From deforestation to nourishment: The tale of Bernard Madeya

By Emmanuel Luciano

THIS zoologist is very unlike most of his zoologist friends. He is not bothered about trying to discover new information about living things. He doesn’t conduct research on animals and you won’t see him dissecting animals either.
He doesn’t work in the zoo though he raises some chickens, rabbits and breeds some fish, too. You are likely to bump into him at Chibuku taverns collecting packets of the opaque beer when he is not tending plants in his orchard. He uses the packets to plant seeds of fruits he collects.
Ndirande-based Bernard Madeya is an India trained zoologist, who says he wants to make a difference with the seedlings from his orchard.
Madeya says he wants to change both the landscape of the country and the health of the orphans with the project he has embarked on.
He wants to help willing schools and orphanages to be food self-sufficient by establishing orchards at no cost at all.
This, according to Madeya, would not only make the children learn how to grow plants and raise food but also make them like their environment and see the need to conserve it.
“Children must be taught to love their environment and with this kind of project they will have a mentality to preserve trees. It does not end at producing food only,” says Madeya.
Feed The Children Malawi, formerly Cheshire Homes, is just a kilometre from Madeya’s orchard and home. The organisation that rehabilitates disabled children has already benefited from Madeya’s orchard.
The institution received an assortment of banana, paw-paw, Mexican apple, avocado pear, and mango fruit trees.
An orphanage in Chiwembe in the city of Blantyre has already expressed desire to have an orchard just as Feed the Children Malawi have done.
Born in 1961, Madeya left Malawi for Zimbabwe to live with his grand parents when he was just five years old because his parents had divorced. He was once conscripted in the army of a British colonial government of Ian Smith.
He got a scholarship to study zoology from India where he stayed for three years. He returned to Malawi in 2005 after the demise of his father to take over the control of Sigidi Art Technical School.
” When my father died in 2004, he left an art- oriented technical school where he was training youngsters to manufacture artifacts like curios. He would sell them in large quantities to countries like Botswana and South Africa. But that was encouraging deforestation.”
Bernard did not appreciate his father’s project and he decided to do something instead.
“I know the dangers of deforestation because, my father was not environment conscious and was illiterate but I want to be different and supportive,” says Madeya.
“The best gift one would give to orphans and school- going children is nutritious food, which would enable them to concentrate in whatever they do and also develop into productive citizens”
And to turn orphans into productive healthy citizens, Madeya says, he does not need to spend a lot.
“I can sort out the plants for my nursery. All what is required is that the school or an orphanage has to look after the plants. If they need tools or chemicals I can always assist.”
The scholarship he got to study zoology opened his eyes and motivated him to develop orchards, he says.
“My three years of training as a professional zoologist made me realise that you can’t talk about animals without talking about the environment they live in.”
The establishment of orchards in orphanages and schools would be a stepping stone towards the diversification of his initiative. This, he says, would generate the institutions revenue.
“If people can like the plants they will be able to support animals. This is a project that can be diversified into other related projects like vegetable farming, fish ponds, and poultry for institutions that are keen,”
Bernard wants to erect a greenhouse that would readily supply seedlings to orphanages and schools.
“This greenhouse, which I am going to build behind my house, will be important in my project. It would enable me supply the orphanages with plants.”
Billy Dingaliro, Livelihood Projects Officer of Feed the Children Malawi says the orchard they started with the help of Bernard would help them reduce costs on fruits.
“Rehabilitation process of disabled children includes making sure that they are not malnourished. Therefore, we buy fruits daily but they are expensive. But this fruit trees will eventually reduce those costs.”
The projects officer says his organisation did not consider opening an orchard as an option before Madeya brought his idea forward.
“We received other trees from the Wildlife Society of Malawi which we planted on the land we have. But when he [Madeya] came and sold us his idea we liked it because it will benefit us a lot,” he says.