Africare began assisting Malawi in 1985. The first program was to help this agriculturally rich, yet economically underdeveloped, nation to strengthen its rural economy by strengthening the business-management capacities of its small-scale entrepreneurs. More than 800 jobs were created as the entrepreneurs successfully obtained and managed start-up loans from the Industrial Development Fund (Indefund). Beginning in 1990, water became a focal point of Africare's work in Malawi, with the first in a series of programs that combined increasing the availability of water with improving water-related sanitation — greatly advancing health on a continent where most preventable illness is transmitted through the water supply. Water resource development remained a priority in Malawi throughout the Southern African drought of 1992-1996. Today, Africare is focusing on longer-term development assistance.
Current Africare assistance to Malawi:
(Updated, Dec. 18, 2007)