Africa Archives

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 s hop 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.

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.

Meet beautiful Alfonsine. She has been a student for eight years at Malaika. Her teacher is Alain and she loves French, math and English. Her friend is Gabriela, and her favorite dish is rice and beans (just like Noella!).

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.

Jewelry For a Good Cause