Thursday 26 November 2015

Fundraising for Desks with Makwelero

NYCOM’s main slogan and purpose is “uniting youth for development”. Our focus is to coordinate all efforts of youth development in Malawi. At NYCOM, we believe that all young people should be empowered through education, networking, and information exchange. We strive for this together with our affiliate organizations and indeed with others not yet affiliated.

Included in our five year Strategic Plan, NYCOM advocates for access to inclusive education for all youth including youth with disabilities.

Recently we were so impressed with the actions and ideas of one of our affiliate organizations and we went the extra mile to help them mobilize learning resources for a special needs class in a primary school in Lilongwe.

Makwelero is an organization founded by recent University graduates hoping to inspire the volunteer spirit within other youth in the community by helping struggling primary school pupils learn to read and write. By providing one on one tutoring in reading and writing, they hope to promote the eradication of illiteracy within schools across Malawi.

Upon establishing a tutoring program at the Lilongwe LEA School in the Capital Lilongwe, it was jarringly obvious the school does not have adequate resources, which is unfortunately the case for most public schools across Malawi. The learners do not have desks to sit in or books to learn with, and the school blocks are falling apart with broken windows and gaping holes in the ceilings and floors.

In order to bring some resources to the school, two of our Canadian volunteers started an online campaign called “Adopt a Desk”. People are encouraged to donate $50 CND for the purchase of a two-person desk. The goal is to raise $2 500 to revamp one classroom at the school.

Within a few days 25% of the funds were already raised but then came to a halt shortly after. To gain more momentum we revisited the school armed with a video camera and a vision. We wanted to shoot a short video that would encourage more people to understand the situation and need for promoting a healthy learning environment for students here in Malawi.

Here is the video titled, “A day in the Life”:



If you would like to know more about the campaign and how to donate go here:


If you would like to know more about what Makwelero is doing go here:




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