STRADE
2021 Project Summary
A grant of £875 to support an Irrigation Scheme through installation of a solar water pump for the Chambo Community, Mzimba District.
Masida Hastings Ziba, Director at STRADE, said that following the success of the previous project with FOMA (see below), the community agreed they would like to scale up the economic aspect of the farming by creating a Community Irrigation Scheme. A modern solar pump will allow growing of additional vegetables and crops like maize, beans and sweet potatoes to improve food security for over 500 households – approximately 2500 people.
Masida further reported a case study of ‘Esther’ a 35 year old farmer. In 2021, she harvested 1000 kg of maize having used organic manure and irrigation. She kept 400 kg to feed her family of 7 but was able to sell 600 kg, enabling her to meet basic needs such as paying school fees. She also made a total of MK60,000 from vegetable sales that enabled her to buy a bed, soap, sugar and other food to supplement her meals.
2020 Project Summary
A grant of £1000 to support the construction of two shallow wells with hand pumps in Madang’ombe Village, Chambo, Mzimba District.
Masida Hastings Ziba, Director at STRADE, said that in this area water is drawn from hand-dug small holes close to the homestead. People drinking this contaminated water makes them prone to waterborne disease and no organisation has attempted to address this problem. Therefore, STRADE, in its work with the community assisted by applying for a FOMA grant to construct shallow protected wells to improve the quality of water supply. The community assisted in the project by providing fired burnt bricks, river sand and quarry stone.