In November 2011, Renew’N’Able Malawi coordinated an exchange visit for a group of 35 farmers from Zomba to Bvumbwe and Thyolo. The visit was initiated by Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Africa, through whomthe farmers had undergone theoretical training on briquette making as an alternative to woodfuels. The participants were eager to see fellow Malawians in action and learn more about the production, day-to-day use, best practices and marketability of the recycle briquettes.

In the Thyolo area, a number of initiatives have been working in the paper-making and briquette making trade for years. Renew’N’Able, having its birthplace here, has the pleasure of preparing the visit with the briquette making practitioners at Thyolo Papermaking and Nchima Trust, two examples of sustainable community self-help projects. During their visit to the two different workshops as well as at the emerging Renew’N’Able Demonstration site in Bvumbwe, the Zomba group got valuable insights and practical recommendations. Dozens of questions and excited faces showed great interest.

The farmers are now looking forward to startingt their own recycle briquette production in Zomba soon, for which LEAD has equipped them with a centre and the necessary tools.

Organizers as participants were enlightened to see this peer-to-peer knowledge exchange as this is the most natural, logical form of support to reach a common development goal and apparently has a great influence on the motivation of training participants to try it themselves since they have seen their colleagues with a similar background doing it successfully.

The day was accompanied by a Zomba-based journalist of The Nation newspaper, who as we hope will follow up on the success of this visit so that we can publish it here, and can encourage that in future more projects will take the path of scaling up success stories in the country through inter-community exchange.

LEAD Leadership for Environment and Development South-East Africa, Malawi