Pre-Travel

Hello All

Welcome to my blog, "Seeding Malawi"

The blog will serve as a weekly travel log, documenting my experiences on a day to day basis while in Malawi!

I will be leaving on May 22nd for Malawi and will be returning to the United States on August 1st.

I will be serving as a Program Assistant in MicroLoan Foundation's MicroVenture Program along side Paolo Mele, MicroLoan Foundation's Social Enterprise Manager.

The MicroLoan Foundation is a UK based charity that provides small loans, business training and guidance to women in sub-Saharan Africa.  Their key objectives are the relief of poverty, and the advancement of education and the relief of sickness in the developing world through the provision of microloans.

MicroLoan Foundation launched the MicroVentures Initiative in 2006 with a mission to train women in business and other skills, allowing them to take the next step in seeding larger, more sustainable businesses.

The objective of my specific project is to improve the livelihoods of poor rural women in Mzimba and Kasungu Districts of Malawi.  The project will train these women in best practice farming techniques, give them access to better inputs, train them in the quality control process of crops and crucially create market linkages between women farmers and large wholesale purchasers of crops.
My work is specifically related to:
1. Building farming database
2. Supporting consultants on value chain linkage for horticulture
3. Supporting training and introduction of text based commodity price and brokerage system

Till Later

Jimmy