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You might have heard us mention the Majete community in Malawi before; it’s a cluster of eight communities surrounding Majete Wildlife Reserve.

Less than 20 years ago, the Reserve was an empty forest with almost all of its animals – including elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards, and buffalos – hunted out. Local communities had traditionally relied on the reserve’s animals and natural resources for food and income. In 2003, African Parks was brought in to rehabilitate the reserve. Despite the return of animals, tourists, and jobs just a decade later, the communities surrounding Majete had yet to benefit. Without access to the reserve’s resources, communities were still experiencing poverty, underserved by government services, and critically in need of support to develop alternative livelihoods.

Our Epicentre Strategy was identified as the holistic and integrated approach needed to enable the communities surrounding Majete to thrive.

So far, The Hunger Project globally has supported six of the eight Majete communities. On a recent trip to Malawi, I – along with a group of committed Investors, including Bared Footwear and the WA consortium – visited Majete 7, a community that has been waiting patiently for us for years. This was one of my first real experiences of life before the Hunger Project in Africa. It certainly gave me serious motivation to work harder for our mission.

We spent time with the women of the community and heard their stories. Some were hard to listen to – such as women giving birth on the roadside before they could reach the far-away health centre – and some were uplifting. We spent time with the young people of the community, and again, the stories are very dire with little to no employment or education opportunities.

The water situation is also shocking. The stories from the water well – a hand-dug hole that is disease-ridden, with cholera taking numerous lives in the community already – were heartbreaking.

It was an emotional visit. With the support of our incredible Investors, we were able to share the news that a locally-led THP-Malawi team will be on the ground in the coming months.

This is the reality for many people in Africa. Visits like these fuel my determination to keep trying harder, to be faster in funding, to share these stories and to encourage generosity so that no person, no matter where they were born or their gender, must live under the heavy burden of hunger and poverty.

Philippe Magid

CEO, The Hunger Project Australia

In June, I travelled to Malawi with eight of our fantastic Investors to celebrate the Self-Reliance milestone achieved by the Kachindamoto and Nsondole communities.

I have been so fortunate to experience several Self-Reliance celebrations in my short time at The Hunger Project, and I love that you can visit two communities that have benefited from similar approaches, but both end up in a different but more positive place.

Kachindamoto is a poorer area of Malawi and is further away from major infrastructure and towns. Their creativity and vibrancy were on full display during their self-reliance ceremony – their dance and musical performances were amazing to witness.

One of the moments that we really will cherish was switching on the maize mill. The community’s creativity and positive energy was an awesome experience. A big thank you to the WA consortium, led by Deb and Miles Protter, who have invested in Kachindamoto and their success.

Nsondole’s community development approach was in full swing; they had already funded a new building themselves, to lease out as a shop and hairdresser. One of their biggest wins was the moringa processing centre (they love moringa so much it features on their Epicentre logo!) Moringa is an African superfood, it grows well in the heat and is packed with essential nutrients – just 100g of moringa leaves is the same Vitamin C found in an orange. It was fantastic to have a crew from our longstanding partner Bared Footwear there, who have been one of the lead investors in Nsondole Epicentre.

A huge thank you to all of the Investors who made this trip one to remember!

Philippe Magid

CEO, The Hunger Project Australia

783 million people are living in hunger. Rural communities hold the answer.

This year’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report, launched July 12, 2023, revealed that up to 783 million people around the world are living in hunger. While this remains relatively unchanged* from the previous year, factors such as conflict, poverty, climate, economic shocks and COVID-19 have made it unlikely that we will meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger without significant changes to our global and local food systems.

In line with this year’s SOFI Report findings, we at The Hunger Project know that the global food crisis demands a bold, comprehensive, locally-led approach that addresses the complex issues that intersect with hunger, such as gender equality, access to education, the digital divide, conflict and climate action in community development. Across the rural communities we work with in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, we have seen the development of sustainable, equitable food systems — locally-led systems in which every person has reliable access to nutritious food. We know that, through radical collaboration, a world without hunger is possible.

What can you do?

Communities have the answers, but they are often denied access to the resources needed to take action. Individuals and civil society organisations need to call on governments and the private sector to allocate meaningful resources to sustainable, community-led solutions.

Notable Findings from SOFI 2023

• Up to 783 million people in the world live in hunger.
• In Africa, 1 in 4 people face hunger, more than double the world average.
• Approximately 630 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030.
• 27.8% of adult women are moderately or severely food insecure, compared with 25.4% of men.
• Nearly 148.1 million children under five years of age (22.3%) are stunted, and 45 million (6.8%) face wasting
• The majority of the people living with chronic hunger today are women, as 27.8% of adult women facing chronic food insecurity were moderately or severely food insecure, compared with 25.4% of men.

After Zambia, it was onto Ethiopia and to the Buye Epicentre, which is the site for one of the next Water First projects. Water First was an idea born from one of our Global Investors, Daniel Petre who saw a need to bring water sources closer to villages; and the reason was two-fold. 

The most obvious benefit of having water closer to the community is ease of access, which means better sanitation and health practices. But the other less clear benefit is having water close by means less sexual assault of women and young girls. If you have a young girl walking 10 km on her own on a remote track to get water, she is highly vulnerable. In Uganda, we are getting reports that they are seeing a decrease in teenage pregnancy when water is close by. It is confronting to think about, but it is the reality in Africa, and we are fortunate to have Investors like the Petre Foundation who don’t shy away from this problem, but instead are focused on funding solutions. 

Ethiopia doesn’t quite approach Epicentres like some of our other program countries in Africa. They do not build infrastructure but rather focus on community mobilisation. It was amazing to spend time in the community and to listen to their challenges and to hear about the work that they’re putting in.

We started working with this community about four years ago and this will be another powerful opportunity for us to support them. This water project is going to make such a massive difference to the people in this community – it’s a vast area that encompasses three large villages with around 12,000 people.

We heard stories about how they walk 1.5 hours round-trip to collect water. Each household needs around 7 to 8 jerry cans of water for their animals and themselves. 

It’s one of the most remote places I think I’ve ever been to – ever. After we visited some of the potential Borehole sites, the villagers then invited us to one of their homes for an incredible meal of Injera and beautiful curries and drinks followed by coffee – always superb! All of it was absolutely amazing including the local spirit that we HAD to drink! 

The Hunger Project Ethiopia Country Leader Teshome Shibru and his team are doing some very powerful work and it was also an opportunity for me to learn and listen to their approach that is focused on nature and the environment. These projects protect and enrich existing forests, through assisted natural regeneration and other tree-based landscape restoration interventions. Tree-based restoration initiatives will contribute to raising smallholders’ incomes and help communities mitigate the effects of climate change. 

I also spent some time visiting communities whose main crop is coffee, I got to see where our fancy and expensive single-origin coffee comes from. I was taken by the huge disconnect and disparity between the places where these items are grown and where they are consumed, and this is reflected in prices that are passed onto largely Western consumers but unfortunately, the local growers do not see the financial benefit. It was tempting to start a Hunger Project social impact coffee business to somehow try and address this imbalance… who’s in?

I left Ethiopia with an absolute desire to continue to support their work.

I’ve been fortunate to have spent some time recently in Africa, with a week in Zambia and a week in Ethiopia. Here’s part one with an update on our work in Zambia.

As CEO, part of my role is to help support and secure funding for projects in the communities we work. There is no substitute for going to meet with our community partners and understand the need and context for such projects in person – and really get a sense of the very real and positive impact our work has in these countries. 

I travelled to Zambia with Nikki McCullagh, one of our Major Investors who has been the key supporter in our Zambian outreach through the Patter Foundation. There we met Rowlands Kaotcha, Vice-President for The Hunger Project’s Africa operations and our local team. While we were there, we had a progress update on the Epicentre build. While there have definitely been some challenges, it was great to see that the project is to be delivered later this year. We spent some time in Chipata and met with the local government official – an incredibly smart, powerful and articulate woman who said, “educate a woman and feed a nation.” That has really stuck with me and reaffirms the approach we have taken in working with women and girls. We then travelled to Vubwe, an epic drive on a road that has been made more degraded by the recent rains that broke the terrible drought Zambia had been in for the past few years.  

One of the highlights was the full day of community visits which is a chance to meet and connect with leadership from the Epicentre Committee and spend time with community members. We visited multiple villages, and I was thankful to be invited into people’s homes and hear how The Hunger Project has transformed their thinking and their quality of life.  We were privileged to be able to join a community savings meeting at Musiya village which is approximately 20 minutes by car from the Epicentre and close to the border of Malawi. It’s a simple and powerful process and allows the community to borrow funds and invest them in entrepreneurial activities that lead to being able to better provide for their families. They also have a separate fund that they all contribute to for area of need for the wider community. Amazingly, because of the proximity to the border, they manage their accounts in both Malawian & Zambian Kwotcha! 

I loved meeting the head nurse, who is now living in the purpose-built nurses’ quarters. The clinic still has a way to go but it was a promising start. We met with some solar power providers so that the Epicentre doesn’t need to rely on connecting to the grid and also supported the recruitment for the field officer role. The very capable Emmanuel has started and is already doing a fantastic job. 

I feel so fortunate to be able to see the programs in action and observe the incredible work that the community leadership and individuals are putting in.