School Gardens Against Hunger

In northern Malawi, our partner organisation ASUD supports primary schools in setting up permaculture school gardens. By promoting sustainable agriculture, ASUD works with school communities to combat hunger and malnutrition.

SCHOOL GARDENS AGAINST HUNGER

In northern Malawi, our partner organisation ASUD (Action for Sustainable Development) supports primary schools in setting up permaculture school gardens. By promoting sustainable agriculture, ASUD works with school communities to combat hunger and malnutrition.

Photo Report from the project in Malawi

Schulgarten

It all started with a school garden at the primary school in Ng’ongo. Today, this school is a showcase for ASUD’s project. The teachers are continuing their education in permaculture techniques. Besides the vegetable garden, fruit trees, maize, soya and bananas are grown on the school grounds; there is a well for water and a small solar system.

Unterricht Kompostherstellung

An important part of the project is the use of different techniques for making compost. The compost plays an important role in ensuring that the plants thrive. Here a teacher is teaching students about this topic.

Schweinestall

Animal dung is needed to make compost, therefore the school keeps pigs. They now live in a larger and more robust pigsty and are visited and fed by the school children.

Gemüsegarten Eltern

The parents learn the new techniques while helping in the school garden and apply them at home. Some of them are particularly committed and continue to test and develop these techniques. They use their know-how to support groups of farmers from the surrounding area in the building and successful cultivation of permaculture gardens.

Schweinestall Holz

The farmers also build pigsties at home and support each other in caring for the pigs and their reproduction.

Kompostherstellung neu

These women farmers are trying out a new variant of compost production at home.

Bett Zuhause

The harvests from the gardens provide the families with healthy vegetables. Thanks to the self-produced compost and the techniques for soil-moisture maintenance, the plants are thriving. The surplus can be sold on the market. This extra income has made it possible for Grace and her mother Mirrium to buy a bed.

Zuhause

They were also able to afford a small solar panel for the roof which provides them with electricity to charge their mobile phones.

Haus neue Fenster

This family was able to buy new windows for their house thanks to the sale of the surplus from their vegetable garden.

Wasser holen

A few years ago, EcoSolidar financed a deep bore well for the school in Ng’ongo, thanks to which the students have clean water for drinking, cooking, their personal hygiene and the school garden. The well is also used by the village community.

Wasserloch

Access to water used to be a big problem for the school and the community. There are water holes further away, but transporting this water is exhausting and time-consuming. In addition, the water is often polluted and hazardous to health.

Solarpanels

Another access point to water in the region is a stream. As long as it has water, people can use it to irrigate their fields. Now, several farming families have joined forces and use solar-powered water pumps to transport water from the low-lying stream to their fields.

Bewässerung Felder Solarpanel

Through this the irrigation of fields has become easier and safer. Thanks to the solar panels, farming families can plant vegetables all year round and sell the surpluses. This pilot project is currently being extended to other communities.

Weg zum Gemeinschaftsfeld

A group of women on their way to their community field, which is located a little outside the village.

Frauengruppe

Women’s groups from the communities are central to ASUD’s project, which can also be seen at the new sites. The women carry the project in many ways: they join together in groups and support each other in constructing and developing their own permaculture gardens.

Mütter an der Schule

The women also support the schools and their children by working in the school garden. In this way, they acquire a lot of knowledge and at the same time learn new techniques, which they can implement at home. Thomas Ngwira, ASUD’s Executive Director, points out: “I have learnt that the whole community benefits from the women’s support, as they are directly responsible for the family’s well-being.”

Lehrerin Kompost neue Schule

Currently, four other primary schools in northern Malawi are implementing the same project at their premises. Ownership, i.e. the fact that the project belongs to the people involved and is implemented and supported by them, is also a key priority at these new sites. Thomas Ngwira is convinced that this is the only way the projects will make sense and last in the long term.

Thomas Einweihung Feier

During our last visit, there were festive inauguration ceremonies. The newly planted school gardens, the new pigsties and the banana plantations were visited and celebrated by the people. The joy about this project and the importance for the people were clearly noticeable.

Organic farming: From the school to the communities

In Ng’ongo, a remote village in the north of Malawi, the village community, supported by ASUD (Action for Sustainable Development), started to establish a permaculture garden at the school four years ago. Thanks to this garden, school absenteeism has strongly decreased and the performance of the pupils has increased.

Malawi-Permakultur-Schulgarten

Organic farming: From the school to the communities

In Ng’ongo, a remote village in the north of Malawi, the village community started to establish a permaculture garden at the school four years ago. This project was supported by ASUD (Action for Sustainable Development). Thanks to this garden, the students are better nourished and, as a consequence, school absenteeism has strongly decreased and the performance of the pupils has improved. The school produces the required compost itself by means of the manure produced by the pigs. The mothers of the school children are also involved. They have organised themselves in clubs and have been learning organic farming techniques through their work in the school garden. Today, these women also have permaculture gardens at home, from which they can harvest vegetables for a balanced diet. They support each other and pass on their knowledge to other families in their villages. In less than three years, a holistic project has been developed which now serves as a model for other communities.

Photo report about the project in Malawi

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

Ellen Magawa, teacher at the primary school in Ng’ongo in northern Malawi, is teaching her students how to make compost. For this purpose, they dig pits which are filled with the compost material, covered and left to rest. They will later use the compost in the school garden and the organically produced vegetables will provide the common school lunch.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

This project started with a small school garden that was to provide the pupils with balanced meals at school and, in turn, was to enable them to learn better. Today, the garden with vegetables, medicinal plants and pest-repellent plants has become both a source of food and a place of training.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

Pigs are kept on the school premises and their manure is an important ingredient in the compost. These pigsties in this foto are part of the demonstration farm at the school in Ng’ongo and are at that moment being visited by members of the Ministry of Agriculture and the principals of other schools with the aim of exchanging know-how about pig farming.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten Schweine

The mothers of the school children also take care of the pigs and thus learn everything important for their own pig farming. Back in their communities, they put what they have learned into practice independently. Pig farming is not easy, the pigsties must be well built and maintained and the pigs must be expertly cared for. In Ng’ongo there has already been some success in breeding.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

Ellen Magawa has been involved in the project from the start and she says: “This project has been our project from the very beginning. We were asked what we wanted to implement and how we wanted to do it. We were given the opportunity for further training in permaculture so that we could gain the necessary know-how. In this way the school garden has become the heart of the project and everyone involved has realised that with their commitment they can considerably improve the situation of their family and of the whole community”.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

Around 400 children from the area attend the primary school of Ng’ongo. On the open doors day there is a lot of activity on the premises: everything must be shown and seen, the school and the school garden as well as the pigsties.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

The school had no well for a long time and the children had to bring the water for drinking, washing their hands and for the plants from far away. In 2018, EcoSolidar supported the construction of a school well, making it possible for the school and the community to obtain their own water. Especially in the current corona crisis it is very important to have enough clean water for drinking and for following the measures of hygiene.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

Vegetables are planted in the school garden to provide the children with a balanced meal every day. This is to combat malnutrition and prevent school absenteeism since hungry children often do not come to school at all or can hardly concentrate. The knowledge of organic farming techniques has also increased the children’s and their mothers’ knowledge about healthy eating. Since the women now have such gardens at home, they can better feed their families and, in addition, share the skills they have gained with other farmers. 

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

Visitors to the clubs of lead and follower farmers who cultivate their own organic permaculture gardens in the villages around Ng’ongo, will always be welcomed with dancing and singing. Here Thomas Ngwira, our project partner and managing director at ASUD, and the project officer are joining in the dancing!

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

The mothers who regularly work in the school garden and attend courses on organic farming techniques and permaculture take their new skills home with them and pass them on to other farmers. Towera Chawula, a lead farmer, supports a group of women in their village community in establishing their own permaculture garden. Here she is advising Witness Ngwira on problems in her garden.  

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

In the villages, the families are now also producing their own organic compost and are having good results with it. Thus they are less dependent on artificial fertiliser, which is expensive and harms the soil in the long term. The permaculture techniques also help them save water. For the farming families, the different methods of organic cultivation are crucial for a good harvest and for their economic independence.

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

These women are part of a club in which the lead farmers pass on their acquired knowledge about nutrition, pig farming, compost production and organic farming to the follower farmers. Apart from the numerous advantages for the food situation and the economic independence of the families as well as for the school performance of the children, learning together in the communities is also great fun!

Malawi Permakultur Schulgarten

The two follower farmers grind their own organic maize in their village. After milling the white maize is processed into N’sima, a kind of thick polenta. The polenta is served with a sauce and is the most important staple food of the families.