Ulemu.com
Donation protected
Ulemu means “respect” in Chichewa.
What we do:
- Starting with the poorest and most vulnerable communities, we work to make sure that every child has enough food to grow up healthy, has the opportunity to learn how to read and write, and has access to the medicines they need when they get sick.
Where we do it:
- We’ve started on the frontline of climate change, at the last-mile of service delivery and commercial supply chains, within extremely poor communities on Chisi Island, Lake Chilwa, Southern Region, Malawi, home to 4,000 people. The idea is that if our method works here, when we scale-up it is likely to work for the other 500 million people living in extreme poverty in rural communities around the world.
How we do it:
- Ulemu.com volunteers work within their own communities, with the support and direction of their village chiefs. They collect a 100-kwacha (€0.03) weekly subscription fee from the parents of every child who benefits from our health, nutrition and education activities. These activities include free malaria treatment, trips to hospital, meals at school, access to preschool and afterschool homework clubs, preschool teacher training, and tuition fees for secondary school pupils (for more details see our website: www.ulemu.com). The 100-kwacha weekly subscription paid by parents helps make us more accountable to the communities we serve, however we rely on charitable donations to supplement the cost of our activities.
Why we do it:
- Because we want all children to live with dignity to their greatest potential.
- Because we believe every child should have enough food to grow up healthy, should have the opportunity to learn how to read and write, and should have access to medicine when they get sick, namely that Articles 25 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be fulfilled for every child.
- Because the current rate of progress towards these objectives is pitifully slow. Top-down, international aid efforts are ineffective and wasteful. Article 25 and 26 or any of the Global Goals for children’s health, education and nutrition will not be achieved by 2030 for most children in Malawi and for hundreds of millions of other children worldwide. Power and transparency over how international funds are spent needs to be given to the communities these funds are intended to help.
Ways you can get involved:
- If you can spare even just a couple of euro, please donate!
- If you are in primary school, send us a letter explaining why you want to help us: 19 Willock Place, Glasgow, G200LN, Scotland.
- If you are in secondary school, send us a letter and also register for An Gaisce, President’s Award.
- If you are a teacher, send us a message and we can arrange to talk to your students or send you materials for your lesson plans: www.ulemu.com/contact
- If you want to volunteer, check out the specialist and generalist roles on our website: www.ulemu.com/joinus
- If you want to keep up to date with our progress, follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564905205073
Co-organizers (2)
Evin Joyce
Organizer
Ailbhe Joyce
Co-organizer