Here is the latest newsletter from ACAN’s climate justice project in the Gumbi villages in Malawi (in partnership with the Gumbi Education Fund https://gumbieducationfund.org.uk/ , full of photos of thriving crops, new and upgraded buildings on the farm, solar-powered cooking and much else besides.

GAPP has recently changed its name to the Gumbi “Permaculture Community Training Centre” (PCTC) to make it clear that it is a training centre serving the community for the long term, not a short-term project.   NB The ACAN (and GEF) logos will be on all signage and training materials at the farm. 

We are thrilled that the first training course at PCTC will take place from 11-15 August for 15 farmers (8 men and 7 women) from some of the 50 villages in the area around Gumbi (Nambuma district) – achieving a major goal of the initiative.

The photo shows the PCTC farming team and homestead farmers with Luwayo Biswick, Founder Director of the Permaculture Paradise Institute, on a recent supervision visit (see a quote from his report on p2). 

The need – and therefore the impact – remain as great as ever, with high food price inflation and food shortages causing hunger for a third of the Malawian population.   It is proven that permaculture farming methods – diverse, resilient, organic – can provide a secure food supply.  This initiative has no administrative overheads, as management in the UK and in Malawi is undertaken by volunteers, so all your money goes directly to support the development of sustainable farming in the Gumbi villages.

Our major fundraising priority is irrigation – a proper borehole on the PCTC farm, and shallow wells on farmers’ own homestead farms.

Zikomo Kwambiri!