by Wesley Richmond

In June 2024, Africa Fire Mission had a team travel to several areas across Malawi to assist in firefighter training including community fire prevention training and fire safety instruction. AFM’s commitment to the fire service across Africa has a clear and powerful impact on many people. On this trip, our team members were fortunate to connect with many new people and see the impact our organization has around the world.

Africa Fire Mission’s Program’s Director Mike Kull traveled to Malawi on this trip and saw Africa Fire Mission’s impact in many special ways. Here’s a story in Mike’s words that demonstrates the profound way AFM is impacting people:

“Today was another great day in Africa. We conducted more training and our team has really observed some big steps forward. We are observing the firefighters taking ownership of what we are teaching. 

As happens sometimes, what we had planned and what we did ended up being very different but we have still found success. This year we have the honor of working with a team from the Malawi Defense Force's Airbase here in Zomba. This is our first time working with them and it has been a pleasure. 

We had two really big wins today. The first involved our new friends in the Malawi Defense Force. Yesterday, we taught a different way to deploy the fire hose than is commonly used here. We've taught the same technique a few times in the past, but it hasn't quite taken hold yet. In Blantyre last week, they finally adopted the technique after three years. This was the first time the Defense Force firefighters saw the technique. When we saw their Fire Engine today we observed that they had already switched some of their hose to that style. That was huge step forward in modern firefighting techniques and the team was excited to see the training put immediately into use. 

Our other big win today happened while we were out doing some hands on Bush Fire training. Back home we would call it Wildland Firefighting and it is one of my favorite topics to teach. The win wasn't related to bush fires though. We were out on a narrow road in the bush cutting some fire lines. The road was so narrow the fire trucks had the road partially blocked. After we had wrapped up the training we were still in the roadway. A school bus came along filled with children and when it squeezed around us, the children started shouting, ‘Thomas! Thomas!’ The children recognized one of the firefighters from the fire prevention presentation at their school and they remembered his name. While the firefighters here are usually disrespected by the people, here we saw children who were excited to see their ‘firefighter friend.’ 

These are just two examples of how we are making an impact by walking side by side with the local firefighters, supporting them, encouraging them, empowering them and training them.”

Africa Fire Mission is committed to making stories like this happen in Malawi and across all of Africa. If you are interested in supporting AFM, you can make a one-time donation here. When you donate to Africa Fire Mission, we immediately put your generosity to work.