Christian Aid Week
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My husband and I have been in business for a long time. Since 2010, we bought and sold tomatoes, but we struggled to manage our finances. We couldn’t properly track our profits or expenditures. Even when we ventured into small-scale farming, our efforts weren’t translating into growth. We didn’t know how to expand or make our work sustainable.
Support families in Malawi build famine resistance and grow a sustainable future.
Poverty is an outrage against humanity. It robs people of dignity, freedom and hope, of power over their own lives. Christian Aid has a vision – an end to poverty – and we believe that vision can become a reality. We urge you to join us.
The Challenge
Soaring costs of food and essentials are crushing dreams, keeping people in desperate poverty. Children are robbed of the chance to go to school. Their families can’t pay the fees, and they are forced to give up on their hopes for the future. Farmers are struggling to survive in the face of the climate crisis.
This is unfair and keeps families locked in poverty. The future is precarious, with the threat of more devastating droughts, floods and storms – the effects of the climate crisis – affecting the most vulnerable families.
The Solutions
The Kuwala Ultra Poor Graduation (UPG) Project is a project is based in Malawi, targeting 2,750 ultra-poor (defined as a group of people who eat below 80% of their energy requirements despite spending at least 80% of income on food) households.
Of the households, 60% are women, 20% are youth (unemployed and not in education), and 15% have disabilities.
By breaking down inequalities, building resilience and enhancing sustainable livelihoods, this project will give these households a way out of this crushing poverty and most importantly, hope for a better future.
The project covers a complementary range of interventions. With needs specific mentoring and peer to peer support, income generation through micro projects including beekeeping, cottage farming, and other small enterprises supported through seed money such as tailoring and joinery. The project also promotes public health initiatives; clean water, sanitation, hygiene and fuel-efficient cookstoves.
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Bring hope and dignity to families in Malawi this Christian Aid Week.