Habitat for Humanity Malawi has trained 400 households in briquette making in Lilongwe to help generate money while safeguarding the environment.
Speaking during a coordination meeting with the district council team, Habitat for Humanity Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Officer Tryness Banda said through the WASH project, her organization selected 18 youth and 20 women groups for the training so that they empower people to improve their livelihoods and strengthen resilience at a community level.
Banda indicated that the direct involvement of community members in the project will help in environmental preservation and achieve the intended objective as they will be using locally available resources such as a used office or exercise book papers.
“Through the project, we are working with different stakeholders including government sectors, chiefs, and communities so that the project is sustained,” she said.
During the meeting, the organization brought district council officials to appreciate the briquette-making initiative.
She said her organization will also train communities on energy cooking stove making and Village Natural Resources Committees (VNRC).
Assistant Forest Officer for Lilongwe District Council, Caroline Mtambo, commended Habitat for Humanity for the intervention saying it will help to reduce deforestation in the area.
Mtambo encouraged members to make good use of the skills they got from the training to improve their livelihoods.
‘It is indeed a good initiative which needs a sense of ownership by community members to improve their lives,” said Mtambo.
Area Development Committee Chairperson for the Masambankhunda area, Dumbo Vincent, said the project will assist to reduce the cutting of trees that are used for firewood.
The briquette-making training has been implemented under a 4-year BMZ 6 WASH project with funding from the Federal Ministry of Economics in Germany aimed at strengthening the resilience of vulnerable rural communities through improved and sustainable water management in the area.
In a previous project, Habitat for Humanity drilled boreholes for communities and constructed houses for selected vulnerable households in the same area.
