Transforming a Malawian village through education
The Gumbi Education Fund was set up when readers of the Guardian newspaper in the UK responded to an article by the late John Vidal, the paper’s pioneering long-time Environment Editor, about the recovery of the village of Gumbi in central Malawi from a devastating famine in 2002.
The people of Gumbi were clear that education was key to improving their lives, and support initially focused on funding children from Gumbi and neighbouring villages through secondary school, which has to be paid for in Malawi, and more recently has also included funding a few through University. And the Fund has also now educated some young farmers in sustainable farming along with buying some land for a demonstration permaculture farm.
Help us continue over 20 years of changing the lives of children and young people
The Fund has no administrative costs beyond paying an honorarium to our Fund Co-ordinator in Malawi, and who (with the help of a Fund beneficiary graduate) liaises between village education committees and schools, with University students, and on the permaculture farm project alongside his work as a government health worker.
In the UK the Fund is run on a voluntary basis. Initially this was by John Vidal, supported by Trustees, but sadly he died in 2023 and now the Fund is run by a group of Trustees chaired by his widow (who was one of the original Trustees).
The difference the Fund is able to make is made possible by kind donations and regular giving. All and any contributions are so welcome, and we appreciate regular givers which helps us plan children’s secondary education.
Education
Only a fraction of children in Malawi attend secondary school which has to be paid for, and the Fund directly pays for children from Gumbi and surrounding villages in secondary education – currently well over 100. With less than 1% of college age people attending University it was a triumph when a first pupil from Gumbi village got to study at University, and the Fund is now supporting a few students through University (see picture above) and providing a laptop for each.
The Fund has helped with some school building work, has provided solar power at the main local secondary school and lamps for students and during times of acute hunger set up school feeding programmes to encourage children to keep going to school. From Gumbi being a village with only one book, the Fund partnered with Book Aid, bringing children a wide selection of books and building 3 village libraries together with one at the local school to house them.
Sustainable farming
To help the Gumbi community develop resilience to extreme weather events (droughts, storms) from climate change and provide a more regular food supply, less dependent on the staple maize, since 2020 the Fund has joined with Alton Climate Action Network to educate and train young people in permaculture methods. It has set up an organic sustainable permaculture project (both on a farm and on homesteads), providing land, tools, seeds and seedlings, bikes to travel to and from villages, and funding buildings, solar panels and irrigation. The project has ambitious future plans to develop as a permaculture training hub for farmers in the Lilongwe district including cookery classes on a solar cooker.