Environmental Sustainability
Aligned with several SDGs, concerned about the environment and the various factors that lead to the deterioration of natural resources, deforestation, poor environmental quality, soil depletion, and more, we are taking initiatives and organizing projects to combat this problem. We have begun building with eco-friendly bricks, investing in new wells, supporting renewable energy installations, and promoting actions that lead to more sustainable and ecological agriculture.
One example is our partnership with Mawa NGO , our partner in Malawi, for regenerative agriculture and reforestation projects. For more information, click here.
Reforestation project
In 2025, we launched the reforestation project. It involves providing training and tools, through our partner organization Mawa NGO , to farmers in the Dowa district so they can plant and grow native tree species on their own.
The program unfolds as follows: our local team conducts workshops and training sessions at the Mawa and Active Africa base center, located near Chezi, Malawi. Residents from various neighboring villages attend and organize themselves into clubs to receive instruction and carry out the practical component in their own gardens. The classes are highly interactive, ensuring that the local team successfully acquires and implements the knowledge. Upon completion of the theoretical portion, each farmer receives a starter pack with tools and seeds to get started. Weekly follow-up is also conducted to ensure the correct application of the methods and to increase the survival rate of the future trees.
Nowadays, more than 24,000 native trees have been planted, impacting the lives of thousands of families and seven rural communities . This project is made possible thanks to the sponsorship of MartiDerm; without their help and collaboration, we could not have carried it out.
PERMEACULTURE - TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURE
Together with Mawa, we want to introduce a new kind of agriculture aligned with the environment that uses available natural resources, to have a sustainable and economic production.
Once trained, the farmers will be able to obtain fresh food throughout the year, not depending exclusively on the corn harvest and developing alternative crops around the house where they live. We work for your food safety and the improvement of the environment.
Mawa organizes training sessions for groups of farmers in the field, in permaculture (training, supervision and monitoring) and gives them a pack of tools, seeds and animals that allow them to improve their standard of living, health and economic independence. With these training courses we have impacted 2,500 farmers.
WELL CONSTRUCTION IN MALAWI
Drilling wells in rural Malawi is perhaps one of the projects that best defines the objectives of our association: to contribute to the development of rural communities by providing infrastructures that improve health, nutrition and the improvement of the educational quality of the Poorest children in Malawi.
We are proud to have built 62 wells in the Dowa and Benga areas and contributed to the creation of water pipeline and irrigation facilities in Kenya.
We especially want to thank the collaboration of HAAN who have participated in the construction of many wells. Also to AUARA and Asociación Esperanza.
The construction of wells prevents the population from collecting water for their daily intake in exposed places (rivers, streams, lakes or ponds), which are a source of disease. Poor water quality has a direct impact on the health of the population and its nutritional status.
Project to install water tanks in Terrenkwe, Kenya
Thanks to a donation from our friends at Gospel Sense Fronteres, we have been able to install two water tanks in the remote community of Terrenkwe, in northern Kenya
In the Barsaloi area, in northern Kenya – where Active Africa has already carried out several projects – lies the community of Terrenkwe. There, the Missionaries of Saint Thérèse look after families and run Lchekutis, a night school for child herders.
These are tribes that often lack access to the most basic necessities, such as water. Therefore, thanks to the collaboration of our friends at Gospel Sense Fronteres, we have been able to install two water tanks. This new initiative will provide water for the entire community and the school, which is particularly timely given the current situation of extreme need.
Construtions with Eco bricks
Currently, Active Africa made the decision to carry out the works with ecological bricks to contribute to the environment.
They are compact bricks that are obtained from a mixture of sand and cement.
Unlike those that are produced traditionally throughout the country, they do not require cooking, they are not dried with wood ovens, so their use results in a decrease in tree felling and improves the environment.
It is difficult to think that the entire population can change their traditional way of building, but it is true that, to our small extent, we can limit the number of bricks made in the old way and reduce the use of firewood. We know that the Government of Malawi has also imposed the rule that public constructions be carried out with this new material.
Our builder, Moses Kasamba, has a machine that manufactures them using high pressure and with a finish similar to the traditional one.
Of course, there will still be the obligation on the part of local communities to contribute water, sand and labor as collaboration to the project. And on the other hand, the design of the building will be the same as the one used until now, but with this innovation, we hope to see benefits for the entire community.
