Villages in Partnership

Fighting Poverty in Malawi

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Cash Crops: Solar Irrigation Systems are Creating Opportunities

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Malawian farmer celebrating his onion cash crops.

For the first year, Malawian farmers in VIP’s partner villages are making significant profits. For those who are unaware of the seasonal split in Malawi, this is an unusual time for harvest. The rainy season ended back in March 2022 and they have not received rain since. However, these farmers are able to grow crops, even during the dry season because of the Solar Irrigation System put into place 3 years ago with the support of the VIP family. 

It takes time for people to learn and adapt new strategies. The first year after installation of the Solar Irrigation Systems, all farmers insisted on growing maize because that is their staple food and they wanted to supplement their household needs.

Malawian farmers harvesting their cash crops.

The second year, after VIP offered agribusiness training and exposure to farmers from other areas of the country, who grow cash crops, several of the farmers took a risk and grew tomatoes and watermelons. They made huge profits and their success convinced all the farmers to grow cash crops!

This year, 100% of the farmers grew cash crops such as watermelons, tomatoes and onions. The profits enable them not only to purchase supplemental maize and other household needs but to make asset investments; investing in livestock that will multiply and be sold in the future, purchasing bicycles that will be used for bike taxis and water pumps to use on fields near a stream, these farmers are investing in their futures. The Solar Irrigation Systems that the VIP family helped to fund are creating opportunities for our brothers and sisters in Malawi! Our most recent Friendship Team had the blessing of participating in the harvest and loading the truck to go to market.

Friendship Team helping to harvest and load the cash crops to go to market.
Children eating harvested watermelons.

Deirdre Ryan: A Symbol of Gratitude

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Deirdre Ryan has been a VIP volunteer for over a decade including attending a trip to Malawi in 2011. Her years of volunteering have been spent serving on numerous committees, helping to organize events, and writing Thank You letters. Whether you know Deirdre personally or not, many of you have received one of her renowned Thank You letters. For years VIP staff have heard praise from recipients of her letters raving about how touched they were to receive a personal, handwritten Thank You note. If you have ever been the recipient of one of her letters then you know how truly touching each one is. She puts thought into personalizing every note to highlight how important each recipient is to VIP.

Deirdre Ryan is volunteering at VIP's 2022 Water Walk.
Deirdre volunteering at VIP’s 2022 Water Walk.

What is just as touching as her letters, is the story behind how she became a volunteer Thank You writer. Deidre writes all of her Thank You letters at a desk that was once her father’s and was built by her grandfather. After her father passed away in 2003, she had the desk shipped from England to the U.S. When asked about her father Deirdre said “My Father was a great person, a soldier who fought in France and Germany throughout the Second World War and liberated Bergen Belsen concentration camp, he loved God and his fellow mankind”.

Deirdre’s father’s desk that she writes VIP Thank You notes at.

With her fondness for her father in mind, she decided the desk would be a perfect place to keep all of her VIP Thank You items. She expressed that her father would be so happy to know his desk was being used in such a meaningful way. 

Deirdre’s process for writing Thank You notes is heartwarming. She first sits at her father’s desk and prays before she starts her writing. She admitted that she never writes more than seven letters a day. This way each letter keeps its personal touch. She has also kept a template of every Thank you note that she’s written at the desk.

The desk will always be a reminder of her father, but it also symbolizes the meaningful relationships that are made, and the lives that are touched with the help of volunteers like Deirdre. A desk that keeps her connected with her father, has helped her connect with and touch so many lives among our VIP family. To the VIP family, Deidre and her Thank You letters have become a symbol of gratitude. She represents how every person’s contributions are helping to build God’s kingdom among our brothers and sisters in Malawi as long as we have never-ending hope.

God’s Timing in the Villages – By Liz Heinzel-Nelson

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The land cruiser bounced over the dusty roads, jostling Violet and me as we drove into the hazy morning sky covering the villages. We picked up Heswick, an orphan who was identified by our Malawian staff members as vulnerable, to take him to the clinic to have his wound redressed. The clinic asked us to bring more wound care supplies since they were out. 

The nurse who regularly dresses Heswick’s wound gently stripped off the old bandages and carefully washed the wound. There were some granules around the edge of the wound and I asked what they were. “That’s sugar,” the nurse informed me. “We like to use honey because honey keeps the scar tissue from hardening, but we don’t have honey so we use sugar.” Not certain that sugar is a good substitute but “I have honey. I just bought honey from the VIP Beekeepers’ Cooperative. Would you like to use my honey?” Vi ran to the car and brought in the unopened bottle of golden salve. Who knew? Yet another wonder of honey.

The wound is healing, the bandage is changed. We were right on time for my meeting with the VIP staff. We all got into the land cruiser when Vi came around and poked her head in my window. “Amayi, they want to see you inside.” I followed Vi into the maternity ward. There was a mother trying to get her 2-week-old to nurse but the infant child lay in her mother’s arms struggling to breathe. The nurse asked if we would rush the mom and baby to Zomba Central Hospital since this kind of case is beyond their capabilities. 

I wove over and around unavoidable bumps along the dusty roads, occasionally hearing a groan from the back as we hit a big one. We arrived at the hospital and escorted them to the entrance where a nurse took them to the infant’s ward. As we jumped back into the Land Cruiser to head to the meeting, now an hour late, I asked Vi, if we had not been there that morning, what would have happened to that baby? She quietly answered, that’s when death comes. Everyone understands here when you arrive late. Things happen in Malawi.