Kawandama Hills IS committed to engaging community members both around the plantation and in the surrounding communities  


Kalungulu Village & MKOKO PRIMARY SCHOOL

Kalungulu Village was a disused government forestry station that we renovated in 2011. We built more housing and installed boreholes for clean water and now a staff village that includes two compounds catering to over 70 families. There are solar panels, generator for lights and entertainment, football / netball pitches and we work with a health and family planning organisation who visit the area to educate communities about life style and medication options. Our staff live here free of charge and have access to a wholesale staff tuck shop, bakery and vegetable garden to ensure they don’t need to travel large distances to procure household supplies. 

The village has a nursey for younger children and also a full primary school. This now has over 90 children from Standard 1-8 as well as eight qualified teachers living in teachers houses on site. Mkoko School has full endorsement by the District Education Office and is blessed with books, a library, IT centre, a TV and sports equipment. We have just opened a hostel capable of accommodating 24 students from the surrounding area.

Thank you to our donors, Citrefine International Ltd, for helping us with these projects (www.citrefine.com).

CHARITABLE PROJECTS IN Northern Malawi

We work closely with UK charity, Expand, (Charity No:1137120) to improve and provide education in the region through building infrastructure and facilitating training sessions on all kinds of topics. In addition to the primary and secondary schools, we also implement development projects together. To date we’ve designed and renovated a health clinic, nursery and sports programmes and also offer bursaries to pay secondary school fees.

When our Nkhata Bay projects were completed, these were handed over to the community and government to continue to run sustainably. 

In one of the renovated classrooms at Mkoko Primary
Donated books which are in short supply in Malawi and are very valuable


the Lucheche Cooperative 

Kawandama Hills established the Lucheche Cooperative informally in 2013 and trialled the planting of Corymbia citriodora trees with them on their own farm land. The aim was to give the community increased income generation with them pruning their trees and selling the leaf biomass back to KHP.  The scheme was so successful that the Cooperative was formally registered and trained, and now has 70 hectares of planted trees. 

Thanks to a three year grant by USAID’s Perform project between 2016-2019, the Lucheche- KHP partnership was a great success and we continue to help them build their plantations. The Cooperative now has 172 farmers, who on average sell us 80 ton of leaf mass each year. This extra income has resulted in famers building houses and sending more of their children to school. It’s also enabled many to start secondary businesses through purchasing cows for dairy making and chickens for egg selling. Bringing about greater income generating opportunities is also an important deterrent to curbing illegal bushmeat trading and illegal charcoal production in Viphya.

The Cooperative also works together, providing loans for members to help each other create other innovative ways to generate income.