The Orant Farm Project: Dumase’s Story

The Orant Farm Project transformed Dumase Mtengowamingo’s life.
Malawi’s economy is largely dependent on agriculture. However, in an era of rising costs of farm inputs, agriculture is costly. The price of land itself is an insurmountable barrier. Smallholder farmers must put forth every effort to assure their daily bread making.
During the 2021/ 2022 farming season, Orant distributed 20 acres of our farmland to Kasese farmers. We split the 20 acres between 10 households. 60% of the land went to women. 40% to men. We gave land to farmers who didn’t have access to their own but were eager to farm for income generation.
Aged 31, Dumase is married with 2 kids. She has been a smallholder for 12 years. However, nothing tangible emerged from her 2 acre rented field, despite long days of toil. She planted low-quality, uncertified seeds. And she lacked knowledge of best farming practices.
Now Dumase is all smiles. She harvested 744 kilograms of soybeans and realized high profits. After paying her loan back to Orant, she still had 430,000 MWK.
Orant provided farmers with no interest microloans in the form of farm inputs. In addition, we assisted farmers in finding good markets for their produce.
She has also rented a 2 acre field. We are so excited to see her success!
At Orant Charities, collaboration is one of the values we take seriously. We believe that there is no better way to learn, explore, make an impact, and utilize resources than collaborating with communities, individuals, and organizations. Last week, we took a major step in collaboration by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Opulence Malawi, an organization making a difference in the lives of people in Traditional Authority Chakhaza, Dowa district. This partnership is a significant milestone for us, and we are excited to share what this means to us and the communities we serve. To learn more about what this partnership means to us and what we envision from it, read our latest blog article.
We are overjoyed to announce that 12 of our 29 students who sat for the Malawi School Certificate of Examinations have been selected to various universities! As we celebrate this milestone, we would like to share biographies of some of the students.
Early this week, we celebrated Esther Maupa’s graduation from Mwimba College of Agriculture! As promised, today we are sharing her full story of how she overcame challenges and achieved success! Read our latest blog article to get inspired by Esther’s journey!