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Following two summers of COVID restrictions keeping our founder, Noella, at home in the UK, the Malaika team and Noella herself were delighted to be reunited for another exciting, inspiring and productive summer!
Noella places great importance on being on the ground and engaging with our community in order to better understand and meet their needs. Her two children joined her as they normally do, which is always a joy for Noella as they get involved and play their part in supporting the programs.
Working together in person with the team and launching several new elements to Malaika’s provision is always a key aspect of her visits and we’re excited to share everything that has taken place in the last few weeks.
New wells
As more of the world is starting to experience drought, water is perhaps being appreciated on a whole new level and the need for our community to access clean, potable water has been a key component of our service to the community in Kalebuka. Noella was extremely pleased to inaugurate two new wells during this trip, taking the total now to 27 built or refurbished that serve over 35,000 people.
These wells are powered by solar panels and were drilled in Sapirina and Kisaka.
Education developments
We launched a new kindergarten class in our primary and secondary school for girls, taking the number of students to 430. A truly amazing number considering that almost all of them would not have been able to access a safe and quality education elsewhere. During her visit Noella met the new students starting in September and their parents and spent time getting to know them and introducing them to Malaika. This was highly beneficial as they are young and completely new to school.
Established in 2013, our community center continues to provide our youth and adults with skills to better their prospects, and we’re proud to be part of programs such as the National Institute for Vocational Preparedness, who are geared towards equipping our community with the necessary tools to pursue their careers.
Technical classes launched
Furthermore, at the start of her trip, Noella was able to host the launch of our new technical classes in collaboration with both Caterpillar Foundation and Congo Equipment and welcome special visitors to join the celebration. The program was launched by the President of Caterpillar, the CEO of Caterpillar Foundation, and the executive team of Congo Equipment. The Governor, Minister of Education and all of our long-time supporters and community members joined the celebration. To find out more about this, please check out this post.
Sport events for the community
It was amazing to have a couple of visitors who came and supported our sport programs, including Theresa, a sport teacher/specialist from the UK, who came to volunteer for five weeks and did sports with the girls and the community center. Also, several volunteers including Katie from MIT who taught lessons and discussed career paths, and Adeline of African Leadership Academy who discussed entrepreneurship and how to apply for university, shared their time and energy supporting us in person. There was also included a tennis tournament hosted at Malaika by a local organization for individuals in wheelchairs and a football match for deaf and mute adults.
Visits from Malaika supporters
During Noella’s visits there is the opportunity for us to grow our ecosystem of collaborators, supporters and volunteers as she and the team meet and connect with many people from various industries, including donors, sport, media and education as well as members of local government.
Our students and trainees benefited from visitors such as Congolese boxer, Yoann Kongolo, who shared some boxing skills with our youth. Local artists took some creative sessions with the students at Malaika school. The ladies who are part of our entrepreneurship and sewing program, Mama Ya Mapendo, enjoyed a visit from model and entrepreneur Nathalie Eoma, who shared some ideas and knowledge with our trainees.
We also had the honor of giving a guided tour of all of Malaika’s programs to Mr. Dikanga Kazadi, the Academic General Secretary of the University of Lubumbashi, who also spoke to students about the University.
Exploring future opportunities
In the coming year, our grade 6 secondary students will be graduating, so the team is highly focused on exploring the best opportunities for their continued education and training. The team visited a couple of local further education provisions, including the New Horizons University. The visit was not only inspiring for our Grade 6 students, whose dreams of attending university are now more possible than ever, but a true pinch-me moment for us all.
To further prepare them for their next steps, this summer our Grade 6 students set out on a two-week internship at a local company and benefited from a workshop, taught by Noella, where they were prepared with ample knowledge of what to expect from their experience in the workplace.
Noella visits other education providers
In order to make connections and inspire her and the team as they look to develop Malaika’s programs and access further education opportunities for future graduates, Noella visited the University of Lubumbashi, ECOPO, and the University Protestant of Lubumbashi (UNILU). She also visited other education providers that offer technical classes, including; INPP, ENABEL and the city of youth.
Team connection and development
We are grateful for our brilliant local team who are committed to implementing, teaching and offering their expertise in order to see Malaika grow and the students reach their full potential. It was also great to have our Director of Operations, Megan, join Noella and the team in the DRC for a week to further strengthen the team and their ability to work together internationally.
Our teaching staff undertook some teaching training with François, principal of Lycée Français in Zurich, which was important for their skills development as well as ensuring we can deliver a quality education to our students. This was François’ second time at Malaika, and we were so glad to have him again.
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Vanleles Diamonds, an African fine jewelry house with a mission to make an impact, is currently donating 100% of sales of white gold and diamonds in the Nile Collection to Malaika.
Noella serves as an inspiration for Vanleles’ gorgeous pieces, and we are beyond grateful to Vania Leles for her generosity. Vania visited our school a few years ago and since then she has remained a huge Malaika supporter in various ways. We love her line and her philanthropic efforts. See Noella’s campaign with Vanleles and shop the collection here.
Families across Democratic Republic of Congo are experiencing a food crisis. The COVID19 pandemic has caused the price of maize meal, a staple for many households, to increase fivefold, and the price of rice to double. This makes it extremely difficult for many area families to afford even the most basic food supplies.
At Malaika, we’re working around the clock to buy staple foods for our students and community center members and their families. We’re asking for your help in raising emergency funds to ensure that we’re reaching to the families who need us most. Visit https://bit.ly/2V5otqq to donate.
Malaika is one big family, and we leave nobody behind. While COVID19 in the DRC has led the government to call for a temporary closure of our school and community center, it doesn’t mean we can’t still provide support locally. As we navigate these difficult weeks & months ahead, we’re doubling down on our efforts to support the village of Kalebuka by distributing food staples and supplies, as well as organic produce from our very own farm!
But we need your help: With the price of local staple foods rising rapidly in recent days, we have created an emergency fundraiser so that we can make sure as many families as possible have what they need. Please help support this fundraiser here. Together, we can get through this.
“12 years from now, I hope that they become even more than what they are dreaming of right now.”
Meet Sylvain, Malaika’s amazing headmaster. He is passionate about delivering a quality education that enables our students to reach their full potential, and he truly believes in their abilities.
He cares not only about having a rigorous and holistic curriculum, but also about having a culture that promotes leadership qualities and strong values of giving back to the community within his students. We are so grateful to have had his leadership for several years. Hear his passionate perspective below or through this link.
While staying in country, Noella recently visited homes in Kalebuka and distributed malaria nets. She loved this opportunity to interact with many community members and give out tools that would help protect them from mosquitos.
Over the years, Malaika has distributed 11,000 malaria nets in this region, impacting thousands of lives.
Noella loves to speak individually with as many students as possible when she is in country. In this video, she interviews one of our girls in order to get to know her a bit better. We’ve summarized this interaction in English so you can learn about this lovely young woman as well.