Our History
DAPP Malawi is a founding member of Humana People to People whose 30 members constitute a movement of independent development organizations working in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe , all basing their work on Solidarity, Humanism, Social and Economic Development through long-term development programs.
In its 25th year, DAPP has been implementing vibrant projects related to education, health, agriculture and community development.
Community Development: Community development has been a long-standing priority of DAPP since 1995. The organization utilizes the “Child Aid” integrated model which has been developed by the Federation Humana People to People.
DAPP Malawi has reached over 200,000 families through the Child Aid project over the years.
Child Aid builds capacity in communities to reduce poverty and give families the best conditions in which to raise their children. This is accomplished through the implementation of activities within child care and early childhood development, health, education, and economic development.
Agriculture: Through the Farmers’ Clubs program, DAPP Malawi has organized and trained more than 70.000 smallholder farmers since 2006, complementing the Ministry of Agriculture in its efforts in improving food security among the smallholder farmers of Malawi. The overall objective of the Farmers’ Clubs program is to train and organize smallholder farmers to create community structures which will assist them to maximize their returns on labour investment and other inputs, ultimately improving their living standards.
Education: DAPP Malawi established its first teacher training college in year 2003, Chilangoma TTC in Blantyre Rural, the expansion of DAPP’s teacher training program over the years has seen the establishment of three more colleges across all 3 regions namely; Amalika TTC in Thyolo opened in 2008; Dowa TTC in Dowa district opened in 2010 and; Mzimba TTC in Mzimba district which opened in 2013. The teacher training program is fully accredited by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and more than 3, 100 teachers have graduated from all four colleges.
Since 2012, DAPP has expanded its education program beyond pre-teacher’s training to include in-service teachers through the “Let Children Stay in School Project” which ran between 2015 to 2018 and was operational in 114 primary schools in 6 districts. DAPP also started the 400 Primary Schools Project – also known as the “DAPP graduated teacher network” with the aim of providing the opportunity for DAPP graduated teachers working in government primary schools to stick together and support each other in contributing towards creating conducive learning environments for the learners in their schools.
Vocational Training: In order to provide new opportunities for the ever increasing number of unemployed youth in Malawi, DAPP established Mikolongwe Vocational School in Chiradzulu District in 1997 offering two courses. Mikolongwe Vocational School has trained and graduated more than 10,600 youth across its now 11 courses through both the formal and informal training programmes.
Health: DAPP began its work to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1998 when its first HOPE project was launched. The Hope Project established community HIV facilities which served as resource hubs and activity centers for everyone in a given community. Building on this work, DAPP has worked closely with the Malawi Government since 2007 to combat and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria through its innovative program, Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE). TCE is a comprehensive and systematic HIV/AIDS prevention and care model that combines counselling, field-testing, education, and community mobilization. The program utilizes a door-to-door and interpersonal campaign that encourages lifestyle changes and preventive behaviour, reaching every individual and household within a prescribed area over a three-year period.
Since the TCE program’s inception, over 1,400,000 people have been reached and more than 500,000 people have been tested for HIV. Approximately, 630,000 people have been reached with TB and TB/ HIV co-infection information through door-to-door visits and 24,000 people have been screened for TB.
Other projects in health which DAPP has implemented are; Support to Nutrition Improvement Component working with over 370,000 people in three districts, TB in the Mining Sector in 4 districts targeting 15,000 people and TB Thyolo one district targeting 140,000 people just to mention a few.
Fundraising: Since 1995, DAPP has been raising funds through selling of second hand clothes and shoes to ensure long term sustainability and the expansion of its social and economic developmental programs. The DAPP Clothes and Shoes project has not only contributed towards the empowerment of the vulnerable and the poor in the communities where DAPP implements its projects but also contributed to improved living standards among the people in Malawi by enabling families to buy good quality second hand clothes and shoes at a low cost. In the recent years, the Clothes and Shoes project has worked with the government of Malawi through the Department of Disaster Management Affairs to respond to natural disasters and donated second hand clothes and shoes to people affected during disaster and those in vulnerable conditions under its Relief Aid project.
