Electric Cooking Pot
Currently, our collaborator Robert Van Buskirk is working in Malawi with community members to build our stove. Here is some more information about our target communities and the troubles they face when cooking.
Indisputably the friendliest people in Africa. Ages old culture, tradition and crafts, high mountain peaks, white water rivers and broad blue lakes. Malawi ranks among the world's most densely populated and least developed countries.
Malawi, a largely agricultural country, is making efforts to overcome decades of underdevelopment, corruption, population growth, increasing pressure on agricultural lands and the impact of an HIV-Aids problem, which claims the lives of tens of thousands every year.
Most Malawians rely on subsistence farming, but the food supply situation is precarious because of the climate. In recent years the country has achieved economic growth.
Rapid population growth and high population density is putting pressure on Malawi’s land, water, and forest resources. Reduced plot sizes and increasing vulnerability to climate change, further threaten the sustainability of Malawi’s agriculturally based economy and will worsen food shortages. One-third of the GDP is predominantly agricultural with about 80% of the population living in rural areas.
In the decade and a half after independence in 1964, the Malawian Government sought to transform its economy from one dependent on small-scale farms to one based on estate agriculture.
Malawi’s economy was hit hard by the El Nino-driven drought in 2015 and 2016. The drought also slowed economic activity and led to two consecutive years of declining economic growth, and contributed to high inflation rates.
Electricity access:
Population without electricity: 14,900,000
Total Population with electricity: 9%
Urban Areas: 32%
Rural Areas: 4%
Total Population with Internet: 9.6%
MALAWI
The Warm Heart of Africa
The Republic of Malawi
Capital: Lilongwe
Population: 18 million
Area: 118,484 sq km
Official Language: English
Religions: 27.2% Protestant
18.4% Catholic
41% Christian
12.1% Muslim
Life Expectancy: male: 59.7 yrs
female: 63.8 years
Literacy: 62.1%
Population Below Poverty Line: 50.7%
Currency: Malawi Kwacha
MALAWI
KARONGA DISTRICT
Karonga is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The district covers an area of 3,355 km.² and has a population of 194,572.
Over the last few years, there has been much development in the region due to the discovery of uranium at the Kayelekera mine, which officially opened in 2009, and many of the previously gravelled roads have been laid with tarmac.
Karonga has great potential for growth owing to its location in a fertile flood plain at the estuary of North Rukuru River, on a transport route and close to a major mine. However, the low altitude due to rift valley location of the town, its high water table and the increasing amount of construction in low-lying areas including in the flood channels, raise the potential for damage from flooding while the low quality of buildings increases vulnerability to seismic risks.
Housing takes up approximately 60% of total land in the town. 49% of the houses are permanent, 36% are semi permanent and 15% are traditional. Traditional houses are built of grass thatch, mud floors and sun dried bricks. The poor design of many of the houses has resulted in them being highly vulnerable and unable to withstand the tremors in the 2009 earthquakes.
According to NSO (2010) only 5% of the households used electricity while 94% used firewood and charcoal for cooking and 1% was reported to use paraffin for cooking. With respect to lighting, 23% used electricity, 70% used paraffin, 5% used candles and 1% used firewood. These figures indicate that, due to the high cost of electricity, many households that do have power use it mostly for lighting.
Region: Central Region
Elevation: 3,875 ft (1,181 m)
Population: 25,184
Official Language: Chichewa
It has a major railroad junction, being the railhead nearest to Zambia. The area's economy is sustained by rain-fed agriculture.
Harvesting rain-fed agriculture is the main occupation in Mchinji. Groundnuts, tobacco, soya and casava beans are the primary cash crops. Maize, yams, velvet beans and pumpkin are prominent food crops.
Due to a food shortage partially caused by the region's many droughts and partially caused by poor government planning, a UNDP rural development program was established in Mchinji. Mchinji is currently the location of a pilot project of a social cash transfer to benefit very poor members of rural areas.
The high usage of bio-fuel points to high levels of deforestations in surrounding areas, as well as risk of indoor pollution especially among women who are traditionally often responsible for the majority of household cooking.
MCHINJI DISTRICT
MACHINGA DISTRICT
Senior Chief: Kawinga
Land Area: 3,771 sq. km
Population: 490,579 (2008)
Average Household Size: 4.3 (2008)
Life Expectancy at Birth: male: 49.0
female: 52.8
Enrollment in Primary Education: 106,940
Enrollment in Secondary Education: 1,942 (2007)
Literacy Rate: 52%
Poverty: 73.7%
Ultra Poor: 38.3%
Child Labor: 43% (2004)
Women married before age 15: 16.8% (2006)
