Upon learning about the project, he joined the endeavour. The villagers agreed to make bricks. They were so enthusiastic that within two weeks they made 20,000 bricks, more than enough for a building that could house all the classes,” he says.

Arun also roped in another of his friends, Ashique, who worked in Dubai. “I told Ashique about the project and that I would require some financial help. He readily agreed. It took us one-and-a-half years to build the school. We never opted for crowdfunding. All the required funds were sourced from a portion of our salaries that we had set aside for the purpose,” he says.

Couple goes Kerala way to dig wells in Malawi

The school building grew in size after a UN team visiting the village saw Arun and Sumi working with the villagers in constructing it and decided to fund two more rooms.

“My company also chipped in and built an office room. Today the school has been taken over by the government and has classes from I to VII,” he adds.

That was the first initiative. “After Sumi joined me, we began visiting other villages and interacting with the people. We taught them different cooking styles, including making snacks from their staples – tapioca and banana. We also helped them set up small shops and sell their wares. Another problem the villagers faced was the drought. No agriculture happened during summer season.

So, we taught them to make small dams using sacks and use the stored water to cultivate crops,” he says. It was during such visits the couple noticed an anomaly. “We saw only hand pumps. And each village had just one to cater to around 50 families. When we asked, the villagers said the soil was not firm enough for an open well. We tried digging one. It wasn’t,” Arun says.

The couple then decided to go the Kerala way and use brick and cement to line the inside of the well to keep the soil from collapsing.

“We dug seven such wells. Now we are implementing a project to get water to villages facing acute water shortage, by digging wells where we can detect water and then pump it to the beneficiaries using a solar pump,” he says.

Arun says the funds are sourced from the revenue of the couple’s YouTube channel, Malawi Diaries, their own pockets or from friends. The couple is now engaged in constructing a higher secondary school at Ponela village.

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