Coding with iPads

Technology plays an ever-increasing role in every facet of life today. We seek to provide our students with as much access to technology as we can, so they are on an equal playing field as their peers worldwide.

Our girls love their STEM classes, and they learn very quickly. They’ve been learning coding with various teachers and programs. Here, Esther explains how she is using ScratchJr on some of the school’s iPads, in order to build skills that will quickly become more advanced. With these skills, our girls’ futures are truly open to their dreams and drive.

“I came to the center to learn English and IT, soon after I discovered that the community center uses sport as a tool to educate young people,” says 23-year-old Violene Muswamba. She is training to become an assistant coach at our Kalebuka Football For Hope Center.

“I liked it a lot and I decided to learn to play and to supervise the young people. I’m super excited to play even though I haven’t had any experience yet.” We’re excited too, Violene!

Leadership is central to our mission at Malaika. From the importance of an all-local staff and, community-led initiatives to the emphasis we put on our girls stepping into their own roles as leaders, it is a focal point to our success. For this reason, we were especially proud to have Noella share stories of her leadership philosophy in SalesForce’s Leadership Classroom.

More than 35 female leaders from around the world got together for a virtual conversation, and Noella loved taking part. Everyone has a role to play, and with enough drive and and passion anyone can grow into a leader! Salesforce has been a great resource and supporter for Malaika, and we look forward to working together into the future.

We were so pleased to have two of our team members join in Concordia’s 10th annual this fall. This year’s summit was digital, gathering a community of diverse perspectives tackling the biggest issues facing today’s world.

While Elvis Nshimba, Malaika’s programs and evaluations manager, spoke alongside a panel of amazing voices about the growing role of sports, players and leaders in positively addressing issues of inequality, social issues and health across the globe. He also discussed the role of world leaders and organizations in addressing today’s challenges.

Elvis found it exciting to speak at the summit.

“Conscious of how important the summit was, I realized that it was a responsibility upon my shoulders to best represent Malaika. During the summit, it was rather easy and I felt confident enough to speak up,” he says.

Noella was grateful to once again be a part of this summit as well, this time as host. She found the discussions to be very productive and important and loved hosting alongside such an intelligent group of leaders, thinkers and change makers.

All of Malaika’s programs are community led, so we can be sure we’re addressing local people’s needs in a way that best serves them. So it only makes sense that it would be a group effort to clean up the village recently!

Students, staff and community members alike took part in a day collecting trash, cleaning brush and tidying up the area. It was a community building exercise that also worked to solidify a sense of civic duty and volunteering in our students, which will only serve them well into the future.

Thank you to all who participated in this ‘neat’ initiative!

Every single year, Noella donates her birthday to Malaika, in order to garner more support for the students and people she dearly loves and believes in. This year, we want to celebrate her with a virtual party as she highlights Malaika’s work!

We’ll have performances from students and special guest appearances, and friends from all over the world can join Noella as she blows out the candles on her birthday cake. Noella pours her heart and soul into Malaika, and we would love as many of you as possible to celebrate with her for her special day. Sign up here, or make a donation as a Happy Birthday gift to Noella here!

The party takes place Dec. 17 at 3pm NYC / 8pm London. This will be a unique and fun event, and we hope you can join in with guests from across the globe.

When we describe Malaika as an ecosystem, it’s because everything we do symbiotically interacts something else to be mutually beneficial. Take our girls’ daily wear for school. We provide our girls with two new uniforms for the school year, so they can focus on their education and not on the difficult task of finding the means to buy clothing.

What’s special about this is that we commission the women in our Mama Ya Mapendo community center program to hand sew these lovely uniforms. They have the opportunity to work on their tailoring skills on a large scale while also earning income, which they reinvest in their community.

Our girls happily receive and wear brand new outfits made for them with love by their own mothers and neighbors.

It’s a win-win and a system that we think is pretty beautiful.

We recently spent a week highlighting our sports programs on our social media, in order to emphasize the important role they play at Malaika. We use sports as a platform for social change, we use them to teach equality, we use them for health, to bring the community together and, of course, for fun.

Jolie Kaj Mujinga is a 3rd year secondary student who loves our athletics program.

“I like running as it helps me get rid of stress, but also I like athletics for fitness,” says the 14 year old, who first joined Malaika nine years ago. Jolie walks to school from only 15 minutes away and says her favorite subject when she’s not on the track or field is French.

We are proud of our sports program and love what a healthy outlet is for our girls and community members, and we’ll continue to grow it as much as we can!

The amount of talent, drive and creativity within our students is never-ending. This is why it’s especially important for them to have exposure to skilled teachers, leaders and experts in their fields to help inspire and teach them.

Recently, Malaika ambassador Marine Tanguy used her art-world contacts to set up our girls with a very cool project. She connected students with three different artists, who provided their own designs. The girls then painted and drew these large scale pieces, such as pink palm trees and giant portraits, on several classroom walls.

This was a fantastic opportunity to study various artists while bolstering their own skills in recreations. And, it makes for some very fun classroom themes! Thank you to Marine and to artists Jennifer Abessira and Andrea Tyrimos for lending us your style.