By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, April 5, Mana: Orant Charities Africa and Opulence, two of the established Non-Governmental Organizations in Dowa, have entered a one-year partnership with an aim of maximizing impact on the communities they serve.

Speaking after the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday at Kasese in Senior Chief Chakhaza in Dowa District, Founder and Chief Executive Officer for Opulence, Hugo Ngwira, said the collaboration comes after realizing that the two organizations serve similar purposes.

This, he said, has been coupled to enhance resource mobilization and utilization.

"The most important thing is that we will be sharing expertise. As Opulence, we know what we are good at, and we also know the strengths of Orant Charities Africa. So when we join hands and share expertise, we will be able to bring tangible change to our communities.

"It also gives us the ability to reach more people. If individually you reach 1, 000 people, you can double or triple the figure through collaboration. So this is a very important development," said Ngwira.

Opulence comes into the agreement with knowledge in education, Water and Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), economic empowerment, and permaculture, which has been deemed as crucial in averting the effects of climate change on agriculture and its potential in maximizing productivity at low costs.

Orant Charities Africa, on the other hand, also established interventions in five key thematic areas of education support, healthcare, WASH, agriculture, and business development programs, where it supports local entrepreneurs.

In his remarks, Country Director for Orant Charities Africa, Gabriel Kapanda said the signing of the MoU is significant and will kick start various collaborations between the two organizations.

"In this partnership, we will be working together to implement various projects in education, agriculture, economic empowerment and other areas.

"We are also going to do joint grant writing, looking for other partners out there, including sharing data to ensure that we all understand various aspects of program implementation as well as ensure we help each other in capacity building," said Kapanda.

He said that through the collaboration, there will be a greater impact on the communities they serve.

"We also foresee sustainability of projects because when one organization is having challenges, it will be able to draw strength from the capabilities of the other," he said.

District Commissioner for Dowa Stallichi Mwambiwa described the agreement as a milestone.

He said, basing on their interventions, these are some of the big organizations in the district and the council anticipates a lot from the collaboration.

"If you notice, most of their thematic areas are almost common. Now, when people are doing common issues and come together, it entails there will be kinds of economies of scale in terms of knowledge, expertise, resources and other things.

"As a council, we will still be there in helping and guiding them where necessary, but most importantly, seeing to it that their interventions are completely aligned to the aspirations of the district,” said Mwambiwa.

District Monitoring Officer for Non Governmental Organizations Regulatory Authority, Dan Kumbalika commended the partnership, saying it will help empower the two organizations.