Alot has happened between the last post and now.The Sustainable Livelihood Project was launched in Zatuba Village,Malawi, in August 2010. The project started with a vision workshop which involved the people of Zatuba defining and deciding where they want to be in the next five years and thereafter. The village had to define its priorities and more importantly the legacy for their children.
The village selected community mobiliser who they felt can keep the fire burning.
The people identified access to capital as a major challenge to their development. It was also identified that the poverty was worsened by the use of unsustainable energy sources for lighting. The community used kerosene lamps for lighting. Each kerosene lamp was draining about US$6 per moth. To asssit them community save money, we distributed solar lanterns to the community at a no profit price of US$21 offering a pay back period of 3 months against a life time of 36 months at a minimum. The solar lantern were sponsored by Empower, our major partner in Australia.
In addition to saving the community money, the solar lanterns gives them high quality light compared to kerosone lamps (sometimes firewood lighting). The lanterns also saves carbon emissions as for every liter of kerosene avoided represents about 3.26kg of carbon dioxide emissions saved. Further it is expected that respiratory diseases are caused by kerosene-lamp smoke will reduce. The lanterns are indeed a demonstration of cost effective technlogies that cut across a range of Millennium Development Goals
The people have also been given training in bussiness slection and business management and access to finance has been facilitated by linking the community to one of the banks in the country.
The community's school has also been given training in permaculture.
The moto of the project is to empower the people of Zatuba from inside: Enabling them to achieve change for the better in a most sustianable manner without reliance on donations. We have always told the community " CHANGE DOES NOT COME FROM OUTSIDE, CHANGE COMES FROM WITHIN".
