News – What has been Accomplished!

November 13, 2023

We’d like to take a brief moment to congratulate the winner of this year’s high school contest, Josie Blake. Josie has won a free trip to Malawi with our medical mission team when we go in April 2024.

A total of 11 students from Nashoba Regional High School and Hudson High School participated in the contest. We hope the 10 who didn’t win will be able to come along with us as well.

IT Education and Laptop Donation Trip – Jan 2023

For further details and photos, see our January 2023 Detailed Trip Presentation slides.

Trip Objectives:

  1. Communicate program objectives to beneficiary school leadership
  2. Observe school’s implementation of Information/Computer Technology (ICT) studies
  3. Evaluate solar power systems
  4. Add projector and 5 additional laptops to each school
  5. Offer professional development (PD) to beneficiary school teachers
  6. Enhance female student ICT studies and access
  7. Offer model lessons to beneficiary school students
  8. Build collaborative relationships within Malawi
  9. Build efficiencies within ICT technician team

To learn more about our technology initiatives, visit the Laptop Donation/Education page.

January 19, 2023

Thought you all might like to see a video done by a local Malawian (hence the spelling errors,etc.) about our nonprofit Bridges to Malawi (BTM) efforts to fight an ongoing famine in Malawi. Please note that whenever the word “beneficiaries” is used, it means an entire family (usually 7 people), not just one individual. – Brian


We also have some photos to further illustrate the food situation.


… And some more photos showing our efforts to fight cholera with water chlorination.

January 14, 2023

We’ve received the following updates from Peter Minjale:

  1. The famine is worsening.  He wants another $12,000 USD to fight it. He is working on a Lions International grant proposal to get funding beyond that. We are currently feeding close to 15,000 people right now.
  2. The cholera epidemic is worsening. There have now been over 750 deaths and over 13,000 cases nationwide (530,000 cases projected). Kasungu District, including the city, has been spared due to our ongoing chlorination efforts since August. Peter says the District had no cases till this week when 1 person became ill.
  3. The government of Malawi is very interested in our IT education project and is sending teachers to our area to help bolster our efforts.
  4. The government of Malawi and World Bank approached Peter with a grant proposal to help our dairy project go to the next level with enough money to, among other things, purchase about 230 more heifers.
  5. The premiere agricultural research facility in Malawi has expressed interest in our lavender initiative, hoping to bring it to other parts of the country if we are successful. So far about 50% of our seeds have germinated (which is awesome because no seeds germinated here when we planted them).
  6. So far the rains have been good.
  7. Reforestation, bamboo, hydroponic project, chicken pass on, microcredit bank, land lease and cows and ploughs projects are all going well.

Giving Tuesday 2022

November 10, 2022

Dear Friends of Bridges to Malawi,

Giving Tuesday is rapidly approaching and we hope you will remember us when it comes time to donate this year. Our organization relies entirely on the generosity of donors like you, and we spend 100% of your donated money directly on our projects. All administrative costs are paid for by our board members.

2022 has been a particularly difficult year in Malawi because the rains started late and ended early, leading to an ongoing famine affecting the entire country. In addition, there has also been a serious cholera outbreak. Both of these problems are expected to continue until at least May of 2023. Bridges
to Malawi has diverted funds from our projects and raised extra money to help combat these two serious troubles.

To help prevent cholera, we have increased our water source chlorination efforts so that instead of protecting 150,000, we are now protecting 530,000. Although the cholera rate has been increasing elsewhere in Malawi, there have been no cases where we work, AND we are the only organization (government or otherwise) providing this service in the Kasungu District. This cost us an additional $3,000 so far, but we will need $8,000 to continue this life saving protection through to May 2023.

After distributing the complete content of Cindy’s House (our grain storage facility), we then spent $3,000 on famine mitigation efforts, mostly purchasing and then distributing badly needed protein fortified food. Thus far we have been able to support about 4500 people in need. Our Malawian colleague, Peter Minjale, estimates that an additional $100,000 may be necessary to effectively combat this problem in the Kasungu East District alone.

Despite the above, we have still accomplished a tremendous amount thus far in 2022 as we have continued to advance our programs.

Below is a brief list outlining the status of some of our programs.

  • Chicken Pass-On
    • 1000 donated to 200 households benefiting about 1400 people
  • Goat Pass-On
    • 579 donated. Estimated 2,700 farm families benefited with over 15,000 goats
  • Beekeeping
    • 126 beneficiaries in 8 villages
    • Production: 12 kg (about $60) yield per farmer harvesting every 2 months.
    • 5th harvest ongoing (avg per capita income Malawi $550)
  • Dairy Project
    • Herd: 71 cows, including 9 at Kadsikizi, 13 pregnant by sex semen AI at present
    • Total beneficiaries: 62
    • Total calves born: 31 (19 females/12 males)
    • Production: Avg 13 Liters Milk per day (current price $0.95 per liter). Farmers also making and selling
    • Yogurt on a regular basis
  • Cows and Ploughs
    • 43 Cows 7 Villages 1400 people benefit
    • 5 Magoye Rippers and 10 traditional plows
  • Laptops
    • Donated to 10 schools (2 are on the grid, so didn’t need solar)
    • Total: 111 laptops, averaging 10 per school. Over 1650 students have benefited
  • Schools Solar Powered
    • 9 Total (8 secondary and 1 primary)
  • Land Lease Beneficiaries
    • Current: 48 farmers (approximately 330 people)
    • Overall total beneficiaries since project began: 640 families (approximately 4200 people)
    • 80% have bought their own land
    • 94% have graduated from the program since they no longer need assistance
  • Micro-Credit Loan Beneficiaries
    • Current: 150
    • Total since project inception: 670 families (4690 people) avg loan $25, payback rate 98%
  • WELLO Waterwheels
    • Donated all 700
  • Ultrasound devices
    • Donated 6 Total, including 4 Butterfly IQs
  • Hydroponic Systems
    • 1 demonstration project so far.
  • Reforestation Groves
    • Total trees planted since 2017: 330,000 (not including 390,000 more in process for 2022)
    • Total number of villages/groves: 130
  • Bamboo Groves
    • Total planted: 8800 (3800 from seed 2019 and 6,000 seedlings in 2020)
    • Total number of village/groves: 17
  • Artemisia Plants
    • Donated total 4200 in 90 villages. Malaria rates have decreased in these villages from
To donate, please visit our Donation page.

Thanks again and Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,
Brian Lisse

Shake It So – The Women of Mphepo Chimtali

Video credit: Sickiey (Sikayenera Chewengo)

In the above video, our friend Jonathan Slate tells us about his experience visiting Malawi and founding his organization, Shake It So. Jonathan has partnered with Bridges to Malawi and is hoping to grow the project with other organizations (not just those focused on Malawi). So please give him and Shake It So your support!

June 19, 2022

Dear Friends of Bridges to Malawi,

I hope this crazy world hasn’t adversely affected any of you. I thought I’d share some good news with you about our nonprofit and its successes. We had a wonderful medical mission trip to Malawi in April, which included 6 high school seniors. So great to be back there after a COVID induced 2-year hiatus! Peter Minjale estimated, while we were there, that he had seen an 80% reduction in water borne diarrheal diseases (coming to his clinic or needing to be hospitalized) as a result of our chlorination efforts. We did 2 outreach clinics while there, seeing a total of 811 patients and saw NO patients (out of 411) with a diarrhea complaint at the first clinic, and only a handful (out of 400) in the second. This was an extraordinary contrast to prior clinics in these same areas at the same time of year where more than one third of the patients might have such a complaint.

Malaria rates at the first clinic were equally impressive, partially as a result of our Artemesia tea promotion efforts. Only 3% of the patients we tested were positive for malaria, while prior clinics in the same village at the same time of year had test positivity rates well over 50%. Much of this remarkable improvement is attributable to the joint WHO/Malawi government project providing insect repellant impregnated nets to every person, but we can take some credit too. Rates at the second clinic were disappointing at 30%, but net and artemisia availability was limited at this village, hence the difference.

As of this writing our dairy project cooperative herd has increased to 74 cows and milk production is increasing, with an average of 12 liters per day per cow. We’ve had 20 calves born and currently 15 cows are pregnant as a result of our artificial insemination with sex semen.

Our new beekeeping program has been so successful that our 42 beneficiaries in 8 villages are in the process of their 2nd harvest. The 1stharvest yielded 12 kg per farmer, providing each individual farmer with $60. If their yields remain stable and they harvest every 3 months, then each farmer should make $240 a year from honey alone, significantly improving their financial wellbeiing (the avg per capita annual income for Malawi in 2022 is estimated at $550).

Meanwhile Jenn Hardy, our IT guru, has hired a Malawian who can teach coding to the students who have benefited from our laptop donation. He will also be able to adapt the dashboard on the laptops so that they can provide access to all aspects of the school curriculum. He is a very welcome addition to our growing team of Malawian IT experts teaching in our beneficiary schools. Jenn plans to live in Malawi for 5-6 weeks in January with her husband Dow, so that the 2 can enhance their ongoing work on upgrading our donated solar systems and improving our laptop curriculum.

So, all in all, Bridges to Malawi has accomplished a tremendous amount as a result of your generous donations.

There is some bad news, however. The rains started late, ended early, and were lighter than usual, so Peter Minjale, who heads K2TASO, our Malawi NGO sister organization, estimates that there will be a famine in the Kasungu area (where we work). He believes it will begin towards the end of this month or in early July. He has asked us to give $10,000 to help purchase protein fortified corn meal (the main staple of Malawi) as well as soy flour to help thousands of people get through the dangerous next six months until they can plant and harvest again. This will stretch our budget to the extent that we will not be able to provide more farmers with beekeeping opportunities, plant more bamboo, or protect as many people by chlorinating their water UNLESS you help us. Please donate to help us meet this impending crisis before people begin to suffer from malnutrition and die. Any donation will help tremendously.

Thanks so much for your continued generosity!
Brian