Nutrition
PROJECTS

An economy dependent on struggling agriculture leaves over half the 18.5m population in poverty. 80% live in rural areas and rely on farming for income and food security. Lack of access to resources forces farmers with their own land to have to work on other farms, trapping them in the poverty cycle due to low wages and high inflation.

A single harvest means that only those with money, or who’ve saved enough from the previous harvest, have food security.

Family futures sustainable farming helps vulnerable families living on less than $1 per day who have 6 or more dependants including orphans or elderly. The program aims to help these family become food secure, provide nutrition for their family and surplus to sell to provide an income for school fees, mosquito nets and essentials for a healthy life. We provide them with farming inputs to farm 1 hectare of land, along with access to adult literacy, teaching, agriculture and business training over two years.

The value of the farm inputs is paid back over two years, with 0% interest. This is then invested in farm inputs for another family in the same community. The program is designed to make family farms self-sustainable through effective management of resources. Families are able to farm their land (many for the first time), and to have excess crops to sell to buy farm inputs for the following year and pay school fees for their children.

The initiative has even been nick-named ‘Nsunga Moyo’ in Chichewa local language, meaning ‘lifesaver’. The scheme has extended to 110 families and will expand year on year.

We support 4 vulnerable families in partnership with African Vision Malawi

In October 2019 Love Support Unite began working with Mphatso nurseries training nursery teachers. Seeing first hand the life saving work they do, we want to help support them in their mission.

Feeding the Children, Growing the Community, Impacting the Future. This has been the key message of Mphatso Childrens Foundation for many years because they believe that it is the way to bring slow positive change to the communities. Feeding over 1,000 children each school day through their 14 nursery school programs.

The Baby Feeding Program is for those that are seeking help because the mothers have either died or are too unwell to feed their babies. Hospitals and doctors are referring carers to Mphatso for life-saving baby formula.

Many babies lives have been saved because of this program. They support these babies by routinely weighing and supplying baby formula and as they progress maize porridge. It’s a difficult task to turn babies away when we are facing financial hurdles. They are currently supporting 100 babies. 6GBP a month feeds a baby.

In 2022 Love Support Unite helped to provide formula for 119 babies providing over 14,000 meals in total.

37% of under 5’s suffer stunted growth. Stunted growth hinders brain development and immunity. 26% of children are engaged in child labor, varying from season to season. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45 percent) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year.

66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.

Through the school feeding programme, we aim to reduce the number of children that are engaged in child labour, stabilise school attendance, and ensure children are eat at least one meal a day. Children work in the fields in return for food, in some cases, children eat 1 meal in 3 days during hungry season. Attendance would drop from approx 400 to 60, as children would be forced to work in fields to help feed their family, being paid for a days labour with a bowl of maize. Their education suffers, as well as nutrition and health.

Love Support Unite has helped the community to secure 10 acres of farm land, trained its teachers in permaculture and provided the first year of seeds and farm inputs. The school is now feeding an average of 400 meals per day. That’s 65,060 meals to date. Since October 2020 the school manages this program.

The school feeds the children from its own land, the children learn new farming techniques in the outdoor classroom. The attendance is stable as children attend school to receive food, nutrition, and education. We are working alongside ‘Malawi Schools Permaculture Club’ to keep up to date on training, they provide teacher training and syllabus to get children learning outside. We trained community members at Kusamala institute of permaculture. With huge thanks to Beating Heart. LSU now fund a permaculture manager at Africa Visions vocational centre ‘Sams village’ with the aim the sustainable feeding program will start at another school in 2021.

During the ‘hungry season’, some children may eat as little as 1 meal in 3 days. Many children are engaged in hard labor to earn food rather than attend school.

We have worked with Malawi Permaculture In Schools Club to equip learners with the permaculture lessons. They learn new techniques in both the classroom and the field to provide food for their families in the future. The Club aims to train teachers in nutrition and turn school grounds into permaculture food gardens and with outside classroom ss with the children.

We are working with African Vision Malawi to fund a permaculture manager at their vocational centre.