We are grateful to be able to welcome volunteers back to Mwaya Beach and we have a wonderful group of medics, teachers and environmental volunteers at the moment.
We encourage them to visit all of the projects to fully understand every aspect of the charity and how we work with communities in Malawi.
Several of them recently visited our fish conservation project and here they share their experience:
“We met Arthur at 10am and, in keeping with the warm nature of the Malawian people, he immediately made us feel welcome. Arthur works for Ripple Africa as an area coordinator for the fish conservation project. He looks after a 60km stretch of beach along Lake Malawi and this includes approximately 13 fish breeding sites.
“We started our journey from Mwaya Beach and walked about half an hour along the shore. The local people which we passed always took the time to greet us despite them being busy carrying out daily tasks such as washing their clothes in the lake or preparing for a long day fishing. We arrived at the river mouth where the local fishing committee were ready to receive us. They took time to show us the breeding area, which was a reedy shallow pond joining the river and the lake. We could see lots of small fish, which we thought was a good sign! A member of the fishing committee demonstrated how the locals fish with a hook and explained that it is illegal to fish in these areas so the young fish have more of a chance to grow and reproduce.
“As we walked back along the beach, Arthur introduced us to some local fishermen who were about to go out into the lake. There was a big team of 10, each with a different role – and on the horizon, you could see a grey shape. We were informed that these were lake flies in big swarms and apparently when they come onto the shores, the locals catch and eat them as relish – yum!”
