Why Malawi?

Malawi is roughly the size of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States and is one of the most densely populated and poorest countries in the world. The combination of poverty and lack of critical resources exacts a great toll on the daily lives of the majority of the population. The main occupation by far is subsistence agriculture and many children are forced to discontinue their education in order to do farming, menial work, be married off or just plain unemployed. Those children and adults that do manage to acquire reading and writing skills often run the risk of losing those skills and falling into quasi-illiteracy due to the lack of access to books and regular, stimulating reading.

On the other hand, Malawi has never experienced a civil war or military style rule since independence from Great Britain in 1964. This is a remarkable feat when compared to the rest of Africa as only one other African nation can claim a similar record – Botswana. Malawi over the decades has also welcomed millions of refugees from wars and strife in neighboring countries such as Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe etc. This gives an indication of the peace loving, co-operative and generous nature of the various peoples and ethnic groups that make up the nation of Malawi.

Being a non-oil producing and landlocked country, Malawi has to depend on import and export routes through other nations such as Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa in order to trade and do business on an international level. The histories of economic instability and political posturing in the region have had a direct impact on economic development in Malawi which going forward is now hopefully a thing of the past.