Project Launch: 12-27-19

A community organization called Reach Out to Girls will provide 50 women in Lilongwe, Malawi with six months of agriculture value addition training. Participants will learn how to package and market tomatoes, onions, and groundnuts. The products will be sold in supermarkets and around the communities. The cooperative will collectively save some of the profits in order to start a food processing business in future. The rest of the profits will be divided among the women to increase household income. 

Project Update: 4-1-20

Reach out to Girls has mobilized 64 women to form a budding cooperative.  Through the project, all the 64 women have been trained in value addition, food processing, and market focused packaging of their produce. In addition, the women have been trained in business and financial management to help them profitably manage the farm businesses. The cooperative will find a market on behalf of the members who will mobilize the needed produce and receive their share of income after sales. To improve sales, the women have started packing their tomato, onion and vegetables into different attractive packages. To continue supporting learning, Reach out to Girls has produced and translated the training manual for women to use for years to come. The project is 90% on track and expected to complete in July with the group having developed into a fully fledged formal cooperative.

Final Report: 2-18-21

Using the $2,370.21 grant from World Connect, Reach Out to Girls led by Sarah Khudze a YALI Mandela Washington Fellowship alumni has trained 64 women farmers from Mitundu in financial management and value addition skills for agricultural products. Through this project, the 64 women have been trained in groundnuts packaging and processing into peanut butter as well as jam making using tomatoes. The women have also learnt how to package various farm produce for value addition  to attract better prices on the markets. The women have since formed a cooperative where they are packaging and selling their farm produce together to maximize profits by penetrating big markets. To ensure that the women stay updated on the knowledge given, a training manual was developed and translated into local language ( Chichewa) which has been distributed to all members so they can always go back to their notes as well as be able to pass it on to other interested women in the business, therefore increasing the project impact to beyond the 64 women who have been trained.

Rose Nyama, one of the participants says, “I am happy to be one of the beneficiaries of this project. As a tomato farmer, I have learned how to make tomato jam. Now I can process jam on my own using the locally available resources. With this skill, I will apply it by making jam on my own and selling and even using it at home.”