Charity update Heifer: Tafiki farmers

© Heifer

Each year KYOS donates part of its profits to charity. Earlier in the year we mentioned that we chose a project of Heifer: the Tafiki farmer group in Malawi.

Tafiki is a region in Malawi. A group of 340 farmers have united into this group to combine their cows’ milk supply. To preserve the milk, they use a cooling system, powered by solar energy. The reasons for choosing off-gird solar power are twofold: the electricity grid in Malawi is not very reliable, with frequent power outages. Secondly, with the abundance of sun, solar panels are a sustainable form of energy. Unfortunately, cyclones Idai and Kenneth damaged the existing facility in March 2019.

With our donation, the Tafiki farmer group could replace the damaged solar panels. Initially the plan was to install the new panels in March 2020. Due to COVID-19 this had to be postponed to August. However, the good news is that all work is done now and the new solar system is working beautifully. More and more farmers are finding their way to the Tafiki milk center. The increase in popularity – and thus need for milk storage causes another problem. If this trend continues, soon the milk tank with a capacity of 1200 liters will not have enough capacity. Well, let’s see this as a positive side effect!