Partners in Permaculture!

This week, we want to highlight the incredible work of the 10 grantee organizations who not only received training in Permaculture Design through our recent Permaculture Design Certification Course in Tanzania, but are also receiving a seed grant to implement Permaculture practices in their own organizations all across East Africa. This is all thanks to the generosity of our various partners and funders! This has been an incredible partnership with the Reed J Oppenheimer Foundation, The Valley Foundation, Restoration Agricultural Development, and several other funders, and we are excited to see the impact that our very own Permaculture Institute of Tanzania can have for more than 12,000 lives across Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania through this training and grant opportunity. We hope you enjoy reading about their various missions and are as excited as we are about this incredible network of Permaculture practitioners and partners that has started to form in our region.

 

PDC Grant – Partner Profiles

Malawi

ACADES

PDC Course Attendees: Hastings Nhlane and Madalitso Chipekwe
Website: https://acadesmw.com/
Organization Description: ACADES is the largest membership based network of youth in agriculture in Malawi with a membership of 3100. ACADES goal is to promote youth economic empowerment through agriculture. We create a platform where the youth are challenged to be more actively engaged in agriculture as a full time economic activity. ACADES organizes rural youth into groups called Rural Youth Agribusiness Clubs which operate as production and marketing groups. Members of these groups own land and do farming and market together as a group. ACADES provides skills development training, farm input loans and markets to these rural youth agribusiness club.

Centre for Youth and Development

PDC Course Attendees: Yewo Msiska and Hippo Honde
Website: http://www.cydmalawi.org/
Organization Description: Centre for Youth and Development’s mission is to promote holistic development of children, youth and women by leveraging the power of youth and ICT to expand access to education, health services and economic opportunity.
Using an integrated approach, we deliver our mission through 5 pathways for change that include: Education, Healthier Lives, ICT for Development, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Community Empowerment. Under Community Empowerment, there are a number of initiatives CYD is implementing to empower young farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs by providing professional support through extension services, introducing them to new farming trends, providing them a platform to trade and share knowledge and resources, linking them to markets and giving them the required skills and logistics to engage in profitable agriculture using climate smart agriculture. For instance, under ‘Inspiring Young Farmers’ Project, we focus on promoting the

adoption of sustainable and climate smart agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture and other ecological initiatives such as composting, agroforestry and manure application. We also enhance access to agricultural inputs, such as early-maturing, drought-tolerant, and disease-resistant varieties, and also support improvements in post-harvest handling, such as preservation and storage to minimize food loss.

Foundation for Community and Capacity Development (FOCCAD )

PDC Course Attendees: Mtambuzeni Zidana and Linda Mwale
Website: https://foccad.org/
Organization Description: We are alleviating human suffering from disease, hunger, poverty and social injustice by creating and implementing participatory and sustainable solutions. FOCCAD exists to improve health and livelihoods of young adults, women and children. We achieve this by bridging the transport and logistics gap between health facilities and communities in hard to reach areas. Our intervention is through the provision of emergency transport and logistical support from communities to health facilities to women, children and young adults for different HIV and AIDS related services and Outreach based service delivery through door to door and community health agents.

Tigwirane Manja Foundation

PDC Course Attendees: Mwelura Fortune Harawa and Chifunilo Kandaya
Website: https://harawafm.wixsite.com/tigwiranemanja
Organization Description: The Tigwirane Manja Foundation (TMF) got registered as a company limited by guarantee with the sole purpose of transforming rural communities of Malawi from poverty stricken, semi-illiterate communities into vibrant self- sustaining communities. The organization works to strategically equip men, women and children out of a dependency mindset and empowering them to “be the change.”
TMF is addressing rural poverty through socially driven programs that tackles poverty by not only addressing the needs of the people, but by also growing into profit-generating businesses.
TMF is there to empower rural communities to create not another charity, but a movement of sustainable solutions that transform rural communities. TMF’s vision is to see rural communities in Malawi develop using sustainable solutions that give HOPE and DIGNITY to the most vulnerable.

Rwanda

Gardens for Health International

PDC Course Attendees: Denys Niyubahwe and Godfrey Gatete
Website: https://gardensforhealth.org/
Organization Description: Gardens for Health International provides lasting agricultural solutions to chronic malnutrition. Our roots are in Rwanda. For over a decade, Gardens for Health International has been working hand-in-hand with local communities to end chronic malnutrition. Our innovative curriculum on agriculture, nutrition and health topics was designed in partnership with local mothers, our trainings are led by talented educators who come directly from the communities they serve, and our dedicated staff is over 90% Rwandan. We believe in changing systems, not treating symptoms. Integrating agriculture and nutrition into the health system is the only sustainable solution to effectively treat and prevent malnutrition. We work in close partnership with the Government of Rwanda by teaming up with community health workers, delivering trainings at local health clinics, and advising policy.

Solid’ Africa

PDC Course Attendees: Vincent Gasana
Website: http://solidafrica.rw/
Organization Description: Solid’Africa is a non-profit organization filling a critical gap in the overall health care system in Rwanda and contributing to the release of stronger, healthy citizens back to their communities to in-turn contribute to their country’s development. Meals are not offered as part of a patient’s hospital stay in public hospitals across the country, and this leaves patients solely reliant on family and friends to deliver meals. Through five programs, the organization aims to accelerate the patients’ recovery process, preserve their dignity and promote equity.

Tanzania

Pastoral Women’s Council

PDC Course Attendees: Salayo Parkimalo and Lazaro Paruason
Website: http://www.pastoralwomenscouncil.org/
Organization Description: The Pastoral Women’s Council is a non-profit membership organization that works in northern Tanzania to achieve gender equality and community development through the empowerment of Maasai women and girls. PWC seeks to bring about change in order that: Women are able to control their economic status by improving their livelihoods to meet their daily needs; There is solidarity amongst women and collectively they are able to raise their voices to

successfully advocate on issues of concern; Educated girls can create a society where women are independent, equal partners to men.

Uganda

Budondo Intercultural Center

PDC Course Attendees: Samwiri Mugaya and Modest Kinawa
Website: https://www.bicenterug.org/
Organization Description: Budondo Intercultural Center builds healthy and sustainable rural communities by empowering individuals and families to lead healthy and productive lives. Our programs are divided into three – a community health center; a program (population, health and environment) to build household resilience; and income generating programs. We operate a full- service maternal and child health facility that provides a full spectrum of care for mothers and their children. We offer regenerative agricultural trainings, operate a smart agriculture model farm, a community tree nursery unit, respectful ante-, birth and postnatal services, child immunizations, mother and childness wellness care, laboratory services, in-home postpartum care, community outreach activities, and other development projects that promote productive livelihoods and healthy families in Luuka District.

Karambi Group of People with Disabilities

PDC Course Attendees: Godfrey Bwambale and Josephat Muhindo
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Karambi-Group-of-People-with-Disabilities-Kagpwds- 1778601005724190/
Organization Description: Karambi Group of People with Disabilities’ mission is to empower people with disabilities, their families and communities to improve the quality of life. We have created a model of inclusion for persons with disabilities by promoting human rights, accessibility to social services for all, economic empowerment, skill development and ensuring availability of food, clean water and increased incomes among persons with disabilities in Karambi Sub County and Mpondwe Lhubiriha Town Council. We do this while respecting nature by involving them in environmental conservation.

The African SOUP

PDC Course Attendees: George Wateta
Website: https://www.theafricansoup.org/
Organization Description: The African SOUP is a nonprofit education organization founded in 2010 to provide quality nutrition and education services to children in rural Eastern Uganda while improving the health and wellbeing of the community. For nearly a decade, we have amplified our impact by combining the efforts of our nutrition and health services program with our early

childhood and primary education program. Through this holistic approach, children receive supportive care from birth that continues throughout their time as a SOUP student. Recognizing the importance of wraparound services for children growing up with strong communal ties, The SOUP implements a school-based agriculture project that trains students on agricultural practices, produces nutritious food for school meals, and yields seedlings for distribution to community families. Our complimentary programs demonstrate the effectiveness of providing health and nutrition services to children and families while educating students in high-performing, learner-centered classrooms.