African spirulina farmers need your help- donate now!

Last updated on June 10th, 2020

The group was formed after several African individuals in the Global.Spirulina.Network whatsapp group decided to cooperate to promote the growth of Spirulina in Africa and support malnourished communities. The new group now has over 20 members from Tanzania, Kenya and south Africa, and it just keeps growing!

Currently, there are about 4 people in the group who volunteered to serve as English-Swahili translators, so that information is accessible to all members. Interestingly, the majority of members are women.

Fighting Malnutrition at a Grassroots Level

We all know the tragic story of Africa, where hundreds of children and adults die every day as a result of malnutrition. As one of the group members reported, there are some places in Tanzania where women are forced to have one baby after the other, until their last baby comes out with it’s mother’s uterus. Out of an average of 20 children per woman, only 5 survive.

Treating malnutrition with Spirulina has been proven effective on various occasions, but more interestingly, Spirulina is not only a food to consume; it is also highly suitable for the African climate, and can easily be grown by locals in their homes or on a large scale, helping them to make a decent living and prosper. Take India as an example, a country that had suffered greatly from widespread malnutrition, is today one of the world’s leading manufacturers of Spirulina. This is thanks to organizations like the UN, WPF and the Antenna foundation, who have been working to train Spirulina cultivators in southern India since the 1960’s.

African Spirulina still has a long way to go, but if we take that same model and apply it in Africa, many lives can be saved, leading to a better and more equal economy in the region.

Setting up African Spirulina Farms

As most members of our group are new to the concept of growing algae, there is still much to learn and to be done. Admins Natan Gammer and Michael Matenga are working to support farmers needs in setting up their farms and gathering materials to get started. We are still at a very early stage and we are making an effort to find a source of Spirulina mother culture for each of the members in their base locations.

If you’re in Africa and have a mother culture to donate, please contact us directly.

Well drilling, pull digging, set up and infrastructure are only a few of the requirements of the farmers, many of which with no electricity or a clean source of water.

We therefore welcome donations of any size to support this cause

To place your donation, please contact us directly and state the donation amount. We accept donations starting from $1 and beyond. Thank you for your good will and faith!

How we will use your donations

• Hire contractors to dig water wells where needed
• Buy equipment such as pond-liners, water pumps, paddle wheels and harvesting cloths
• Invest in a source of renewable energy for farms where electricity is scarce
• Send professional advisors to assist african farmers in setting up their spirulina cultivation farms
• Buy feed materials for maintaining spirulina’s growth

Once a cultivation facility is up and running, it only takes about a month or two to start harvesting. This means a very quick turnaround for communities that are currently struggling for their survival! The more you donate, the faster we can make it happen!

To summarize, we bring you the words of Mr. Michael Matenga, the driving force behind setting this group:

“It’s strange that in Africa it seems like they don’t want to share the information. Imagine for my first time to hear about spirulina is on man from Senegal lives in Italy. This man use spirulina for years now and one day my brother asked the man how come he never get tired at work and the man replied that he eats a magic food called spirulina. My brother called me and told me that story I was curious to see the man and ask him questions to get to know that that magic food. Four months ago I went to Italy and I saw the man he is around 60 but you can give him 39 years old.  He took a time to explain me what is this magic green food I was so excited and so motivated and interested to become a farmer, as he told me that eating it fresh is the best.

Last time I went to Kenya, I bought some for my family. Sylvia and our two girls are eating it up to now and for that she is motivated and interested to be among spirulina growers in Kenya-Tanzania. So that man gave his brother’s contact number in Senegal he called him in my presence and told him that I wanted to be connected to others growers across the globe.

He said: “no problem you can pass him my number, if he wants he can come to Senegal for training and see how we’re doing it.”  I was so so happy!

Unfortunately up to now he never gave me a chance to hear from him.  Last time I called that man he told me that his brother moved to Cameroon where they have another spirulina grower team. I didn’t give up with Sylvia we said even by watching videos on YouTube we have to make it possible.  So I started searching on Facebook then I found mr Javel from India. I was the first member he added on our Global.Spirulina.Network on WhatsApp. I’m so happy to have you Dista and Natan in this business and I believe we will openly let our people know and benefit this magic food. Let’s grow together.”