Harvest in Malawi

Now that our church at Fulwood has a strong connection with Malawi, we looked on the internet to see what help the countrygets with its harvest.

Harvest Help works with rural communities in Africa. The main focus is farming and food production, but also aims to improve household incomes and the provision of clean water.

The Harvest Help approach is not highly technical. It is a practical and pragmatic response to dealing with poverty that has been developed from 20 years of experience. It is already working for many communities and can be replicated in many more. It is based on a number of key principles:

Sustainability

lasting benefits come from people being able to do more for themselves and enhancing, not degrading, the natural resources at their disposal.

Working in partnership

Local organisations are best placed to understand their people's needs and work out solutions. The job is to support them.

Quality not just quantity

It's real, lasting improvements that count not simply the number of people.

Accountability and transparency

The aim is to be accountable to all those with a stake in our work— from farmers in Africa to supporters who provide the funds.

Learning organisation

Development work is complex and risky. It requires serious effort to learn from experience and ensure good value for supporters' money. In response the aim is to improve our monitoring and information systems.

The work in Malawi began in 2002 after a year of research. It is a joint programme with the UK charity Find Your Feet— this reduces the overheads and allows the establishment of a significant range of projects relatively quickly. The programme, based in the northern half of the country, works with local non governmental organisations and the Ministry of Agriculture. It currently reaches more than 4,000 families working mainly on sustainable food production and watershed management. A small office is maintained in Lilongwe.