contact on WhatsApp and Zoom.  This follows two difficult years – 2023 and 2024 – during and after the final illness and death of John Vidal, the pioneering Environmental Editor of the Guardian who founded the Gumbi Education Fund in 2002 and is still revered as a “father” in Gumbi. The new, voluntary and unpaid PCTC management team started work in January 2025. Two of its members are graduate beneficiaries of the Gumbi Education Fund. The core farming team attended an additional “Training the Trainers” course this year at Luwayo Biswick’s Permaculture Paradise Institute (funded by ACAN donors).

The PCTC team has had a brilliant year and are very optimistic about the future:

• The demonstration farm has been re-planted and cultivated with a much-extended range of crops
• 2 cohorts of 15 local farmers attended 5-day classroom and practical training at PCTC in August and October.  At least 4 more training courses are planned for 2026 – funded by a grant from the Margaret Hayman Charitable Trust. 
• On 4 and 5 December, a team from Tiyeni https://www.tiyeni.org/  are training the PCTC team on methods to break up compacted soil (hard pans) and deep-bed farming, to greatly improve water retention
• The demonstration farm infrastructure has been redeveloped this year:
  • The 3.5-acre site has been fenced and gated
  • A unique training kitchen with solar-powered stoves and cold storage
  • A solar energy phone and laptop charging hub for the community
  • Indoor and outdoor classrooms
  • Rondavel accommodation (4 traditional roundhouses)
  • Composting toilet
  • Additional water storage
  • Fish pond for food
  • Kraal and pigs – for manure and income generation
  • Two cows – for manure, milk and transportation (ox-cart)
  • Beehives – for income generation
• A huge community woodland planting project is underway – 150,000 trees grown from locally harvested seeds – for food, shade and carbon sequestration
• PCTC is registered in Malawi as a social enterprise and will soon have its own bank account
• James Gomani, PCTC team leader, gave a presentation on PCTC at the online African Social Enterprise Summit conference in August.
• A learning visit to PCTC in November by Sisters from the Strathmore University Business School
• Two of PCTC’s trained farmers have found employment supporting homestead farmers in other areas of Malawi  

And finally … the PCTC Vision and Mission – developed by the team in Malawi

Vision

A future where resilient, self-reliant communities thrive in harmony with nature, with self-sufficiency in food supply from locally and organically grown food, powered by clean energy, and actively contributing to a healthy planet for generations to come.

Mission

Empowering communities with knowledge and skills of permaculture, fostering sustainable living through organic food production, biodiversity enhancement, re-afforestation, clean energy adoption, and climate-resilient agricultural practices for lasting food security and ecological harmony.

Jenny Griffiths

ACAN Trustee

December 2025