Sustaining a Country Wide Prison System
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In partnership with an American businessman, a university, and African Leadership Malawi, a 20 year old dream continues to benefit an entire country. In 2004, a trip with American businessmen landed in Lilongwe, Malawi to assess the leadership work being done by African Leadership Malawi. On one stop at the local prison, the lack of access to nutritional food came up as several prisoners were dealing with malnutrition and skin diseases. While they were there to determine the interest of the prisoners and administration to learn the Word of God, they could not help but challenge that these prisoners had no consistent or substantial food to eat.
The prison administration quickly explained that this was a result of their food budget from the government being stretched so thin from prison overcrowding. So this group of American busniessmen saw an opportunity for partnership. If they could secure the money needed to purchase irrigation systems, proper training, and the initial farming supplies and seeds, would the prison be willing to let these prisoners use nearby farm land to learn how to farm (a valuable skill for when they are done serving their time) and then cultivate the land with maize, fruits, and vegetables to better sustain themselves?
With the government's permission, a partnership was born that has lasted more than 20 years. For as long as the prison continues to supply the farming knowledge and labor, the government will continue to supply the seeds and fertilizer. To date, the food grown across the farm supplies enough maize to feed all the inmates of the local juvenile and adult prison in Dowa and they are even able to send additional yields to other prisons nearby to help feed their prisoners.
Finally, the partnership has yielded a favorable opportunity to continue teaching men and women the Word of God through classes taught at the prisons.
Dowa, Malawi
2004-Present
100s of prisoners
AL Malawi