Project Updates - Part III

Women’s Group
The Women’s Group has lost some momentum over the last two months. The main reasons being that I was away and all the women are busy tending to tobacco. They made over Mk. 3,000 from jam sales last year, a great figure for a business they just started. Also, the women planted the CG-7 groundnuts this year so that we would not have to buy more when we begin oil pressing again. Fortunately, TLC has promised us two more presses which will increase our production. With the EPA office almost completed we will be able to move all our supplies and have a central location for meetings. Over the next month I hope to make the stamps and labels for the jam bottles to begin expanding the market for selling. Wellesley designed a lovely logo that will serve as the group logo and be part of a large mural on the EPA’s northern wall. Otherwise, there are some other ideas we are floating about for businesses. The group has been successful but the lack of self-sufficiency worries me. They have funds, members and resources to continue but the problem is they are not generating enough money yet. We will keep pushing until the businesses are more established and perhaps we will reach a point where they are generating enough profit to make it worthwhile to operate these businesses full-time.

M24
The road from Rumphi boma all the way up to Chitipa is horrendous to say the least. It is the infamous back road to Chitipa and is the shortest distance between the two bomas. The only problem is that it is the worst road in Malawi and gets progressively worse the further you travel, the worst of which begins after Chilenda camp. Currently, the only way to get to Chitipa safely and timely is to travel around Nyika, through Karonga and then west to the boma. This is a longer distance but really the only option. The entire stretch of the back road measures about 224km. The portion closest to Chitipa is nearly impassible with gaping cracks and dangerous cliffs. The portion from Rumphi boma to the Mwazisi turnoff (basically Chitanga) is labeled M24 on the road network map. This is the portion that Wellesley and I hope to get paved. The entire road is currently under analysis by the Arab Development Bank, they hope to pave all 224km of the back road. The initial and economic reports have been completed but there has been an issue with completing the feasibility study. Due to internal disagreements the project has been put on hold for an unknown period of time and it could be years before any progress is made. Thus, we have undertaken the task of finding funding for the unpaved 40km segment of M24. This segment faces the heaviest traffic and is economically a vital area. All the main villages run along this road and these villages have access to electricity. While in Lilongwe, we met with the Roads Authority’s chief engineer and collected all the current reports on this road. He was an incredibly helpful and well-spoken man that showed us designs for a cheaper road that is just as strong. We were able to reduce the cost estimate from $600,000 per km to $200,000. This puts the total cost at roughly $8 million to pave the M24. Now the hard part: funding. Once we complete further research we hope to begin shopping a small proposal to various donors, corporations, and embassies in hopes of slowly selling each portion of the road. $8 million is a large sum, but when broken up it amounts to a minute portion of donor budgets. We are fully aware we will not pave this road before our time ends, but we can at least put the wheels in motion.