The HEART of Dzidalire Foundation

Health: Consultations with traditional leaders indicated that the community in the locale confronts problems in areas of provision of potable water and sanitation, child survival, maternal health, HIV/AIDS and nutrition. To mitigate sanitation related disease, Dzidalire, with support from Malawi Project, has already sunk a borehole that has been operating for over 5 years in the community. Additionally, Dzidalire aims to support maternal and under-5 health through its upcoming maternity health centre.

Education: Through the upcoming maternity health centre, Dzidalire aims to educate mothers in family nutrition (for under-fives, adolescents, adults, and the elderly), and sanitation. Through Dzidalire farm, we aim to educate the community in permaculture and more sustainable ways of farming. We also aim to conduct trainings in tailoring diversifying in income streams for members of the local community.

Agriculture: We have one primary aim: sustainability. "The landscape is a mixture of grassland with granite outcrops, natural woodland and commercial pine plantations on the mountains and some bamboo forest nearer the lake."- This used to be the description of Dedza 20 years ago. Unfortunately, outside of reserved areas, the land is now bare. Dzidalire has, over the past 15 years, planted 30,000 pine trees on the hills at Dzidalire Foundation. This story of success is one of back and forth and only bolsters us now to organise better, civic educate more intentionally, and reforest more assertively. Secondly, there has been an over emphasis on fertilizer usage countrywide over the past 3 decades, which has devastated natural soil nutrition cycles and created an unsustainable reliance on commercial fertiliser. Through Dzidalire farm, we aim to promote more sustainable farming practices chiefly permaculture and agroforestry through mind-set change, civic education, and hands-on trainings.

R’t or Arts are an integral part of Malawian culture, whether through dance, music, theatre, fine arts, sculpture, architecture and so on. Art has been the biggest way in which Malawians have communicated, passed on tradition, preserved culture, and effected change. As seen at the Chongoni rock art sites, which date back to the early Iron Age, art is an integral part of the culture of the Chewa people of Linthipe 3. At Dzidalire, we aim to not only promote local art in all its forms, but to celebrate it through: showcasing it in our projects; providing relevant platforms during our various activities ; sponsoring local artists on to larger platforms beyond the locale; and generally expanding the reach of local arts.

Tourism: Being in the home of the "richest concentration of rock art in Central Africa" according to UNESCO, Dzidalire Foundation is currently involved in the preservation, promoting, and showcasing of Chongoni rock art.