1 Process

Chingalire is a village about 40 km west of Lilongwe. Ben Makamba, as chief of the village, has been strengthening the rural growth centre with the support of Silvia Hesse for several years. The starting point is the local culture and tradition. Laura and my engagement started with two workshops in the village where locals expressed the topics of interest for development. Using this as a base, we determined the further course of action at regular online meetings of an intercontinental working group. Since my private assets essentially provide the funding, we are free to decide and readjust, independent of any funding criteria, which next steps are best suited to initiate our sustainable development process adapted to local conditions.

2 Infra-structure

With his contacts as a musician, Ben was able to attract the crossroad music festival to Chingalire. This event opens up cultural and economic development opportunities for the village. We are improving the necessary infrastructure for the festival so that it is also helpful for the development of the town. 

We have already implemented three houses for guests (mainly musicians and tourists). We built a small bridge on the access road to replace the dam washed away during heavy rainfall a few years ago. We plan to make a more extensive stage roof and a photovoltaic system for the electricity supply next year. The first steps to improve affordable mobility are currently being taken in cooperation with World Bicycle Relief. 

We also plan to build smaller cascading ponds to collect as much rainwater as possible during the rainy season and use it for irrigation throughout the year. In spring, we want to start with the construction of dry toilets and a root space disposal system.

3 Building culture

Our thoughts on reviving local, ecological building traditions are taking shape much faster than we expected. This progress is because we met Alexandra Poncet, an architect based in Blantyre who shares our approach to building with natural materials - and has been implementing it in Malawi for several years. During her first visit, she shared her experiences with the artisans and farmers from the village and surrounding area and met with open ears. Then followed a workshop on building bamboo furniture. The participants are making the beds (for the guest houses mentioned above ) out of locally available bamboo as their first business opportunity.

4 local economy

- what we hope to achieve

Our idea is to set up a revolving fund in the village. This fund will be used as a micro-credit to provide initial financing for new income opportunities - and as a supplement to agriculture. The back payment will be 

made into the fund, remaining in the village, and starting a circle of financial possibilities again. 

 We hope that

• through the transfer of permaculture knowledge, agriculture yield and ecological quality can be increased;

• with Wold-Bicycle-Relief, we can establish a bicycle workshop with rental, sale and maintenance of bicycles and have an accessible transport system in Chingalire's area;

• a solar kiosk can be installed to create access to electricity with photovoltaic energy, with which batteries can be charged and then distributed by bicycles to the surrounding villages (and widen communications possibilities when considering the smartphones in the area);

• grow bamboo plantations in the village to meet the demand for firewood (for cooking) and later for larger bamboo logs for furniture and roof structures;

• create a bamboo treatment plant to make the bamboo more resistant to moisture and insects;

• stablish an integrated system of dry toilets and fertiliser production;

• use afforestation to improve the resilience of the village and create new environmental-friendly economic opportunities (i.e. for beehives and honey production)

• treat the wastewater in a root space disposal system

• train local artisan groups in the village on ecological, accessible construction techniques so they can use this knowledge to offer vernacular housing as a business.

• create a water storage system around the cascading ponds that can cushion the increasingly shorter and heavier rainy seasons.

To create a start-up spirit in the village, we want to consider how we can firmly integrate start-up companies into the school curriculum. We want to see schools less as institutions and more as places for learning by doing.