The U.S. African Development Foundation has announced a three-year, $4.5 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust in support of efforts to improve the livelihoods of the chronically ill through agriculture and livestock production in Malawi.

The funding will be used to implement a Livelihood Improvement Program (LIP) in southern Malawi and establish integrated farming systems and skills transfer to address the nutritional, food security, and income needs of people living with chronic illness and their communities. The initiative will include technical demonstrations and training on food production, processing, and preservation as well as crop and livestock diversification, and will build fully functional greenhouses with drip irrigation, kitchen garden demonstration units, livestock production units, and cold storage facilities.

In addition, participants will be educated about the importance of consuming nutritious foods and cultivating crops necessary to diversify their diets; they also will receive training on the use of climate-smart technologies and grazing techniques and limiting the use of toxic chemicals and industrial livestock feed on individual household farm plots.

"The empowerment of these chronically ill individuals and their families is essential to promoting not only income growth, but food security and climate resiliency," said USADF acting president and CEO Elisabeth Feleke. "With the Helmsley Charitable Trust, we look forward to building healthier and more prosperous communities in Malawi and expanding our partnership over the next three years."