Malawi Kumisuku Bookfeeding

Malawians are popularly known for their hospitality and welcoming smile which earned the country the name ‘the Warm Heart of Africa’. It will, therefore, be no surprise that the community will happily provide accommodation and food to volunteers at no charge. Depending on the number of the volunteers, the community will strive to provide a room each for their own. We have solar electricity in the place where they will be accommodated but have nearby places that are connected to national electricity grid in case they will need to recharge their mobile phones, laptops and other electronic gadgets.

Kumisuku 2 Community Library is in Kumisuku 2 Village which is some 16.6 kilometres to the South East of Zomba City. It is in Group Village Headman Chilunga in Traditional Authority Mwambo in Zomba District in Malawi. The communities in Kumisuku 2 Village are small-scale farmers who grow maize as their staple food and also grow sorghum, groundnuts, cow peas, pigeon peas, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, sugarcane and other crops and fruits.

They also like to participate in Village Savings and Loans (VSL) groups and community development work. In their free time they also like visiting the trading centre at Nine Miles which is about 2 kilometres away to do their shopping as well as socialise with friends.

Children and the youth in the village go to school and later like to play games and hang out with friends. The communitieslack reading materials and space that will help improve education standards, empower the youth and improve their livelihoods. It was for this reason that the communities applied for a book donation from African Library Project, a US -based NGO which are expected to reach them sometime October, 2024. However, the communities lack a building for the books, thus the idea of having a library was conceived and the chief gladly provided land. He also mobilised his subjects to mould 40,000 bricks and collect 30 tons of sand and approached the Executive Director Knowledge and Information for Successful Society (KISS) Initiative to help them identify donors who would help them build Kumisuku 2 Community Library.

And one day Bookfeeding Project received an application for a library in this community - how could we say no? :)

People at the Project

Francis Kachala

He is the main man on the ground - volunteering in his community to make this library a success! He is also (KISS Initiative Executive Director & Project Coordinator)

Flora Mpokosa

(Library Committee Member, Librarian & Accountant)

She is responsible for running community libraries and will be instrumental in imparting her skills to volunteer librarians. She will also be managing the accounts of the project.

Ellen Nachanje-Mphonda

She is responsible for providing leadership and direction to the rest of the team so that the aims and objectives of the library are met. She will also be responsible for identifying and implementing strategies that will help raise funding for sustaining the library.

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