By Vincent Gunde

Kawjo Foundation says it has a mission of eradicating poverty and transform the lives of the vulnerable society with a vision to have an inclusive and economically empowered society where young people and women are skilled, productive and self-reliant.

The Foundation works in three impact areas of food security and sustainable livelihoods, education and skills development, disaster and humanitarian services.
The organization recently secured funding from GIZ to implement a project on sustainable Aquatic foods (SAF), Zione Makawa Chawalika, Kawjo’s Executive Director, said the SAF project in Dowa district is targeting producers working in pond farming, fish fingerlings producers, fish processors and the local population in all EPAs of the district such as Nachisaka, Madisi, Nalunga, Mndolera, Mponela and Chibvala.

Chawalika said the project has an objective of utilizing the potential of sustainable aquatic foods to transform agricultural and food systems in Malawi and its main implementation partner is the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change.

She said the interventions in the Central Region including in Dowa will be taking on board 2,850 old fish farmers and for the initial one year of the project implementation about 300 fish farmers will come from Dowa district.

The Director said the activities of the project in the central Region will include; fish farmer and potential fingerling producer’s identification, farms verification and registration, technical training on Climate Smart aquaculture, training needs assessment and refresher technical trainings on fish farming and hatchery operation.

“The project will also be conducting coaching and follow-up loops for all the trained fish farmers for the period of implementation,” said Chawalika.

       
She said key outputs of the project include; the production of aquatic foods from sustainable aquatic has increased, the integration of small-scale producers into the formal aquaculture sector has been strengthened and relevant political actors set new standards for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.


Sustainable Aquatic Foods (SAF) will be implemented by both Malawi Government and German Cooperation (GIZ) from 2024 to 2028 with a total budget of 3,488,000 Euros and Dowa will get an initial budget of MK20 million.