Mission: Food every day – 2 harvests each year

In June 2026, Trustee Jenny Griffiths visited the Gumbi Permaculture Community Training Centre (PCTC) supported by ACAN in Malawi. (Her visit was entirely self-funded).

It was an extraordinary, overwhelming week, the wonderful warmth of the community’s welcome contrasting sharply with the villagers’ poverty. Jenny was thrilled to see much evidence of progress in implementing permaculture methods. She presented some of the photos and videos from her visit at an event on Zoom. Here are the links to the recordings on the ACAN YouTube channel.

The division into Part 1 and Part 2 is because Jenny forgot to click on the recording button until 15 minutes into her presentation – Part 1 is a re-recording!

Part 1

Gumbi Centre and Community visit by Jenny Griffiths, June 2026. Part 1 – the PCTC team & farmers – YouTube

• Introduction to the PCTC team (who met me at Lilongwe airport) – James Gomani, Chief Edwin Mponela, Chipiliro Chimalizeni, Martin Thole
• Information about Malawi and the aims of the visit – including the launch of the solar irrigation project (solar water pumps) funded by ACAN donors
• Day 1 at the PCTC farm, spending time with the 28 homestead farmers from the villages trained at PCTC last year

Part 2

Zoom video Part 2 Jenny’s Visit to Malawi June 2026 – YouTube

• Day 2 – Gumbi Community Celebration – Jenny is made an honorary member of the Ngoni tribe
• Days 3, 4 and 5 – Visits to some of the 22 villages in the Gumbi community and to homestead farms
• Days 6 and 7 – a short holiday with the PCTC team, who described this as the “best times of their lives”
• Presentation to PCTC team members of certificates of appreciation for outstanding services to their community

Water is Life

Much progress has been made thanks to the generosity of ACAN donors. The vital next steps are to improve access to water for irrigation – 10 more solar water pumps and several wells and boreholes are needed in the villages.

All donations are very gratefully received and are sent in full to Malawi. Please donate via the Gumbi button on this website https://altonclimatenetwork.org.uk/donate/