About RIPPLE Africa: A Charity Working in Malawi, Africa

Geoff and Liz Furber started RIPPLE Africa in 2003. They have a passion for Africa, and in particular the area and the people around Mwaya, Malawi, where the charity is based. Geoff brings a wealth of commercial experience to RIPPLE Africa, having run his own business for over 25 years, and Liz has a sound administrative background. The combination of their skills has meant that the charity has developed into an effective, fun and well run organisation. They are realists, not idealists, and believe in giving a hand up, not a hand out.

It is important that costs are kept to a minimum and, for the first five and a half years, all of the UK administration was done by Geoff and Liz at no cost to the charity. Costs are still being kept to a minimum — for example, Aztec, Geoff's office cleaning company, has provided RIPPLE Africa with an office, and Thompson Taraz audits the charity's annual accounts free of charge.

Over these five and a half years, however, the charity has grown from a handful of Malawians being employed to a staff of over 160 in Malawi, which has been recently reduced to 80 staff as a result of the global financial crisis, with an estimated 3,000 people working on RIPPLE Africa's projects there. It has now become necessary to employ some help with the fundraising, administration, and volunteer programme in the UK, and we're really fortunate to have taken on Ali Gaskell as UK Volunteer Programme Manager, and Megan Canning as UK Project Manager, both on a part-time basis. Ali volunteered in Malawi with RIPPLE Africa for seven months at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, and Megan was a volunteer at Mwaya for three months at the end of 2006. Both are very passionate about RIPPLE Africa, and are a great ambassadors for the charity. This is a major milestone and will enable the charity to develop over the coming years.

Geoff and Liz are in weekly contact with the senior managers, who are responsible for the day to day running of the projects in Malawi, and they provide progress reports on these projects. Geoff and Liz regularly visit Malawi to keep an eye on how the charity is running and to develop new programmes. They spend time training and empowering the RIPPLE Africa managers and staff, and meeting with members of the local community. They also really enjoy the company of the many overseas volunteers who stay at Mwaya Beach.

RIPPLE Africa is very different to most charities working in Africa. Normally, so much money is wasted on administration, monitoring, report writing, inefficient systems, etc., that very little money actually finds its way to the people who the donors wish to help. RIPPLE Africa is based at Mwaya Beach and has minimal local overheads. The charity deals directly with the local communities, and it is made clear that RIPPLE Africa helps people who help themselves. The charity often acts as a catalyst to make things happen.

RIPPLE Africa is involved with education and healthcare locally to Mwaya. It is also actively involved in an environmental tree planting and reforestation project in Nkhata Bay District, which covers an area of 4,000 sq.km.