Lindsay Katchika-Jere: The Sprout Foundation founder

Lindsay Katchika Jere is a phenomenal young woman who is touching many lives in this country, especially women because of her big heart.

She started The Sprout Foundation.

It is a non-profit organisation aimed at improving lives of women and children in underprivileged communities through sustainable programmes in the fields of agriculture, education, climate change, training, research, advocacy and entrepreneurship.

The foundation has been in operation since January last year and is headquartered at Chigwirizano, Tradition Authority Mwanam’manga in Lilongwe.

“Through this initiative, we have built a women’s entrepreneurship hub for them to learn baking and tailoring.

“This project has impacted 30 women since inception in September 2021. We have donated over 300 sanitary pads, 400 books and classroom materials to literacy institutions such as Ladder to learning and Adziwa Secondary school,” she said.

Lindsay added that since her foundation has reached over 2000 underprivileged people with food, clothes and other needs.

In partnership with youth clubs in Mpingu, they have provided drip irrigation kits and equips the beneficiaries with needful training.

And in another partnership with law enforcers and the Network for Youth Development, the foundation runs discussions and advocacy campaigns on gender-based violence (GBV).

Her desire is to see other people’s lives improve for the better. This is what inspired the foundation.

“We help children, youth and women. Women are at the centre of our programmes because according to statistics, they are more prone to all forms of abuse than men.

“Women also lack opportunities, skills and education to flourish in their everyday lives. On the other hand, women are creative, hardworking and have potential to change situations around them. Unfortunately, most of these women and do not know,” said Lindsay.

Her goals are to grow impact and host more trainings with women and youth; and also help them start their own businesses.

She has plans to build more entrepreneurship hubs in various parts of Malawi.

“When we want to help women, we first of all look at the need of the area. Most of the times, people approach us for help, but I also identity a need.

“After assessment and depending on availability of capacity, we look at the willingness of the beneficiaries to fulfill their own side of the deal,” she narrated.

Lindsay is also an author of six children’s books. One of them is titled The Missing Meteorite. It is her first book to be published.

The book promotes child participation in issues of crime, science, museum, education and girls.

It was inspired by the meteorite that fell in Machinga in 1981.

Overall, her love for children’s books was nurtured by her grandmother, Mrs. Ndaferankhande, who was a head-teacher at Chichiri Primary School back then.

She said: “My short stories have also been published on various platforms. I hold the title of Internationally Published Author as two of my works have been published in an anthology in Nigeria and America.

“To empower other women writers, in September 2022, I compiled the anthology Outlive the Labels Volume IV which later became an amazon best seller.

She is also a member of the Malawi Writers Union and Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Network.

In her earliest years, she worked at the Chichiri Museum as an educational officer for two years.

Later, she worked at the Network for Youth Development on a Norway-Malawi exchange programme as communications personnel.

She hopes to get her books on the international market and help other authors in Malawi by increasing their opportunities to grow.

Lindsay said she always knew she would do something impactful, but it was not in development, gender and literacy.

She was biased towards the arts; fashion designing, painting or dancing.

Born in May 1999, she is a twin who was raised by her grandmother and single mother.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the African Bible College.

Lindsay conducts motivational talks in schools, hosts book fairs and charity events.

She observed that it doesn’t take much to make an impact and that’s what she enjoys the most!

When asked how she finds money for her projects, she said, at first a larger amount of the funds came from profits of her books.

However, a larger part now comes from well-wishers in different parts of the world through donations.

“I look up to many people for inspiration such as women in my family who are also doing amazing things; Pirira Ndaferankhande and Chimwemwe Hara.

“My father is also one of the greatest inspirations. My mentor Mary Holmes has always been my role model and former first lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama is my greatest inspiration,” she said.

Lindsay thanks God for her foundation and her achievements; and also through reading informative and motivation books.

From a tender age, she has read books by Sean Covey and Brian Tracy that helped her with discipline and setting goals.

She said:”I would have never known what I know now if not for the books that helped me through hardest times of my life.

“My family also understands and appreciates my creativity and is supportive. My family and personal relationships are a priority to me and so I make sure to set work limits and show up for holidays and other family moments.”

If given another chance to start all over in life she would put more time on herself as she has been focusing on other people for her to flourish mentally and emotionally.

The 23-year-old encourages young girls to write down their goals to prioritise achieving them every day.

“No one is special and success is not by accident. If we all learn to work towards our goals without getting destructed, we can become as successful as any one we know and be responsible for our own lives without blaming others,” she said. In her free time, Lindsay loves to read, write and to refresh her mind by baking, watching animations and going on long drives.