“I will never forget the year of 2004 when we received very little rains and there was great hunger in this area”, said Fabiano NKhoma. "Children had never looked more miserable and we never imagined we would survive.” Fabiano is 33 and lives in Tchezo village, Malawi, with his wife and 5 children.
Back then Fabiano says that he used to use chemical fertilizers on his land but they resulted in the soil losing most of its natural nutrients. He used to have poor harvests of around 100kg of maize per acre. As the price of fertilizers soared in 2004 Fabiano could no longer afford any for his land, and it seemed like there was little hope of breaking free from hunger.
When Fabiano started to work with Self Help Africa’s and Find Your Feet’s partner, things started to change. He was taught how to make natural compost pits to produce rich manure for his fields. The soil started to improve and Fabiano’s harvests were plentiful with his land producing 10 times more than previous years.
Fabiano used to just rely on maize to feed the family – but when drought hit his area there was little harvest to rely on. Through working with Self Help Africa he has also learnt how to grow cassava and sweet potatoes so he has enough food to feed his family all year around.
“For all of this, I want to say thank you to Self Help Africa for lifting me up.“
|
| Click to read more about the Malawi Programme |
