The Facts
Malawi is located in the Southeastern part of Africa and is approximately the size of Pennsylvania. The population is approximately 15.5 million with almost half of them under the age of 14. Malawi is a mostly rural area with 90% of their export revenue coming from agriculture. Malawi’s official language is Chichewa and over 80% of the population is Christian. Malawi is one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world, even though they have some of the richest soil in the world. Tradition in Malawi is to burn your field after harvest in order to level it for the next season. Unfortunately, this destroys all the nutrients in the soil and makes crop production decline over the years. Another issue in Malawi is education, with most people only receiving up to a middle school education. Most can not afford to pay past that as it is 200 dollars (50 per year) to receive a high school education.
The Partnership
YouthHOPE is working to help both problems by teaming with Foundations for Farming to start a youth program. The program will have 6 youths farm a plot of land using methods they learned from Foundations for Farming. In return, YouthHOPE will use the profits from the farm to pay for their school fees so they can finish their education. YouthHOPE is also partnering with Rutherford and Tsahai Banda, who are full-time Malawian GYWs. Rutherford is the Bishop for Grace Christian Fellowship churches. We are working with him to train and raise up youth leaders to disciple the youth of Malawi. Youth ministry in Malawi consists of youth getting together and singing songs, with no time or emphasis on studying the bible or mentoring. Instead, these times are more of a social gathering where youth come to hang out. YouthHOPE has started training some leaders at the bible college that the Bandas started and hope to do more training in the future.
The Farming Project
(Narrated by Drew McClary & Josh Kaminsky: YouthHOPE Apprentices in 2010)
We started planning the farming project with a couple of guys from the college—Roderick and Maxwell. They helped us get an idea of the struggles of youth trying to attend high school. First of all, school fees were always an issue. Second, high schools tend to be fewer and farther apart, and so daily commute isn’t usually an option because of travel distance. Youth have to actually move to wherever the school is, rent a place and live with other youth to split the cost. They also have to take care of food and other costs of living—the expenses really add up.
We decided together that we would provide the biblical, technical, and managerial training, which was a felt need in general. We would also provide a plot of land for students to work once or twice a week or over the weekends in exchange for their place in the program. Six students were selected based on need and on recommendation from us, Roderick and Maxwell. Two of those chosen were orphans who had no way to afford schooling otherwise. We also selected supervisors to oversee the students. Isaac Matawa was chosen for his Foundations for Farming expertise and was called on to check on the condition of the land and crops. Maxwell, as a leader in the same village where the program was taking place, was chosen to manage the youth and keep in close contact with each of them.
We decided to start with mostly maize and some beans. The youth worked the land, leveling it out, putting up afence, weeding, planting and fertilizing. During this time, there was a drought, but the rains came just in time. The end of the season is coming up, and we should be harvesting soon. The students will also shell the crop and prepare it to sell. The profit will depend on yield (how much we have to sell), as well as yield compared to the rest of the country (the price at which we can sell it). At the very least, the profit will be enough to pay for each student’s school fees, and additional profits will go toward a youth ministry fund. Next year, we anticipate much lower costs at the front end, without a need for purchasing new land, with a cheaper option for fertilizer, and with a lower cost for training.
