Friday, October 23, 2009

RMAG - It's happening!


I logged on to my Yahoo! page tonight and noticed Malawi is #5 of the current most popular searches, after Pumpkin Carving Patterns (#1) and Kim Kardashian (#3).

I do believe it's because Madonna will be in Malawi next week for a groundbreaking ceremony for the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls (RMAG).

As a probono project, Ogilvy, the agency where I work, helped them develop their new brand identity/logo. I can't share till I'm sure it's public, but I can barely wait for the big reveal! The Academy is such a huge, inspired concept (gender equality and women's empowerment) and I'm so happy to be connected with it in some way.

And at long last, we're finally breaking ground!

The school will be on the outskirts of Lilongwe. It will admit deserving girls from all the main districts and prepare them for careers in medicine, education or law.

Educate and empower a girl and she brings what she's learned back to her village to help change the order of things - break negative cycles once and for all. It's a proven fact. And in Malawi, we're on track to end extreme poverty once and for all!

To anyone who's donated to my fundraising effort thus far, you're a part of this as well and I thank you.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Thanks to the 1,940 people who helped me raise $2,162 against my goal

Given the economy and state of my friends' wallets right now, I've been looking into more innovative fundraising ideas.

For a few years, I've been following Scott Harrison (charity:water). He's leading a great cause to get clean water wells drilled throughout Africa. I love his cause and have donated to it. I also couldn't help but notice that he's wildly successful at fundraising. Doesn't hurt to be backed by Saks Fifth Ave, for sure. So, in trying to learn from him, I followed him to a new social networking site where all you have to do is choose an advertising sponsor and post their badge onto your blog or Facebook page or other social network. By doing this simple thing (and inspiring others to follow), Scott was able to raise close to $50,000. Scott, honey, I love you but I have a big goal too and wanted to get in on the action.

So I called Raising Malawi and told them about this site. We had a conversation with the very cool, forward-looking people at Social Vibe. They so get it! This is how advertising will work in the future.

And here we are with our first campaign. So far, 1,940 people have chosen "Raising Malawi" as their charity. As a result of their clicks, we raised $2,162, which will help seven children living at the Home of Hope orphanage with food, clothing, education and medical care.



Julia Silka invites you to SocialVibe.com    


We're starting a new campaign now. So, lots more we can be doing. Please follow this link and join Social Vibe. This will give me 100 extra points toward Raising Malawi. And you can start earning too. Simply choose Raising Malawi as your featured Charity and pick any of a variety of cool sponsors to help you promote it. I went with TNT, because they give me x5 points to my charity for every click from my blog :)

Click away, and thanks to our sponsors for the charity dollars!

As of 6/16/09, we've raised a total of
$48,972.68
+ 2,162.00 (Social Vibe Home of Hope Campaign)
---------
$51,134.68

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Inventing like Ben Franklin (How One $100 Donation Got Me Thinking)

I haven't done much fundraising lately because I've been focusing my time on helping Raising Malawi come up with a campaign to promote (and raise funds) for their new Academy for Girls that will open next year in Malawi.

I didn't mean to stop my fundraising efforts. I slowed down because it's very time consuming and I think I suck at it. But in truth, I kind of don't. I'm pretty good at it, actually. Look, I've raised $48,972.68 so far without ever having done fundraising before in my life. That almost-$49K is from just me out there, shaking a cup under people's noses over the past three years. During that time, I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't; who gives and who never will.

Seems to me everything in life is a sales pitch. And whatever it is you're selling, you'll find you're in one of two possible conversations. Either -

1) Enrollment conversation (sharing, inspiring, lighting people up by what's possible) or

2) Registration conversation (closing the deal, selling the thing, getting a commitment)

The people who suck at sales suck because they don't know which conversation they're having (or need to be having) when they're having it and/or they don't 100 percent believe in what they're selling. They move into the registration conversation before the person is enrolled (so, answer will be 'no thanks') or they spend their whole time in enrollment and never get to registration because they're afraid of it.

I learned the difference, practiced and mastered the distinctions over my three-plus years of training in the Introduction Leader Program at Landmark Education. I am equally comfortable in both conversations. And good at them, so long as I truly believe what I'm selling, promoting, representing, supporting, whatever. My mentor Joan McNeil, registration manager in Landmark's NY office, used to call me "Animal Girl" because I registered so many people in the Landmark Forum. I just believed in it. It saved my life, got me out of my own way and helped me fast-track my goals. I wanted to share it. Enrollment and registration came very easily to me.

Same thing too with Raising Malawi. I'm not out to convince anybody of anything. Just enroll. And register participation in a movement via a show of dollars raised.

This whole fundraising goal of mine is another way for me to practice those conversations. I am selling the possibility of a better future for Malawi, Africa and the world. I am educating myself about important world issues and growing a heart in the process. It's very rewarding, although granted at times frustrating on the long, seemingly never-ending road to my goal.

What I notice is that now, in this crap economy, enrollment is really tough. People are quick to turn off their listening. If they don't hear about it, they don't have to do anything about it. And if they do hear about it, it's remarkable to me how quickly people can come up with a litany of reasons not to donate or help in any way. They actually refuse to be enrolled, much preferring the sick comforts of a conversation of no-possibility. As a general rule, most people don't come from a place (consciousness) of abundance. So, I'm learning that. People hang on to fear and come from a place of scarcity. It's sad. I really want to smack them in the head. If only that would work.

Anyway, I think I need to move my conversations to the "registration" type more quickly now. Just yesterday, I got a $100 donation that I wasn't expecting, but I only got it because I asked.

My ex-colleague just reached out to pick my brain on a research project I designed a few years back. I shared a little info and he asked if he could buy me a drink or send me a gift certificate for dinner for two to thank me. Of course I would help a friend with no expectation of reward, but I thought, heck, dinner for two in LA can feed 20 little kids in Malawi. So I asked him to make a donation, which he said he would be DELIGHTED (all caps) to do. And he did it right away. (Thank you very much, Dirk H!)

That's the cool thing. It's actually not all that hard to do fundraising. It's really just about knowing when to ask and then..... and this is the most important thing I've learned.... asking.

The latest $100 donation brings up the total raised to date to $48,972.68. Is there anyone out there reading this right now (who is already enrolled/inspired to help orphans survive and thrive) who will round this number up to $50,000? The link to the Raising Malawi donation page is in the header of my blog. You'd be the coolest in my book and a hero to those kids. Please help if you can. And FYI, you can.

Meantime, I'm going to re-look at my financial situation to see if I can grow my cash position so I can donate more myself. I come from a place of abundance, after all.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Raising Malawi wins MySpace Impact Award!

MySpace users worldwide have made a real difference by helping Raising Malawi to earn this month’s Myspace Impact Award.

The Impact Award honors organizations that are making a positive impact in the world. Raising Malawi was nominated for its work to eliminate poverty and empower vulnerable children in the impoverished nation of Malawi.

As this month’s winner, Raising Malawi receives a $10,000 grant to be put toward improving the health and education of Malawi’s kids. In a nation where every penny truly counts, this money will do a great deal of good.

The Impact Award also means invaluable publicity for Raising Malawi and its partner organizations. Now millions of people worldwide will learn of Malawi’s plight and what they can do to help.

Madonna and Raising Malawi would like to thank all the MySpace users who voted for Raising Malawi and helped to spread the word about the important work of this remarkable organization. With the unified support of dedicated volunteers worldwide, there’s no limit to the impact we can make.

Monday, January 12, 2009

An Easy Way to Help Raise $10K for Raising Malawi by Jan 26. Please Vote!

Visit http://www.myspace.com/impactawards and vote every day till 1/26 for Raising Malawi to win a $10K grant! Please let me know you voted by commenting on this post. If I help to generate enough votes, I can count this win toward my $101K goal. Please vote! It can make a real difference in the lives of impoverished children. So once again:

Go to myspace.com/impactawards

Vote for Raising Malawi today and every day thru January 26.



On a side note, I think the IMPACT awards is a cool campaign - your vote being as impactful as a dollar. Then again, social currency may be deemed even more valuable these days. December's winner, PostSecret, is one of my all-time favorites. They donated their winnings to a very terrific cause. From the Founder:

PostSecret is a collection of over 250,000 artful secrets mailed from around the world to my home on postcards. I share this collection with people on the web, in the four best-selling books and through traveling PostSecret Events at college campuses. I believe that we all have secrets and by sharing our deepest secrets, the ones that hide from us, we are able to find healing for ourselves and serve our communities. This year PostSecret has helped raise over $500,000 for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1(800)SUICIDE. - (J. Silka's postcard would say, "I called it in 1985") - I am honored that PostSecret has won the MySpace IMPACT award, and having worked as a volunteer for HopeLine in the past, I am happy to announce that the entire $10,000 prize will go to HopeLine for being there for the MySpace community, and all of us. - Frank Warren, Founder, Post Secret

PostSecret - PostSecret - Happy Holidays?

Sunday, January 04, 2009

"How Much is Enough?" is a crap question

You know that scene in Schindler's List where Schindler (Liam Neeson) comes to realize that he could've saved more lives (even just one) had he traded a small pin off his lapel or had one more conversation to bribe the SS? It's when ex-prisoners present him with a letter explaining he is not a criminal to them and give him a ring they secretly made from a worker's golden teeth fillings, which they engraved with the Talmudic quote, "He who saves the life of one man, saves the world entire." Schindler is touched, but deeply ashamed, feeling he could have done so much more.

I feel that way at the beginning of every year. I have so much to give. So, do I give enough? Because I find myself asking, the answer must be no.

Why I Give (by Bill Clinton)



I read Bill Clinton's book, "Giving" last year and really appreciated this story of Oseola McCarty, which he touches on in this video. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

With the assistance of a local attorney (for whom she had done laundry) and the bank's trust officer, using slips of paper and dimes (to represent 10% shares), McCarty set out the future distribution of her estate. She set aside one dime (10%) for her church, one dime (10%) each for three relatives, and the remaining six dimes (60%) for Southern Miss. She stipulated that the funds should be used for students, preferably those of African-American descent, who could not otherwise attend due to financial hardship. When news of McCarty's plan was made public, local leaders immediately funded an endowment in her honor. She signed an irrevocable trust, allowing the bank to manage her funds, from which she received a regular check.

What great irony to be able to give so much of what she never had herself (education). What an inspiration. I'd like to see your generocity, Ms. McCarty and raise you one. My resolution is to have more this year so I'll have more to give away. Come on....seven!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Un projet beau et tellement utile que l´on se doit d´accomplir

"A project so beautiful and useful it must be completed."

Project Raising Malawi to be continued. It's my new year's resolution to hit my goal once and for all.

Measure of success: By 12/25/09 I will have raised $101K for the orphans and vulnerable children of Malawi.

If you want to help, don't forget, you can order Kristen Ashburn's companion photobook to the documentary, "I Am Because We Are." It costs $50. Kristen is donating her portion ($25/book) to Raising Malawi. If I somehow put it on your radar and you end up buying one, please let me know so I can count it towards my goal.

https://www.powerhousebooks.com/IAmBecauseWeAre/

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

End of year note from Exec Director at Raising Malawi


Dear Friends,

In the spirit of the season of sharing, I wish you Happy Holidays from Raising Malawi.

I believe that there is no greater evidence of the existence of miracles than in the hard work and selfless dedication of our partners, donors, staff and volunteers who give so much to Malawi ’s most vulnerable. Of course, we receive the greater gift in return: the gratitude of a Malawian mother, the smile on the face of an empowered child, the real possibility of peace and prosperity in the developing world. These are the things to be cherished.

2008 has been a remarkable year for our organization and for the children we serve, and we are already working to make 2009 even more successful. Here is a summary of some of the projects we undertook these past twelve months.

Spreading the message: Raising awareness.

The year got off to a glittering start in 2008 when Raising Malawi co-founder Madonna and luxury goods maker Gucci co-hosted A Night to Benefit Raising Malawi & UNICEF in New York City . The A-list event, held on the North Lawn of the United Nations, raised a significant amount of money and brought the work of Raising Malawi to worldwide attention. This evening inspired Raising Malawi volunteers to stage their own benefit events in Toronto, Los Angeles, Denver and Miami.

A newly expanded and redesigned Raising Malawi website went live in early 2008, bringing more information, videos, and regularly updated blog entries to the online community. Now our volunteers and donors can take immediate action on behalf of Malawi ’s children simply by visiting www.raisingmalawi.org.


April saw the world premiere of I AM BECAUSE WE ARE at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City . This gripping documentary film, written and produced by Madonna (who co-founded Raising Malawi along with Michael Berg) and directed by Nathan Rissman, chronicles the plight of Malawi ’s children and profiles Raising Malawi’s beneficiaries and partners. Before the year is out, I AM BECAUSE WE ARE will have been screened at festivals in Cannes, Paris, Traverse City, Santo Domingo and the Netherlands, and made its television broadcast debut on The Sundance Channel on the twentieth anniversary of World AIDS Day.

A stunning companion volume to the acclaimed documentary is currently available for pre-order from powerHouse books. I Am Because We Are features riveting images by award-winning photojournalist Kristen Ashburn that provide an intimate look at the lives of eight Malawian children featured in the film. The book includes a foreword by Madonna, a statement from Ashburn, excerpts from interviews with Malawian children, their biographies, and extended captions. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated directly to Raising Malawi.

Immediate Needs: Nourishing body and soul.

Recognizing that orphans and other vulnerable children constitute one of the biggest social challenges confronting Malawi as a nation, Raising Malawi launched a community-based support project with the Network of Organizations working with Vulnerable and Orphaned Children (NOVOC) in February, 2006. NOVOC is a non-government umbrella organization which exists to promote, facilitate and empower individuals and organizations involved with the care of vulnerable children. With financial contributions from Raising Malawi, and the support of Malawi ’s Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare, NOVOC is successfully improving the delivery of psycho-social support, advocacy, community development, medical care, education scholarships and food services for up to 1,750 community based child care centres.

For the past three years, Raising Malawi has worked with one of Malawi ’s most respected community-based organizations, Consol Homes, to bring daily meals, targeted medical care, education scholarships, and clean water to vulnerable kids through 106 community-based child care centres.

In 2007, the Raising Malawi-Consol Homes Orphan Care Centre opened its doors to over 4,000 children in the village of Namitete . In August of this year, the Orphan Care Centre became a recipient of the 2008 International Red Ribbon Award. The award is presented by the United Nations Development Program at the International AIDS Conference to celebrate outstanding grassroots initiatives and community-based organizations working to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS. In addition to meeting the basic needs of vulnerable children, the Raising Malawi-Consol Homes Orphan Care Center has also provided vocational skills training to countless adults from the surrounding area.

In rural Africa , where water-borne illness still runs rampant, clean water is very much a matter of life and death. By partnering with organizations like the Joyce Banda Foundation and introducing innovative tools like Q-drum, Raising Malawi is helping to bring clean water to over 50,000 people this year alone, and will do the same for many more in 2009.

We continue to support Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, its pediatric surgical unit, and to Malawi ’s sole pediatric surgeon, Dr. Eric Borgstein. In a country where infectious disease gets the most attention, there is little funding allocated to the treatment of birth defects, childhood cancers, trauma and burns. By partnering with Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital , Raising Malawi enabled Dr. Borgstein to perform 500 surgical procedures on 450 children in a single year, and helped to fund annual salaries, teaching programs, and anesthesia and x-ray machines.

We also partnered with Harvard School of Dental Medicine to offer basic preventative dental care, including examinations, x-rays, teeth cleaning, extractions, and toothbrush instruction for hundreds of children at Raising Malawi’s partner sites. Following the success of these interventions, Raising Malawi and Harvard College of Dental Medicine have co-created and launched the first Oral Health Development Program in Malawi. This program, managed in partnership with the Dental Department at Mchinji Government District Hospital has served thousands of children and caregivers, and will continue to do so in 2009.

Women and Children First: Transforming Malawi ’s future.

Among our most exciting and ambitious projects to date is the forthcoming Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. This all-girls secondary school, designed to empower Malawi ’s daughters to become their personal best, is founded on the principle that educating girls today empowers the women of tomorrow; and empowering women means improving the lives of generations to come. The Academy’s comprehensive curriculum is being carefully tailored to the unique needs of its future students, and its very structure, designed by studioMDA, will be a collaborative effort using sustainable technologies that integrate and benefit the school’s local environment. We are now on target for a 2009 groundbreaking and plan to welcome our inaugural class, selected from the poorest and most promising of Malawi ’s young women, in just two years. In addition, plans to create an all-girls’ secondary school in Zomba have been announced.

Three years ago, Raising Malawi partnered with Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Millennium Promise in the Malawian village of Gumulira , where 6,700 people live in extreme poverty and every day is a struggle to survive. Villagers there are suffering from malnutrition, a lack of clean water and bed-nets; and little access to schools or to medical clinics. Raising Malawi continues to invest in Millennium Promise’s community-led initiatives to benefit the health, education, food production, access to clean water and essential infrastructure for the impoverished villagers of Gumulira. In late 2008, Gumulira villagers broke ground on a primary school that will serve and educate some of the most impoverished children in Malawi.

Raising Malawi ’s continued dedication to gender equity led us to partner with Somebody Cares. This remarkable organization helps women to open and manage their own bank accounts, and provides assistance with school fees, books, and uniforms for their children. Raising Malawi helped to improve the lives of 820 Malawian widows through a program that turns basic skills into profitable businesses in knitting, sewing and crocheting, baking and gardening, and soap and bead making. Raising Malawi also funded a very important new project by sending ten women from Malawi to a rape crisis counselor training week at rape crisis training in South Africa.

SFK-Malawi continues to make tremendous strides in providing children and teens with the tools for positive transformation. In less than two years, thousands of kids in Malawi ’s villages, schools, orphanages, and detention centers, have learned to take responsibility for their own futures by living their lives with kindness and human dignity. SFK’s remarkable programs have been praised by parents, teachers, and non-government organizations; while Malawi’s Ministry of Education has called for the expansion of SFK throughout the country. In June, the Executive Director of Home of Hope Orphanage had a powerful idea. Having seen the positive effects of the SFK program on the orphanage’s children, Lucy Chipeta thought that caregivers could benefit from classes as well. Home of Hope now provides more than 600 infants and children with food, clothing, shelter, and primary education. In addition to bringing SFK to both children and adults at Home of Hope, Raising Malawi is providing financial support for the overall operation of Home of Hope and has undertaken the rehabilitation of the orphanage, including construction of new facilities to address the pressing needs of a vulnerable population.

Our SFK-Malawi Sponsorship Program, a special project dedicated to providing direct psycho-social assistance to children in need, continued its work in 2008. Throughout the year, the Sponsorship Program provided urgent interventions for children orphaned by AIDS, suffering from extreme poverty, and victimized by genital mutilation and other abuses.

Thanks to our partnership with KINDLE Orphan Care, we have provided critical services to nearly 700 children in thirty-five villages through twenty separate youth and counseling groups. The focus of KINDLE’s work is on providing health and nutrition, education, spiritual and social programming, and community development for orphans and their caregivers. Raising Malawi has contributed financial support that enabled construction of KINDLE’s Katawa Health Clinic, which is providing medical services to over 10,000 people.

With support from Raising Malawi, child services have continued at Crisis Nursery in Lilongwe . Every year Crisis Nursery welcomes infants and young children who have been abandoned, and provides nutritious meals, safe housing, and ongoing medical care.

Volunteers: Making a difference.

Volunteers from all walks of life (from college students in Israel to doctors in New Jersey ) were inspired to travel to Malawi to assist our community-based program partners. To help facilitate this important volunteer work, Raising Malawi announced a partnership with World Camp Inc., a non-profit organization committed to empowering children in impoverished communities through education. World Camp provides opportunities for volunteers to teach HIV/AIDS prevention, nutrition, gender equality, environmental awareness and human rights to underserved children in Malawi. World Camp supports the mission of Raising Malawi and is dedicated to developing unique volunteer positions for Raising Malawi supporters.

Raising Malawi volunteer Dr. Murray Treiser made two self-managed trips to Malawi in February and October of 2008, during which he braved snakes, torrential rains, and a near-deadly auto accident to treat more than twelve thousand grateful patients. “Doctor Murray,” as he is affectionately known, treated many preventable illnesses in the most blighted areas of urban and rural Malawi. His daily reports from Malawi were heartbreaking and uplifting, and served to remind us all of both the remarkable strides being made every day, and the tremendous amount of work still to be done.

Our Home-based Volunteer Program encourages all supporters to join us in our mission to improve the lives of Malawi’s children. Bianca Gomez and Amy Saumell, two students at the University of Florida in Gainesville and members of the Pre-Med National American Medical Student Association, initiated a student-led project aimed at providing critical medical supplies for our community-based partners in Malawi; famed fashion illustrator, Jeffrey Fulvimari, took his love of design to the next level by volunteering his time to create customized stationery for the Raising Malawi pen-pal program, which currently engages hundreds of children attending Polytechnic School (K-12) in the United States with orphaned children living at Home of Hope orphanage; and thanks to the creative vision and hard work of Michael Welch in San Francisco, Raising Malawi was able to provide much-needed antiretroviral HIV medication to AIDS programs associated with Kamuzu Central Hospital. These are just a few of the ways volunteers have contributed to the lives of Malawi’s children. In 2009, we will launch an exciting new viral volunteer campaign to help support and expand our programs.

Ubuntu: Partners in ending poverty.

We at Raising Malawi understand that our success relies on the expertise of our partners around the world. In 2008, we were pleased to continue our relationship with David Reifman, esq. (senior partner at DLA Piper). Since 2006, David and DLA Piper devoted significant time to pro-bono efforts for Raising Malawi, focusing on issues of real estate development, including land use and urban planning, facilities sitting, property acquisition, public/private financing transactions, infrastructure improvements, and community and economic development.

In May, we had the privilege of welcoming studioMDA as a pro-bono partner. studioMDA will manage the design of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, using the latest technology and design methods to benefit the developing world and provide innovative opportunities for sustainability.

In August, SalesForce (a leader in Customer Relationship Management solutions) named Raising Malawi as a pro-bono client, offering its expertise in the areas of volunteer management and donor relations. This new relationship honors our commitment to providing our dedicated supporters with consistent, reliable care.

As Raising Malawi approaches the groundbreaking of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, we are pleased to announce that in October, 2008, Ogilvy & Mather joined Raising Malawi’s growing list of pro-bono partners. Ogilvy & Mather, one of the world’s leading advertising, marketing, and public relations agencies has committed to creating the marketing and advertising campaigns of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.

Our presence on popular social networking websites have attracted the attention of industry leaders, Facebook and Myspace. In 2009, Raising Malawi will work hand-in-hand with the non-profit sectors of these sites, Facebook Causes and Myspace Impact, to create innovative communication and fundraising tools for our volunteers. Facebook and Myspace continue to reshape the ways in which people communicate and receive information. With these new relationships, Raising Malawi will reach the largest number of people in the most cost-effective way.

Going Global: The future is now.

In April, I had the privilege of representing Raising Malawi at the Unite for Sight 5th Annual International Health Conference at Yale University. The conference brought together some of the worlds brightest minds, including Raising Malawi champions Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Dr. Jim Yong Kim, to discuss public health, medicine, social entrepreneurship, nonprofits and philanthropy in the developing world.

In September, Raising Malawi took part in the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York. The Clinton Global Initiative gathers a diverse group of the world's most distinguished leaders from government, business, and civil society to examine today's most pressing global challenges and transform that awareness into tangible action. In addition, Raising Malawi was included in the CGI Exchange, during which we were able to interface with ninety-nine other forward-thinking NGO's.

Raising Malawi was also invited to the first annual meeting of our partner organization, Professor Jeffrey Sachs’ Millennium Promise. The event’s guest of honor was none other than the President of Malawi, Mr. Bingu wa Mutharika. He spoke about the Millennium Development Goals for Malawi and praised the success of the Millennium Villages, including Raising Malawi’s ambitious project at Gumulira.

Zikomo means ‘Thank you’ in Chichewa.


It is not an easy time for our planet. Violence and chaos still threaten our largest cities and tiniest villages. Children still suffer from hunger, mothers despair, and people die everyday from easily preventable diseases. Our work is not nearly complete.

But in the midst of all the chaos, we take a moment for quiet gratitude.

We give thanks to our partner organizations, our dedicated volunteers and generous donors, and most of all to the children of Malawi who teach us so much about gratitude, resilience, and hope. During this holiday season we wish them, and the entire world, a joyous and peaceful New Year.

We thank you for your continued support of Raising Malawi.

Sincerely,

Philippe van den Bossche