Provide long-term livings for 300 women in Malawi

"Tilime" agricultural loans - Our agronomist volunteer Leslie Lyle has carried out a second research trip to Malawi, introducing new procedures. These changes appear to have been successful and the quality of client understanding of agricultural issues and the quality of the farming practices has improved as a result. This places clients in a stronger position when planning their farming activities, and coping with the current challenges of depressed crop prices. The regular MicroLoan workshops and inputs by local agricultural expert officers are helping the women diversify their crops more successfully. In order to implement our new staff training curriculum, we have placed a long term volunteer (Melanie Harbinson) for one year trialling and testing the Deloitte UK developed training modules so they can be subsequently fully rolled out as a 'MicroLoan curriculum'. This should not only lead to better performing staff but will be a key motivation tool, as staff clearly value investment in their own personal development. One of our new initiatives is 'solar enterprise'. Only 8% of Malawians are connected to the national grid so solar energy is extremely important. We are training and mentoring our clients in marketing, how to work and repair devices, and managing stock. In our picture is Veronica, whom Michael McGrath (Head of Fundraising) and Ida Levine (Trustee) met in May. With her tea shop failing to generate sufficient income, she is now making a significant amount of additional money from solar initiatives. It was amazing to learn that she has pre-orders for this service for the next month and a local school wants to purchase her entire next stock of ten solar packs! You can see her here, alongside her solar panels, charging a box of LED lamps and mobile phones for her local customers.