Passionate about fighting climate change

Lennia Odilo is a Malawian farmer who also works for Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD), an organisation helping to implement the CCPM. Here, Lennia shares her personal thoughts on the climate change challenges faced by women in Malawi.

I have passion when it comes to the issue of climate change in Malawi. I want to be one of the pioneers in fighting it and to help improve the livelihoods of my fellow farmers.

Unfortunately, women are not regarded as being important by many people in our society. It is considered that our role is to take care of the home and the children. I want to initiate change in our communities by being a role model to many young girls.

Women are particularly affected by climate change in Malawi. We are the ones who have to fetch water. In times of drought it becomes harder and they must walk much further. The droughts and dry spells also lower the yields of their crops making access to food for their families much less reliable. Very few women have access to information about climate change so they don’t understand why these changes to our weather are happening.

The CCPM is helping to address these problems by ensuring that more than 50% of participants are women and that they are involved in identifying the problems that affect them and suggesting solutions.

We are working to increase the level of understanding in the communities, so they see that women are especially affected by climate change. There is training in agroecology and agroforestry techniques for female participants, so they can grow more food and protect local natural resources, alongside small loans so they can generate an income. This is a great start.

We need strong women who know what they want to achieve in life and are not afraid to challenge their male counterparts.

- Lennia Odilo, CCPM Project Facilitator, CARD