December 25 is not only Christmas, but it’s also Noella’s birthday! Every year, she chooses to dedicate this day to the girls at Malaika school. Noella is asking for donations toward our students to honor her on her birthday. She dedicates so much of herself to Malaika, and she does everything she can to bring quality education to as many girls as she can in DRC.
Help her realize her birthday wishes and show her some love while making a huge difference in the lives of Congolese girls by donating toward this cause! Link below. Happy birthday Noella!
See Noella’s GoFundMe page here.
Will you be at Davos on January 23, 2020? Join Malaika and Noella Coursaris Musunka for an exclusive event with Global Citizen Forum and The Global Fund to explore the transformative power of education and healthcare and lay the groundwork for even greater impact.
“Global citizenship is the conviction that we exist within a context of complete interconnectedness. As citizens of the world, we understand that global challenges are not defined by borders, regions or nationalities and share a social conscience to address and overcome them, together,” according to the Global Citizen Forum’s website.
The World Economic Forum brings together leaders from all over the world to discuss important issues and the year ahead. We’re hoping to see familiar faces there!
In her own words:
“My name is Ilunga Wailunga Dorcas, and I’m twelve years old. I lost my mother when I was small, and I now live with my grandparents. It’s been seven years since I started at Malaika school, and I’m now in sixth grade. At school I like playing tennis and learning French and English. My favorite color is green and I like to eat chicken and rice.
In the future, I would like to be a business woman. Malaika has supported me through my childhood and gave me the chance to have an education – a chance that a lot of my friends do not really have. Today I can read, write and speak French. I can use a computer to type a text, do coding and complete grammar exercises or math online. I spend half of my free time in the library reading. I always like to be at school because every day that I am there I learn a lot of things.”
December 10 is World Human Rights Day, and this year’s focus is on the youth of today. At Malaika, we uphold the main message of this year’s campaign: You’re never too young to change the world.
Empowering today’s youth means providing the fundamental human right of education. Our self-sustaining school and community centre are doing just that in Kalebuka.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on this day in 1948, and it’s definitely something to celebrate.
Malaika’s students and staff were so happy and encouraged by their visit from Mr. Luca Attanasio, the Ambassador of Italy to DRC and his wife, Mrs. Zakia Seddiki.
It was wonderful to have them visit our school, meet everyone and even join the students and Noella for a meal! Thank you to Gabriele Salmi for organizing the visit. We can’t thank them enough for their time, and we look forward to their next visit!
Malaika is grateful to the Smile Wave Fund for supporting our work in Kalebuka.
Smile Wave works to improve quality of life in small communities through focusing on education, social integration and environment issues, which are all areas we care a lot about as well. Thank you again to the team at Smile Wave!
Football is a big part of life at our school and community center in Kalebuka. Not only do students enjoy the fun and activity of the game, but we also use the sport to emphasize health and social issues. However, football equipment can be hard to come by in DRC.
Thanks to much generosity on many levels, though, we were recently able to ship a huge amount of donated uniforms, cleats and more to our students. Donors provided new or very gently used items, and our friends at DHL were able to facilitate the shipment. Our boys and girls were so happy to receive their goods! They can now have matching team outfits, and more students can have cleats and uniforms.
The shipment also included other supplies that will improve life and educational facilities at Malaika, such as dictionaries, atlases, cork board and more. We are so grateful for DHL and our donors for getting these important items across the world from the US to Malaika. THANK YOU!