In 1990, a paper maker and a school teacher began a crusade to improve primary education in Malawi by training schools to recycle waste paper and make their own exercise books, charts and teaching materials, thus addressing the shortage of paper and teaching and learning aids in Malawian schools. From these humble beginnings, PAMET (the Paper Making Education Trust) has grown into a thriving organisation with a staff of 28 that has trained over 400 schools throughout Malawi in recycling paper while also creating business opportunities for poor people.

In the training workshops, teachers learn how to make paper, globes, counters, chart paper and notebooks. As most schools receive only a small number of notebooks and very few or no visual teaching aids, the training enables schools to become more self sufficient and creative with the limited resources they have. The paper making methods taught are simple and appropriate to the resources available. A pestle and mortar, traditionally used to pound maize into flour, is used to pound waste paper to produce the pulp. The moulds are made from chicken wire and mosquito netting and the vat used to hold the pulp is simply an old oil drum cut in half.

Since 1994, PAMET has had a production and research unit that designs, produces and makes paper products. It also produces new technologies to simplify the paper-making process and improve quality. Items made by the production unit are sold locally and internally to support the other projects, and its production workspace provides a training and resource centre for them. PAMET's workspace is open for tours every weekday afternoon.

Paper is made from a variety of diverse materials including plant fibres (such as baobab and banana plants), cotton, tree bark, and elephant dung. Products include notebooks, writing paper, gift cards, photo albums, envelopes, folders, globes, counters, and picture frames.

In 1995, having realized that as well as benefitting schools and the environment, recycling paper could also provide business opportunities for the poorer members of Malawi society, PAMET started offering training to school leavers and other low-income groups and individuals that included practical tuition in papermaking and conversion of paper into products as well as basic accounting and small business management.

PAMET trains interested women's groups in how to recycle paper and other agricultural waste to make fire briquettes as an alternative source of household energy, thus seeking to address long-term problems associated with deforestation and poverty in Malawi. Rural women who learn briquette making skills can use the products instead of firewood and thereby reduce the time they must spend and the distance they must walk to fetch increasingly scarcer firewood. A strong communication network between PAMET and the groups exists to monitor and evaluate the groups' progress.

This story was prepared from information on the PAMET website. Mailing address: PAMET, PO Box 1015, Blantyre, Malawi. Email.