Bola Moyo in the News!
First off, Program Manager Margaret Nandoli and Field Director Desirée Cooper were interviewed, along with some of Bola Moyo’s beneficiaries, by a reporter who works for Voice of America in Malawi. The story has been published here and will soon be available on the Voice of America website. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to talk about the joys and challenges we experience in our work. (Please note: although the story reports that we provide small business loans, this is not currently part of our programming.)

Student Spotlight: Agnes Mpeta, Adult Literacy student, age 66

Agnes Mpeta is one of our star pupils at 66 years old. In a country with a life expectancy of 38 years and where nearly half the population is under the age of 15, Agnes is a true elder!

Agnes gave birth to 5 children, two of whom are surviving, and she has three young grandsons. She never had the opportunity to attend school as a child because her parents chose to send their sons to school instead of their daughters. Four years ago, she decided she needed to learn to read when she accidentally took the wrong bus due to her inability to read the route and destination on the front of the vehicle. Agnes has been a dedicated student of our Adult Education Headteacher, Rose Mbendera, since that time. She has since learned to read Chichewa, Malawi’s national language, and can do arithmetic, which helps her in her small business of selling charcoal and firewood. For the first time she is learning English at Bola Moyo’s ALiCE program. She can now read the newspaper and can even read passages of the Bible at her church. She is also enjoying learning about other cultures and countries outside of Malawi.

When reflecting upon her long life and experiences, Agnes tells this to the young ones of Malawi: if you know how to read and write, you have everything.

Community performances and upcoming promotional video
In partnership with the local chief near our community center, we held two performances within a week for the larger community to showcase the educational opportunities we provide. The showcase included singing, dancing, and plenty of theater performances. As a result we’ve attracted many more students in our youth and adult literacy programs. We were also able to capture plenty of video and images from these days, which we plan to make part of our upcoming promotional video.

Bola Moyo Library opens to the public
We’re also happy to announce that our library, previously only available to our program participants, is now opening to the public. Members of the Balaka community can become Bola Moyo Library members when they pay a nominal membership fee to receive their library card and mandatory library training. We’re delighted to be able to provide this service to the larger community. As part of this program we’ve taken on an Assistant Librarian, a girl named Maria, aged 15, who has been part of our youth center for the past 4 years. She and Grace, our Head Librarian, will conduct the trainings for our new members and supervise the library on open days.

Adult Literacy and Continuing Education: Good luck on your exams and congratulations to the graduates!
During the month of September, some of our Continuing Education participants will take their Standard 8 exams. All the best to these dedicated and hard-working women!
Additionally, our literacy students will go through the annual graduation ceremony. We look forward to congratulating our second graduating class!

What I like most about my job is working with the youth, because these are the leaders of today and tomorrow. They should know how to take care of themselves, to keep their traditional cultures, and to learn about how the world is changing very fast.

They also need to know how to take care of their own country, especially the environment. Because of deforestation (happening because trees are cut for cooking fires and forests are burnt for hunting), water in Balaka is now decreasing. The youth in our programs are learning to be stewards of the land, and to not exploit it.

Secondly, I enjoy teaching women and elderly people in our literacy school. There are so many people here in Balaka who never went to school, and don’t know how to read or write at all. So I also like to teach them how to read and write so that they can understand what is going on in the world nowadays.

To all of Bola Moyo’s supporters in America and elsewhere in the world, I would like to say “Zikomo kwambiri!” (thanks very much) for helping to make life better here for the people of Balaka.

These are just a few examples of your monthly donation “at work” :

• $20/month covers 5 youths at the House of Many Stories youth program
• $40/month covers 6 children at our Adult Literacy and Continuing Education (ALiCE) daycare facility
• $60/month will put 10 women through our ALiCE program
• $100/month covers the cost of putting 5 secondary students through school
• $150/month would cover the anticipated cost of the forthcoming Lioness Girls’ Empowerment program (fall 2009)

This is an exciting time for Bola Moyo, as we are on the cusp of change and expansion. Please consider partnering with us and be a part of our work in creating a better life with the women and youth of Malawi. Many thanks for your support!

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Bola Moyo invites YOU, this spring and summer, to take part in our work of improving the lives of the women and children who come to Bola Moyo’s “House of Many Stories.”

Throw a Bola Moyo House Party and show your support for the wonderful things being done in Balaka, Malawi.

Were you already planning on throwing a birthday BBQ, a Labor Day luau, or a Fourth of July festivity? Or, maybe you’ll be doing something as simple as a garage sale, bake sale, or lemonade stand? We encourage you to consider putting a charitable spin on the occasion and making it a Bola Moyo benefit.

Our hope is that at least 10-15 of our loyal supporters (that of course means YOU!) will volunteer to host a Bola Moyo House Party, between now and the end of the summer, with a goal of raising $1000 each. With your help, we know we can raise $15,000 by August!

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HOSTING A BOLA MOYO HOUSE PARTY IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK

Just send us an email to let us know you want to throw a house party for Bola Moyo! We’ll give you all the support you need as you plan and prepare. We’ve even got a nifty HOUSE PARTY KIT that will guide you as you get ready to throw the coolest party ever!

We look forward to hearing from you!!

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BE THE “HOST WITH THE MOST” AND WIN!

We are offering 2 great prize packages to our 2 “Hosts with the Most” !!

Be the host with the most guests or the host that raises the most money and you’ll win an amazing package of quality stationary and textiles from our friends at Chifundo Artisans’ Network. These items are skillfully and lovingly hand-crafted by men and women in Balaka, Malawi.

You can learn more about Chifundo HERE.

AND NOW, LET THE PARTIES BEGIN !!!

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Margaret and the ALiCE students

Thank you all for your continued and dedicated support of our growing programs over the months. Your support continues to be meaningful to us and our partners, as together we work toward a “better life” for all. We hope you enjoy reading the stories below and staying connected to the amazing women and youth who find community and hope through our programs.

Sincerely,
Dustin & Cara, Co-founders

Bola Moyo Youth Centre

The House of Many Stories Youth Centre has experienced unprecedented growth in the past few months. Last year we had about 20-50 youth attending per day, but recently we’ve often had more than 150 youth in attendance on any given day! The youth continue to experience our multi-faceted curriculum – including music, drama, art, debate, sports, and agricultural training – which is designed to engage them in creative problem-solving and critical thinking. Our recent growth indicates that our programs continue to fulfill a great need within the community.

Our Board Secretary, Desirée, recently took a trip to Balaka and had fun traveling to Najuchi in east Malawi on the train with a group of our youth. On this trip, Desirée, two Bola Moyo staff members, and many of our youth had the opportunity to see the Malawian countryside and even briefly visit Mozambique! This was quite the exciting trip for the youth, as many of them had never before had the opportunity to leave Balaka.

ALiCE (Adult Literacy and Continuing Education)

ALiCE is proud to announce our first graduating class of Adult Education students, who passed their Standard 8 exams in Fall 2008! This year we continue to support Katherine, an ALiCE 2008 graduate (age 25 and married with two children), as she pursues her education at a secondary school in Balaka. In the future we hope we can support more students as they continue onto secondary school. Our new class of Standard 8 adult students can only be described as studious – perhaps even nerdy(!) – as they eagerly devour lessons in English, Mathematics, Chichewa, and Health Education every weekday at the Bola Moyo Center. The Adult Literacy School has also recently been flooded with new attendees, who came as a result of an announcement at the Balaka Muslim Association. In Malawi there has traditionally been some animosity between Christians and Muslims. This is the first time for many of the women of these two groups to work together so closely, as they learn every day at the Bola Moyo Literacy School.

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Rose Mbendera and Desiree Cooper

Moni Kwaonse!
Greetings to all!!

You may remember me from newsletters in previous years, first as an Intern and then as the Executive Assistant. Although I moved to England in summer 2007 to pursue a Masters in Development Management at the London School of Economics, my dedication to Bola Moyo has grown even stronger in the years since I left the Portland office. Now I serve as Secretary on Bola Moyo’s Board of Directors, a role I have filled since Fall 2008. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to take three trips to Malawi in the past year and a half.

I first visited Bola Moyo in Malawi in late 2007 during a break from the internship I had at that point in Kenya. Then I had the privilege to spend summer 2008 in Balaka working with Bola Moyo’s staff to strengthen our Adult Education programming. Most recently, in March and April I had a five-week break from my graduate program in London, and I took the opportunity to spend a month in Balaka assessing all of our programs.

I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous, since it was my first time without Dustin and Cara also there to hold my hand the whole way. But I’m happy to report that the trip turned out to be a rousing success. I had a wonderful time bonding with our Malawian program staff and participants. The youth centre and the adult education program are not only doing well, but are vibrant, alive, and kicking! More than ever before I am inspired by the dedication of our Malawian staff and participants, who have made our work in Balaka a continuous success.

Now I am back in London where I am busily writing my thesis on primary education in Malawi, but I’m already looking forward to the day that I can once again return to Balaka!

Lero Labwino
Have a great day!
Desiree Cooper

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Rose sporting some very hip shades

Mrs. Mbendera is one of our newest employees, having joined Bola Moyo in Balaka in January 2008. Rose leads the adult literacy classes that take place in the afternoon every weekday at the Bola Moyo Center. The lessons she gives to our adult students include English, Mathematics, and Chichewa (the local language). Her students are generally women aged 16 to 65 who either had to drop out of school around 2nd or 3rd grade, or who never had the opportunity to attend school at all in the past.

Rose originally hails from Mchinji district in the far west of Malawi, although she spent many of her formative years in Zambia. She moved to Balaka in 1972 when she married her husband, who is a retired police officer. She has five adult sons.

Rose was a housewife for 32 years, but after her children left home she decided to dedicate her life to promoting adult literacy and education in her community. She developed her own adult literacy program and curriculum, which she taught in Balaka with spirited dedication solely on a voluntary basis for six years. In early 2007, we decided she was so talented that we would swoop her up and give her a job to continue doing what she does best.

She also manages the Adult Education portion of ALiCE, where women who have reached at least Standard 5 can study a more formal curriculum to eventually take their Standard 8 exams. In the future we hope to expand the program to support students who want to go onto secondary school and beyond.

Rose is an invaluable employee who has been instrumental in the success of our adult education programs. Zikomo kwambiri (thanks very much), Rose!

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