a vibrant future
Following the success of the first sharing session in May 2019, Utawaleza held another sharing session this August where young people harnessed the power of art through stories, poetry and music to wow the audience.
Performances included stories from Katerina Mzembe, Tuntufye Simwimba and Yolanda Ng’oma. Poetry from Muyanga Shela, Rabie Kondowe and Chris Msosa. As well as music from West Cole and The King’s Rifles.
Utawaleza held its first sharing session on 4th May at Story Club Arts Cafe in Lilongwe where audiences enjoyed various perfomances in story telling, poetry and music.
The perfomances included story telling by Alinafe Malaonje, Chris Msosa, Chim Chisiza and Utawaleza founder, Singalilwe Chilemba; poetry perfomances by Marumbo Sichinga, Alex Chiwaya, Chris Msosa, Tamiwe Kathumba and Matt Hew as well as Music from Ali Rose and Kim of Diamonds.
The next sharing session will be held in August. Follow us on @UtawalezaMw for updates!
Naturally Africa Volunteers is a community based non-profit located in rural Malawi; Nkope Village, Monkey Bay district. Nkope was identified by the organisation as having a genuine need for assistance in the fields of health, education and sport which is why it is the location for their current projects.
Tiwi Resource Centre
Nkope village has a population of 6,000 people. Tiwi Resource Centre was contracted by the organisation to provide a safe learning space for the people of the community, especially children and youth. Every week the centre is opened for the children and youth to have a safe space where they can play, learn and develop skills that their school education does not offer. Naturally Africa Volunteers spend time every day with the children. One of the rooms in the centre is a library which was necessary because most of the homes in the community do not have access to electricity and so the children and youth are not able to study or spent time reading during the night. In addition, the community does not have many leisure activities for the youth and it was believed that the library would help them develop new hobbies like reading to avoid indulging in deviant behaviour. At the moment, Naturally Africa Volunteers has installed electricity at the centre as well as solar panels to cover for power shortages so that people within the community have access to the room at any time of day, especially the students.
One of their biggest challenges has been finding books to stock up the library so that they can officially open it to the community. A volunteer reached out to Utawaleza for assistance and by seeking help from well-wishers, we managed to collect more than 50 books that the resource centre can now add to their library.
It is our sincere hope that more people will reach out and offer their assistance, with books or in kind, so that the library at the resource centre is fully stocked.
To learn more about Naturally Africa Volunteers, visit www.volunteerafrica.com
Books were donated to Chimwakhunda CDSS in January 2018 following another book drive initiative in Blantyre. Thanks to everyone who mobilised and donated. Helping us change lives one page at a time!
Our second book drive was held in Blantyre at Village Green from 1PM. Activities included a raffle draw with bookmarks and other goodies up for grabs. Close to 100 books were collected from well wishers.
Utawaleza made it’s first donation to Mlodza Secondary School in Lilongwe Area 23 in March 2017.
Sincerest thanks to everyone who supported the project since launching the book drive in December. The hope is to keep making as much of a difference in the lives of students in Malawi by providing them with the books they need for their education as well as a variety of books on different topics that can inspire them.
We’re depending on your continued support. Get in touch for details on how you can contribute.
Utawaleza held its first book drive in an effort to mobilise the community to donate books to a secondary school in Lilongwe. The event was held at Koko Bean cafe in City Centre from 10AM to 4PM and activities included a bake sale. Over 100 books were successfully collected from well-wishers.