There are currently about 13 million people in Malawi, most of whom are subsistence farmers with less than 1 acre of land to farm. Marginal land use and frequent droughts make food security an issue especially those affected by HIV and AIDS. The project helps HIV/AIDS affected and infected poor families including women and orphaned households to live a better life with nutritious food on the table and money in their pockets through appropriate adoption of Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture (IAA) technologies.

Communities constructed water canals from the Zomba plateau to supply water for fish ponds and crop irrigation. 21 ponds were also constructed stocked with fish for elderly women who shoulder the brunt of caring for the orphaned children in the event of the death of active young mothers and fathers. Positive impacts of introducing ponds to schools are also manifested through leadership of young pupils to manage the ponds and improvements in lesson attendance. Mr Manyetsa, a school agriculture teacher, believes the financial contribution is building capacity in the development of Malawi apart from mitigating the impacts of HIV and AID.

Local leaders and school heads have expressed satisfaction on the remarkable contribution to food security and incomes especially on vulnerable households that were very helpless before this funding.

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Attachments:

• WorldFish__Feb09.pdf (PDF)
  

As fish caught from natural lakes and streams have traditionally been an important part of the diet in landlocked Malawi, increasing population and declining catches reduced annual per capita fish consumption from 14 kilograms in the 1970s to 4.2 kilograms in 2005. Aquaculture has since been seen as an exit option to relieve pressure from dwindling capture fisheries and increase fish production and consumption. The project “Fish to feed HIV affected families in Malawi” implemented by WorldFish Center in collaboration with World Vision with funding through Global Giving in southern Malawi, helps HIV/AIDS affected and infected poor families including women to live a better life with nutritious food on the table and money in their pockets through appropriate adoption of Integrated Aquaculture-Agriculture (IAA) technologies to the needs of the affected families. Over the past twelve months, the WorldFish Center, with the Global Giving Fund has made remarkable contribution to improving income and food security through the promotion of Integrated Agriculture Aquaculture (IAA) in primary schools. Nineteen (19) ponds have now been constructed and stocked with fish. One school, Samalani, enjoyed its first harvest in June with over 30kgs of fish harvested from a 300 square meter pond. All schools have now opened maize and vegetable fields that are being irrigated from the pond water. The optimism in reducing food and nutritional insecurity increased even more with the adaptation of the IAA technologies to improve incomes and nutritional status of the HIV- affected elderly and orphaned households.

Attachments:

• WorldFish current update (PDF)
  

Introduction

The GlobalGiving Funding project was initiated in Malawi, in Chingale area of Zomba District, in the year 2007. The overall goal of the project is to enable poor households, including women and HIV/AIDS affected and infected to live a better life with nutritious food on the table and money in their pockets. The first phase targeted primary schools with the idea to improve the educational achievements of children, in particular girls from poor and food-insecure families. Children from poor households often drop out from schools mainly because of hunger hence the introduction of school feeding programs. The project assists in constructing ponds, stock the ponds with fish and use the fish into the existing school feeding program; and with the income from sales of fish seed the schools can buy teaching and learning materials.

Following the success of the sensitization and planning meetings that were done in the first phase, the project had received an overwhelming positive response. The first four ponds (300m2 each) at Ntanangala Primary School have been a nucleus of knowledge by many surrounding schools. There are many study visits made to the school every school term. Three schools immediately after the rainy season (February) started their own ponds.


Please click the report below to read more about progress to date on the construction of new fish ponds

Attachments:

• Progress Report from WorldFish (PDF)
  
• Progress Report from WorldFish (PDF)