There was joy and jubilation in Mkwelera Village Traditional Authority Chiseka in Lilongwe as two graduates from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) launched their project called Creamy Dream and Duwa Community Engagement Project.
Creamy Dream and Duwa Community Engagement Project is a project owned by Tisungue Phiri and Chisomo Maliwa which is targeting 5000 vulnerable women-led farmer groups in a bid to bridge barriers to food processing and value addition for household consumption and commercial among rural farmers.
Speaking in an interview, Tisunge Phiri one of the partners of the project told ProjectM that the aim is to uplift livelihoods of vulnerable women in rural areas through training on value addition and food processing.
“We thought of partnering in this project so that we can transform food systems and livelihoods of people by transforming people through food processing trainings whereas achieving significant reduction through post-harvest food waste and losses. It pains me to see the amount of food that wasted during post-harvest,” she said.
Phiri said after the trainings the farmers will be re-visited for coaching and mentorship so that they can open their own food processing companies.
“We are training them on peanut butter making but they do not have the machinery so for a start we will give our machine until they get established through the proceeds from the sales. We will also be responsible for their branding”, she said.
Stella Jeremiah, chairperson for Kalira Women’s group has hailed the initiative saying the training is an eye opener on value addition.
“As an organizsation, we had no idea what value addition was about and this the first time we are learning about it.
Through the trainings will be able to produce crops and process them later on something that will help us to earn more income, she explained.
Phiri, 27-year-old, is the founder of a company called Creamy Dream, a company that process peanut butter, porridge flower, yoghurt and snacks while her counterpart Maliwa 25-year-old, is the founder of a company called Duwa enterprise specialising in dehydrated fruits and vegetables.
.With their own savings the duo has vowed to see women led organisation prosper through their sweat.
