As I come to the end of this Malawi trip I’m thinking about how people’s lives are improving. I met Glory and we talked as she stood in her field of bright red paprika and she told me how things have improved for her. Her first priority has been to improve her home – steel sheets on the roof and a concrete floor (rather than dirt) make a huge difference in the rains.
It’s all pretty encouraging stuff….but imagine how much better things could be if we can irrigate fields for farmers like Glory. A visit to a dry irrigation scheme was another reminder that there is much more to do: this scheme at Tapukwa needs a new weir and some rebuilt channels and then the farmers will be able to grow up to three times as many crops.
Even after all these years, I am still astounded and moved by the poverty that is everywhere in Malawi. Sometimes it can be overwhelming and the only thing to do is to concentrate on those, like Glory, who are on the way up and whose lives are improving. One big encouragement is that Malawians who earn some money instinctively support neighbours and family in a way that those of us in the West seem incapable of.