Tag: Progress

Community, Education, Malawi

EARTH workshops return to Ruarwe and the surrounding area

Phunzira

Nyumba ya Masambiro was delighted to welcome back Thom and Maxwell from the EARTH Workshops programme at Butterfly Space in Nkhata Bay. While they had primarily been invited by local farmers and gardeners to visit Kwenthu, in the mountains behind Ruarwe and within the NYM catchment area, they came via Nyumba ya Masambiro to maximise the impact of their visit to this remote community.

The EARTH Workshops team first ran a refresher training session at NYM for staff and interested community stakeholders. The session focused on water preservation and sustainable land management. As part of the training, they brought 50 seedlings of indigenous trees and fruit vines to be planted on and around NYM’s land.

Several of the indigenous tree species were specifically selected for their deep tunnelling root systems, which play a vital role in water management. Together, the group planted some of these trees around the natural spring just above NYM’s land. This spring provides year-round water to both Nyumba ya Masambiro and the health centre next door. The trees’ deep roots help create channels down to the water table, drawing water upwards and helping to ensure the spring continues to flow even during the dry season. In addition, their roots stabilise the soil on the hillside, while their branches and broad leaves provide shade to reduce water loss through evaporation.

Following the session at NYM, Thom and Maxwell travelled uphill to Kwenthu to lead a two-day follow-up workshop with local farmers. The farmers had attended training last year and specifically requested this return visit to reinforce lessons learned and to discuss challenges they had encountered while implementing new techniques. It was encouraging to see such commitment to sustainable farming practices within the community.

The remaining seedlings will be planted around the spring and across NYM’s land once protective fencing has been secured to guard against goats and pigs. We look forward to many more years of clean, clear water flowing from the spring as a result of this important work.

A huge thank you to the team from EARTH Workshops for making the journey to Ruarwe and for so generously sharing your knowledge and expertise with our community.

Business, Community, Healthcare, Malawi

Land rental at Nyumba ya Masambiro

Phunzira

Medical assistant Paul Kabuzi from Ruarwe health centre has approached Nyumba ya Masambiro with an interesting proposal. Behind the NYM buildings, lies some fresh, fertile land, which has been gardened in the past, but not for the last 5 years or so. Paul proposes to use that land to grow onions, tomatoes, coco yams and more to supplement the available vegetables for the community of Ruarwe. The profits of the sales of these vegetables will then be split between Paul for the labour of farming the land, and a small portion to NYM as rental for the piece of land. 

We are delighted with the proposal and wish Paul all the best of luck this coming growing season. 

Community, Education, Malawi, UK Schools, Volunteers, Youth

Stories Without Borders: From Scotland to Ruarwe

Phunzira

We are delighted to share the joyful news of a special collaboration that has connected learners across continents through the power of storytelling.

In 2023, two teachers travelled from Inverkeithing, Scotland, to our community in Ruarwe. During their visit, they worked closely with learners at both Ruarwe Primary School as well as youth visitors to Nyumba ya Masambiro to collect and record local stories — tales of daily life, imagination, culture, and hope.

At the same time, back in their own school in Scotland, students were also busy writing and sharing their stories. The result is a beautiful exchange of voices and experiences, bridging communities through creativity and mutual learning.

We are proud to announce that these stories have now been officially published into books. Even more exciting, copies of the books have arrived in Ruarwe, where learners can see their words in print and read the stories of their friends in Scotland.

The books are now available at the NYM Library, where community members, students, and visitors are warmly invited to come and read them.

This project is a wonderful reminder that while our communities may be separated by distance, stories have the power to bring us together. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the teachers, students, and everyone involved in making this cross-cultural journey possible.

Community, Education, Malawi, Youth

Youth Hall at NYM used by community members

Phunzira

The Youth Hall at Nyumba ya Masambiro continues to be an open space for the wider community to hold meetings. In the last few months, it has been used by the chiefs’ council, youth leaders within the community and Temwa for example.
Temwa, the NGO based in Usisya, 20km south of Ruarwe, has similar objectives to Nyumba ya Masambiro. Working within the realms of health, education, agriculture and the environment, Ruarwe is within the catchment area for Temwa. Once or twice a month, Temwa comes to host a friendly football match tied in with education within the Ruarwe area. On these visits, they make use of the Nyumba ya Masambiro Youth Hall for their preparatory meetings and discussions.
We are grateful that Nyumba ya Masambiro remains a safe and open space and the preferred meeting space for community members far and wide!

Community, Education, Healthcare, Malawi, Youth

E.A.R.T.H Workshops take place at NYM

Phunzira

Nyumba Ya Masambiro was delighted to host The E.A.R.T.H Workshops team from Butterfly Space in Nkhata Bay who came to share their knowledge and expertise on all things environmental. Standing for Environment, Agriculture, Reforestation, Topsoil and Health, the workshops provide a bottom-up approach to empower communities to be resilient, independent and find solutions to protect our soil, improve farming methods, reduce damaging activities, as well as improving nutrition through better, more environmentally friendly cooking methods.

The workshops were attended by a variety of community members from Ruarwe, and surrounding villages as far away as Kwenthu Village as well as staff from Nyumba Ya Masambiro and the clinic. On one day a primary school class was invited to join the session to start to inspire positive environmental thoughts and practices in the younger generations. This has been continued by one particularly proactive primary teacher, who has continued to bring his class to NYM to have lessons under the guava tree and discuss and analyse the positive impacts of the E.A.R.T.H workshop principles as put into practice at NYM.

A huge thank you to the team from Nkhata Bay for sharing your knowledge with the community in Ruarwe and your ongoing support as farmers, community members and NYM and clinic staff put the principles of your program into practice.

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.