Gumbi

Gumbi is a rural community in Thyolo District that is in the Southern Region of Malawi where families mainly depend on small-scale farming for their livelihoods. Like many rural areas in the country, it faces challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, and limited access to basic services. At the same time, the community shows resilience and strong social bonds that help them cope with these difficulties. This area is surrounded by tea estates that have monopolized all the potential arable land in the area leaving the community cultivating in the marginal lands. This makes the community fail to harvest enough to feed their families all year round. As such community members force themselves to provide seasonal labor to these tea estates. This puts them in the vicious circle of poverty. Despite this situation, the community is organized, hardworking and is eager to embrace change. Pictures below show one of the members in his back yard garden where different types were planted. Additionally, the community works together as shown in the picture community of Gumbi sharing seedlings of red onion from their communal nursery such that every member goes to plant in their backyard gardens. All these skills were learnt during FARM STEW community lessons.