From 2016 until 2019 SCOPE Malawi was implementing a 3-year project titled “Empowering Local Communities to Build Resilience of School Communities” ELOBRSC in short. The project was funded by Bread for the World. The overall objective of the ELOBRSC Project was to improve the food security situation at 33 schools in Malawi through plant diversification and increased yields.

The project kicked off with 18 new schools and 3 partners being added to the organisation making a total of 33 schools and 18 implementing Partners. The first activity was a preparatory meeting with our partners followed by a Baseline study where basic information from our partners and their schools was collected. We then conducted an Integrated Land Use Design workshop where two teachers from each of the new schools were trained in Permaculture and ILUD. The newly trained teachers showcased their gained skills in ILUD through workshops at their schools. 

We also conducted a seed training workshop. The seed training was organized with consideration that seed had become a huge issue over the years where big multinational companies are patenting seed and local smallholder farmers who have little resources are forced to buy hybrid varieties that need to be bought year after year. The training dwelled much on the current Malawi seed policy, agro-biodiversity and its importance in Malawi; GMO, hybrid and open pollinated seed; conservation methods of farmer-saved seed; establishing and managing community seed banks, rapid assessment of agrobiodiversity using four cell analysis tool just to mention a few.