Flood-Prone Malawi Village Finds Resilience in Goat Farming
With innovative thinking and collective compassion, vulnerable youth need not face climate shocks alone.
Chikwawa, Malawi-In the flood-prone Lower Shire region of southern Malawi, vulnerable families caring for children with disabilities are building resilience through an innovative goat farming project, writes Howard Mlozi.
Thousands of households in Chikwawa and Nsanje districts bordering Mozambique lose property, livelihoods and sometimes lives whenever the Shire River overflows its banks during Malawi’s rainy season. With farms and houses wiped out, surviving can be an immense struggle.
“We lost everything including food and clothing. We were stranded until rescued and brought to an emergency camp,” recalled Tamandani Jester, whose home and fields drowned under Cyclone Freddy floodwaters this past January. Like many survivors, Jester still hasn’t fully recovered months later.
The annual inundations disproportionately affect at-risk groups, said Chikwawa District Social Welfare Officer Aaron Macheka. But his office lacks resources to adequately support vulnerable households headed by children or the elderly and people with disabilities.
Pashello Charitable Trust in Ngabu aims to reinforce such families’ economic foundations and self-reliance through goat farming. The local nonprofit provides goats to needy households that care for kids with disabilities so they can breed the livestock as a sustainable income source resistant to environmental shocks.
“Livestock can help lessen vulnerable families’ burden, yet most are too poor to own animals,” explained trust project officer Liponda Banda. Goat kids require minimal upfront investment, can thrive despite climate change and offer nutritious dairy products to improve family health.
The innovative program paying dividends today germinated from founder Felia Malola’s vision before she passed away.
“Many households with disabled youth don’t own assets and thus face amplified poverty when disasters strike,” Banda said. “Goats are a familiar, dependable road to financial stability here.”
So far Pashello has donated over 50 goats to qualifying homes. Recipients sign agreements to properly nurture their livestock as communal capital and allow offspring to bolster other vulnerable families’ self-sufficiency when possible.
Stephano Benito, who battled psychological issues stemming from money woes before receiving his goat, instantly felt strengthened and hopeful. “I gained my strength back,” he said.
However, meeting soaring needs requires expanding the initiative tenfold before the year’s end. “Our target is 100 goats for 100 households by December, but we urgently need more resources,” Banda said.
He appealed for public backing so the trust can uplift additional youth and help communities rebound more rapidly from climate change’s intensifying impacts.
When floods or drought threaten lives in the Shire River basin again soon, solidarity through humble goats may empower vulnerable families to not only endure but emerge more resilient than before.
With innovative thinking and collective compassion, vulnerable youth need not face climate shocks alone.