Upon visiting a Special Project on 29 April, there were smiles all over the faces of the Mulanje Cedars ICS volunteers whilst seeing the ever-green tea grown on top of the mountain, some kilometres away from the community.
Situated in Nguzu village, Traditional Authority Mabuka in the Mulanje district, the Nansambe Youth Club is a vibrant group concerned with protecting the Mulanje mountain reserve, HIV and AIDS and family planning. Apart from that, the club looks at the welfare of the disadvantaged people like the elderly, orphans and students who cannot afford some basic necessities. The Club, which started with the membership of 55 but now remains with 25, has been facing financial hardships in the course of implementing their dreams. As a result they decided to venture into tea farming to top up the cinema and phone charging business they are currently running.
Fortunately, after sharing their dream with the Second Cycle of ICS volunteers (April 2014), they received a piece of land and the tea seedlings using the ICS Special Project Fund.
The ICS volunteers and youth members hiking to the tea field
Chairperson of the youth club, Isaac Chipululu, told the volunteers, “We discovered that there are a lot of people who are in dire need of help in our community and as the youths, we agreed with your fellow volunteers to start tea farming so that when we begin to sell, we should give a hand.”
Chipululu said that at the start they planted 1850 tea seedlings and, since then over 1500 seedlings braved the termites, locusts and mosquitoes’ destruction. Currently, they have started supplying tea fortnightly to the Eastern Out Growers Trust (EOT) and are looking forward to any future potential profits.
The Nansambe Youth Club’s tea field
During the visit, WESM Field Officer Mr Chililitso Kasipa said their organisation started working with the Youth Club after they mobilised themselves to wage war against deforestation in Mulanje mountain reserve and other social challenges people are facing in the community.
One of ICS volunteers, Jasmine Herriot, described the Club’s tea farming project as very successful. She thought the tea farming had obvious great potential if the youth club were given more resources, such as fertilisers and pesticides to maintain the health of the tea plants.
Overall, our first field trip was a great insight into the communal nature of the Nansambe Youth Club and also an opportunity to learn how the ICS Special Project Funds are being used to benefit those in the local community.
Written by ICS volunteer Luka Beston
Photos by ICS volunteer Lloyd Kayembe
