OHP Site-2016a

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Summer Report 2016

including February-May trip

Maize

for 2016/17

Food Programme

ON SITE - OHP CENTRE

Gathering enough maize for the 2016/17 Food Programme was a major challenge.

We usually buy at harvest when abundance brings the price down, but then the big trucks started rolling in from Blantyre, buying up all the maize and transporting it out of the area.

Nationally, the harvest had been a disaster and the Government had stopped all exports of maize. Local grain, that might have fed our communities, was being transported out to other locations with more money.

So our team went out to scour the area, and

eventually found 28 tonnes (about 112,000

meals). The actual calculations of issue will be

finalised in December when we’ll have a clearer

picture of how the rains are affecting the next

maize crop.

The maize bought—560 x 50kg bags, will be dried, winnowed, weighed, and stored in our special anti-weevil grain bags until Christmas 2016 when the Food Programme begins.

Drying tons of maize

Storeroom expansion

We needed more space to store the maize in good condition, so we set about expanding our storeroom facilities. Sounds easy—just adding 3 walls to our existing storeroom, but the process involved closing our rabbit breeding programme, dismantling the hutches and moving them, and the livestock, into the community. Old staff toilets had to go too, so a new toilet block was built.

Foundations were then dug for the new storeroom, and the building progressed.

It was completed just before we left Malawi—a whole rejuvenated storeroom complex. The old storeroom was brought up to spec and the “weighing room”—which connects both the old and the new—was also sorted. Each room has been rat-proofed, whitewashed, fitted with electric lights and sturdy double doors, tin-trimmed to combat rats.

Old storeroom re-vamped

“Weighing” Room

New Storeroom

The goats are doing well, most does are pregnant so the milk yield has plummeted, but they’re due to start producing kids—and milk—in June. However for the first few months, most of that will go to their own kids, especially the female ones, grounding them well for their future introduction to our milking herd—so we’ll still be challenged milk-wise for quite a while.

LATEST NEWS! 13 kids born, 8 females!

Pregnant & proud!

Moringa is still our prime crop, and the team are gradually extending planting at our Makhonja site, though the rains waterlogged the land for a while. However, they have been harvesting leaves, drying them in the 3 dehydrators and processing regularly, providing the nutritious food supplement to the vulnerable.

We’ve formed a “Moringa Team”, to go out into the community, training in moringa planting, growth, care, nutritional value & cooking.

Growing cassava for seed multiplication is ongoing, and veg is still being

grown and distributed to the needy. Growing areas on site were defined—

mostly moringa, forage and the tree nursery, which grows seedlings to

give away.

Over 3000 trees were germinated in the community this 1st year as part

of our Reforestation Programme.

We continue to train in conservation farming techniques via the “Farming

God’s Way” programme. The success of this is evident in the photo on

the right, showing Dickson - the FGW trainer - in the striped shirt, and a

local farmer, in front of his highly successful maize crop.

Our staff of 17 Malawians is continuing to develop in teamwork and responsibility. Sadly, our Project Leader became seriously ill, and having worked closely together for 9 years, his absence was hard. However, his training and encouragement of his more junior colleagues became clear, and they rose to the challenge. IT training was extended to include emails, to retain communication with the UK, backed up by our invaluable overseers who offered further support during their monthly visits to site.

In addition, 6 staff members have been undergoing motorbike training, and one will soon learn to drive the car—a rare skill in rural Malawi!

Goats