Their focus is on empowering local people to lead sustainable projects prioritising skills, dignity and self-reliance over dependency in six districts of Malawi.
The challenges faced by rural communities in Malawi
Rural communities in Malawi face intersecting pressures: heavy deforestation driven by cooking fuel needs and land clearance, overfishing along Lake Malawi, low agricultural yields and soil degradation, and limited educational infrastructure, clean water and health services. These challenges are systemic and pass disadvantage between generations, so lasting solutions need to be locally led rather than delivered through one-off aid.
Ripple Africa’s approach
Founded in Malawi in 2003, Ripple Africa works directly with communities across three areas of focus: environment, education, and health and livelihoods. Environmental work includes a clean cookstove roll-out, fish conservation to protect Lake Malawi’s breeding stocks, and forest protection through tree-planting. For education, the charity supports early childhood centres, primary schools, teacher training and literacy programmes. Health and livelihoods work spans family planning and maternal health access, practical agricultural improvements, and water projects that reduce disease and ease the daily burden on households.
Major achievements
Ripple Africa and its partner communities have protected 736km of Lake Malawi shoreline, planted 26.5 million trees and supported the build and use of 125,000 cookstoves, benefiting over 625,000 people. The charity runs eight pre-schools, supports six primary schools, and runs a disabilities and injury rehabilitation project reaching over 250 children and their families.
"We are supporting rural communities in Malawi to have fuel-efficient cookstoves by sponsoring 700 cookstoves"
How Explorations Company supported them
As part of our 2025–26 Impact Programme, we sponsored 700 fuel-efficient cookstoves for rural households in Malawi. Traditional three-stone fires, used by over 90% of rural households, are a major driver of deforestation, consume large amounts of wood, and put families at risk of smoke-related illness and burns.
Ripple Africa developed the Changu Changu Moto, or Fast Fast Fire, a simple brick cookstove built for free using local clay and sand, with trained community members teaching householders to build and maintain their own. The stoves use two-thirds less firewood than a traditional fire, cut indoor smoke by more than 70%, and save households around ten hours a week previously spent collecting wood, time that can go towards farming, business and family instead.
How can you engage with Ripple Africa on your Malawi safari?
By arrangement, you can visit Ripple Africa’s projects while staying at one of their lakeshore lodges, such as Mwaya Beach or Lowani Beach, on the shores of Lake Malawi. Guided by local staff, visits take in education, agriculture and environment projects and offer a close look at how communities lead and sustain change themselves. Spaces are limited to keep these visits respectful and meaningful rather than intrusive.
If you would like to understand how this work can connect to your own safari in Malawi, or how this charity fits within the wider Impact programme, please contact our team for more information.