One of the most tangible of ACAN’s achievements has been to fund – through the generosity of donors – groups of young people from an impoverished village in Malawi to take residential courses to learn how to farm in a resilient and sustainable way at the Paradise Permaculture Institute, some 50 miles from their home.

AND THEN we raised money to help them buy a 3-acre a plot of land as the young farmers’ own demonstration area/teaching centre and funded equipment to get them started.  Their first harvest has been successful and is feeding many local families.

See our video about G.A.P.P here

A pound spent in Malawi’s fertile, subtropical climate, with no seasons to interrupt growth, saves far more CO2 than a pound spent in England.   It also helps the villagers to free themselves from dependency on their maize monoculture, the business corporations who support it, and its inherent vulnerability to drought and other hazards.  In bad years the crop fails and there is widespread malnutrition and poverty.

The Gumbi Alton Permaculture Project (G.A.P.P.) has an open Facebook Group where local people share their enthusiasm, gratitude and photos.

The Gumbi Education Fund

All this has been achieved with the Gumbi Education Fund www.gumbieducationfund.org.uk , a charity set up nearly twenty years ago to help educate young people in the villages around Gumbi in Malawi in Southern Africa.

There are no overheads, no administrative costs.  Donations are sent directly to the Gumbi villagers via a trusted local worker.

Farming the permaculture way

With the help of the Permaculture Paradise Institute’s outstanding director, Luwayo Biswick, we made this short explanatory video at no cost to them: www.bit.ly/Paradiselink

Permaculture means growing a rich variety of fruit and vegetables all the year round organically. This involved interplanting trees and different crops, saving water, and growing food with manures and mulches instead of increasingly expensive chemicals including fertiliser.

Thank-you-letter-from-ACAN-sponsored-Gumbi-studentsDOWNLOAD

All donations, however small, are gratefully received to enable this project to develop and expand so that Malawians can thrive despite the ravages caused by climate change and soaring fertiliser costs.

Please go to the Donate page on the ACAN website. Thank you.