Our footprint

We all leave something behind. As a business we are determined to always be aware of what effect we have on our surroundings. Our aim is to always be aware and observe our surroundings and see if we can contribute in some way. Below we are presenting some of what we have identified and some about what we are doing about it..

Decrease of sustainable food and what we do about it

Fishing is the main source of income on the island and overfishing is a mere fact. When landscape is rocky and vast fields is non existing, gardening and farming might not be the first thing you think of doing on the Island. Sadly a lot of islanders rely on buying fruit and vegetables from the mainland to have in their diet. We believe Chizumulu can take care of herself and dream of sustainable small scale farming all over the island. We remember diversity from our childhood, most of the plants we had is no longer there. We remember lush, jungle like vegetation that is not there anymore.

We are limited as a small scale business to really solve this issues alone. We need help of others, donations are welcome. We believe in full transparency and responsible follow up in each matter. Please see more about donations and what funds are needed to reach our goals: SVE -Insamling Sverige (page in swedish) or Contact us .

Garden file and seed library system & Information center

At our Lodge we have set up an information center. It’s a cupboard filled with useful material regarding sustainable farming and permaculture. Its meant for islanders to have a seat and browse through at site. Hopefully grasping some ideas for their own garden. And, surely our lodge guest might find it entertaining as well as you can also find interesting facts about snakes in Malawi amongst other things. We are also setting up a garden file and seed library system that is aimed to be distributed around the island in future.

Our goal:

Our aim is to maintain and update the material continuesly. We aim at increasing the number of garden file holder from 10 to 20 by the end of 2025. We will run statistics on number of visitors to the information center and aim at getting 100 visitors by the end of 2025.

Lodge garden

Our Lodge garden is aiming at providing fresh herbs and vegetables for our lodge guests. In a few years the number of sacks with plants, raised beds and keyholegardens have increased around the premises. We believe we are moving in the right direction and want to inspire the community through this demonstration garden!

The lodge garden supplies our business with food, therefore its not funded from donations.

Youth group

In 2023 we were approached by a group of youth showing interest in gardening. We started off by giving them some seeds and we will continue supporting them in development of their garden. Since their plot of land is a bit away from water, a solarpump and irrigationsystem is needed.

Our goal:

We aim to help the group have a garden that can serve the community. We aim at supporting them having a productive garden by the end of 2025

Women network

Two years ago we hosted a couple of farming schools for all the women on the island. Surveys was also done and it showed that more training and support regarding sustainable farming is needed. Its been a challenge to make changes happen in a large scale, we aimed at identifying a few individuals who are interested in being part of a group that can develop their gardens and learn together. We had weekly and monthly meetings for this. This is still a challenge for us, but we do not give up and we believe in the concepts of farming schools.

Our goal:

We aim at organizing farming school for the island women twice during 2025.

Increase of waste and what we do about it

Chizumulu is not spared from littering and plastic pollution. The consequences of single plastic use is shown in our beautiful nature and waters. We can not eliminate the problem ourselves but we can try to do something about it.

Recycling center and studio

We aim at creating awareness of the pollution and work for behavioral change in the Community. Our idea is to have a recycling station that collects different types of materials that is found. Right now we are planning to set up and collecting of waste on the island and creating small scale productions around it. Our aim is to learn and teach about what we can do with the different materials collected in the recycling station. Right now we are sharing creative ideas and planning our studio set up.

Our goal:

We aim at having a building for sorting and cleaning all materials by the end of 2025 and offer training from external faciliatiors during 2025 within plastic recycling

How to reach out in the community – our events

In order to promote our work and reach out in the community our aim is to regularly hold events that gathers people to have fun and get experiences as a bonus. Our annual event calender is as follows:

Event calendar

Upcoming events

Swimming competitions – November 2024

Chizumulu clean up day – December 2024

Slow cooking competitions – May 2025

Previous events

Chizumulu clean up day February 2024

Chizumulu clean up day 2023

Swimming competition 2023

Farming school 2021

Previous events

Chizumulu clean up day February 2024

Chizumulu clean up day 2023

Swimming competition 2023