Virtual Internship Case Study: Home Industries, Malawi

Introduction 

Homes Industries is an agro-processing company operating within a diverse agricultural community in Malawi.  Zahra, a BA Development Studies student, and Zareen, a BA Korean and Linguistics student, supported Homes Industries’ mission to foster economic independence and sustainable farming practices, offering a more human-centred approach to sustainable agricultural development. 

The Story of Homes Industries 

Founded in 2015, Homes Industries is a company focused on:  

  • Working with over 8000 smallholder farmers in 3 value chains, rice, groundnuts and sunflower 

  • Offering capacity building in good agriculture practices and post-harvest handling to maintain great quality 

 

Activities include providing training, inputs on loan, and assured market access for local farmers’ harvests. 

 

The Opportunity 

As content development assistants at Homes Industries, the students worked towards creating impactful content that enhanced the company's visibility and reputation. 

Results 

Over eight weeks, the students and the Homes Industries marketing team, Emmanuel, and Esther, including the CEO, Victoria Msowoya Mwafulirwa, collaborated online to: 

  • Design a podcast from scratch, including the branding, digital graphics and marketing and studio design 

  • Curate social media content  

  • Developed a comprehensive plan for content management and marketing communication for the staff  

These efforts led to reaching 29 Instagram accounts in a month through mainly Instagram posts showcasing and promoting Homes Industries’ product range, and gauged 76.7% traffic of non-followers. This work raised awareness on the importance of small and medium enterprises on the local agricultural economy in Malawi and of promoting sustainable practices to combat desertification and drought.

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