Third Times the Charm!

Before updating you on what's been happening with Harvest Malawi, I would first like to thank all of our wonderful donors for making all of the following possible... Last May, I traveled once again to the warm heart of Africa. Here are some pictures from this past year showing the wonderful progress we've made. A more detailed summary of what's been accomplished is below & more updates will be posted soon!

A QUICK UPDATE

So as I mentioned above, this past May I traveled once again to Malawi. The first week I was there, I participated in running the 10K portion of the first annual Malawi Impact Marathon alongside the local Malawians, including many barefoot singing children! I had such an incredible week meeting other participants and doing small projects to help the community. These projects included building a nursery, that is on a small portion of our purchased land, planning a game day that over 100 kids attended, and planting fruit trees on a hectare of land. Some of the proceeds from the race were actually donated to our agriculture project! If you're a runner at all or are in need of an adventure, I highly recommend checking out this link https://www.impactmarathon.com/malawi.

The next few weeks I was there, I volunteered a few days with Naturally Africa's medical project but really was there to focus on the progress of the agriculture project. It was an incredible feeling being back and actually seeing progress being made! Here's what we've done so far....

Last March, Harvest Malawi FINALLY received its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, which will hopefully make fundraising easier and more effective! We have hired an agriculture manager, Victor (pictured below), to oversee operations on the ground and he's already a fabulous asset to the project. His vision for Harvest Malawi is just as considerable as ours!

There's a small nursery (pictured on the right) that's been made to grow certain crops from seeds we brought over last time to monitor how well certain things grow in the toasty Malawi climate. Many of these crops have been transplanted to the field. On one hectare of land, we now have 1465 tomato plants, 180 cabbage plants, 310 Chinese cabbage plants, 288 amaranth plants, and 210 peppers plants planted! There are 2 more hectares of fruit trees that have been planted as well. Spinach, mustard, onion, and additional tomatoes and peppers are on nursery beds for later transplantation. Also, Moringa seeds are being planted directly to the field. All the above described crops have been selected because of their viability in this region & climate. Our drip irrigation system is in the process of being installed and while we wait, we have purchased a portable solar pump to draw water from the borehole to water the prepared beds. I can't wait to go back next year and see the irrigation system in action!

We have an extensive plan for the next stages of our project and I promise to keep you all updated on our progress! Thank you again to all of our AMAZING donors! None of this would have been possible without your support!