Improving nutrition by irrigating the St. Mary’s farm that both feeds students and serves as a “classroom” for village women farmers.
Nutrition
University of Portland (UP) professors and engineering students re-designed and installed a solar-powered irrigation system on our five-acre farm adjacent to the St. Mary’s campus. The UP folks worked side-by-side with a Malawian team from SITBEC Construction.
The irrigation system allows St. Mary’s Secondary School to plant up to three times a year, substantially reducing the school’s major cost – namely, the purchase of maize, casava, and other vegetables. Future University of Portland teams will work closely with professors and students from Mzuzu University in Malawi to research and advise St. Mary’s on plant-based foods rich in protein, iron, etc. that can improve student diets.
TeamLift is also planning a series of agriculture trainings for women-headed households led by Malawi NGO Soils, Foods & Healthy Communities. TeamLift will plow the fields of families who participate in the training, affording them an opportunity to increase the amount of land they farm, and saving these women the back-breaking work of hoeing their land to prepare for the annual planting.
Students in line for lunch.
St. Mary's students harvesting Maize.
Faculty and Form 2 students harvesting Maize.
One scoop or two?
The school's tractor and plough.
The cooks at St. Mary's Secondary provide 3 meals per day.
Locally sourced fish from Lake Malawi.
The outdoor kitchen feeds 600 students three meals per day.
Over 2,000 bananas trees have been planted on the school farm.
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TeamLift’s builder employs women on his construction crews. They helped install the farm’s irrigation system.
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Farm land is cleared for the installation of a solar-powered irrigation system, allowing multiple plantings each year.
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Three 10,000 liter tanks provide the farm with enough water to plant and harvest three times per year.
Newly added cement housing protects the borehole.
Ready for the solar panels.
Slabs are hand-poured and leveled.
Women carry water, mix cement, dig ditches and make cement blocks.
Solar Panels are ready to install.
A U.P. student in the field inspecting drip lines.
SITBEC crews pour the cement slab.
Hand digging all the trenches for the irrigation system.
U.P engineers work alongside the construction crew. This project is a good example of TeamLift's commitment to partnerships.