Category: Business

Business, Community

New Airtel Money building construction almost completed at Nyumba Ya Masambiro

Phunzira

Construction is almost complete on a new Airtel Money Office. This building means that community members coming to NYM to carry out Airtel Money transactions have a dedicated place to go to complete those transactions. This keeps the NYM management office free for management members to complete their tasks undisturbed.

The Airtel Money business continues to be very popular amongst community members, with multiple people coming to complete transactions every single day. Each transaction gains a small commission for NYM as the Agent, and that commission is then reinvested into NYM for the benefit of the community. Having a dedicated space for these transactions to be carried out is a great step forward for this business.

Business, Community

Repairs, maintenance and building at Nyumba Ya Masambiro

Phunzira

Following another rainy season the team have been busy making repairs and finalising maintenance around the Nyumba Ya Masambiro education centre. Firstly, a new bridge has been built over the stream bordering the NYM land. This year funds have allowed for a raised foundation to be built to support the bridge, hopefully allowing for it to rise above coming years rainy season flooding and keep a safe access to the education centre and all its services throughout the coming years.

Additionally, following the roaring success of the Airtel Money business the team have started building a dedicated Airtel money kiosk on the NYM property. This frees up the Management Office to its original administrative tasks and provides a secure dedicated space for community members to access this vital financial service.

Business, Community, Malawi

New income generating activity at NYM

Phunzira

Nyumba ya Masambiro education centre has set up a new Income Generating Activity for the benefit of the community. They have become an Airtel Money agent. Airtel Money is a mobile commerce service offering money transfer by phone run through the Airtel telephone network by means of an app and SMS messaging. This service gives community members access to sending and receiving money digitally to any registered number anywhere in the country. A digital service of this kind breaks the circular economy experienced within remote communities such as Ruarwe and its surrounding areas by allowing community members to engage in financial communication nationally and opening the doors to wider buying and selling inside and outside the community. It has been a heavily requested service and the team are delighted to have been able to set this up. Since starting as an agent hundreds of thousands of Malawi Kwacha have been transferred in private transactions into and out of the community, each transaction earning a nominal commission fee, which can then be returned back into the education centre to fund the ongoing community activities available to all community members.

Business, Education, Nursery, Volunteers

2022 NYM update

Phunzira

Despite the sad closures of NYM’s main activities at the community centre, in December 2022 some small parts were re-opened with great joy from the staff and surrounding communities. The library is running and being visited primarily by students to access during revision time due to its wide range of academic text books sourced in Malawi and UK. We are also happy to announce that the youth centre is currently being used by a children’s nursery, with free-of-charge access to the large room and recreational/ educational resources. In addition, donations are being sourced in order to provide medicines to the two nearby village clinics, where not even basic drugs such as paracetamol are available due to nationwide government shortages. The maize mill business has also received an injection of cash, allowing for essential maintenance work and the purchase of maize, to sell directly from the centre. All other activities in Ruarwe village still remain closed due to insufficient funds since the start of Covid – it has been a very challenging time and we are extremely grateful to our staff and supporters for keeping us alive over the last two years. We hope that by the end of this year the maize mill and its subsidiary businesses generate enough funds to re-open the weekly youth club and sporting events, at which point we will look towards starting up the volunteer programme again – it has been missed dearly in Ruarwe!