Send a Child Back to School

Only 27% of children in Malawi complete elementary school. Many drop out because they lack something as basic as a pen or a school uniform. Renald Banikani, pictured here, stopped going to school because his single pair of tattered clothing was unfit for the classroom. As the new school year begins, you can help Goods for Good send children like Renald back to school.

For every $10 you give, Goods for Good will equip a child with the school supplies, school uniform, and shoes needed to thrive in the classroom.

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When you wear rags, everyone laughs at you and you stop going to school. I am so happy to receive my new uniform. I will no longer miss class now because I feel carefree going to school”- Renald Banikani, 13 year old orphan supported by G4G

Consider what your gift will provide for a child in Malawi:

School Supplies Something as basic as a pen is difficult to access for many children in Malawi. Goods for Good provides two pens per term to every student we support.

School Uniform Uniforms are required for children to attend school in Malawi–without one, children are sent home.  At a cost of about $3, the financial burden is too much for many to cover. Your contribution will support G4G’s Tailor-in-Training program, which provides school uniforms for vulnerable children while training local tailors in the valuable skill of tailoring.

Shoes and De-Worming Tablets G4G and TOMS shoes have teamed up to ensure a healthy start for the new school year. Without shoes to protect them, barefoot children suffer from disease, injury and low motivation. Your contribution will help G4G  deliver a pair of TOMS shoes and a single-dose “de-worming” medicine to the children we serve in order to cure them of dangerous infections contracted by walking barefoot and to keep them healthy in the future.

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Spread the word: visit www.ngafrica.goods4good.org

A Little Bit Goes a Long Way

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G4G’s U.S. staff landed in Lilongwe, Malawi this past Monday to work side by side with our Malawi staff. Since we can’t be in-country nearly as much as we’d like, we have a lot of ground to cover during our one-month stay. We’ll be visiting all of our program partners to assess their progress, evaluate our programs and conduct surveys to see how we can best work together to serve the children in their care.

The first partner we visited was Bright Vision, an organization providing services to hundreds of toddlers, students, elderly community members and people living with HIV/AIDS in the surrounding villages. While at Bright Vision, we visited four different “nursery-school” centers–although they can hardly be called such by American standards. While community members had come together and volunteered their time to provide day-care services for the children, there was no actual “center” for the daycare to be held, no educational materials or toys for the children to play with and certainly no compensation for any of the workers.

At the third center, we noticed a huge pile of bricks sitting unused in a near-by field. We asked Stanley, the Director of Bright Vision, what the story was. He told us that the community had molded hundreds of bricks from mud (hundreds of hours of labor) to build a nursery school center for the children, yet they could not afford the cement to erect the structure. It was this lack of access to basic material inputs that was keeping Bright Vision from advancing their programs.

Despite the material shortcomings of the organization, I was so impressed with Bright Vision’s motivation, initiative and resourcefulness with the few materials that they did have. Every notebook, pen, stapler, and pair of shoes provided to Bright Vision by Goods for Good was being utilized to its fullest.

At the end of our stay- we sat down with local leaders, executive committee members and volunteers to discuss their needs and future plans for the organization how Goods for Good can best assist them in achieving their goals.

To support an organization like Bright Vision, click here. A little bit goes a long way.

BIC Malawi Hand-Off Celebration

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In March of this year, we reached out to BIC Malawi requesting assistance in the form of writing materials for our Pens for Progress initiative.

BIC Malawi responded soon thereafter by generously donating over 90,000 items to Goods for Good! The donation included much-needed basics such as pens, pencils, and markers, as well as some fun stuff, like glitter glue.

On June 11th, the Goods for Good  Malawi staff, BIC Malawi representatives and our partners gathered at Chankungu Primary School to celebrate the donation, the biggest yet ever sourced from within Malawi. The goods will be distributed across all public schools supported by Goods for Good.

Click HERE to see more pictures from the celebration

Goods for Good matches excess goods with the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world.

The Nation features bic donation

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BIC Malawi Donates to G4G

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Great news from the field this week: BIC Malawi donated over 96,000 items to Goods for Good! BIC’s donation included over 80,000 pens and the always-hard-to-come-by fun stuff like markers and glitter glue (which the kids are going to LOVE). These materials will be distributed through our Pens for Progress program, which provides two pens per term to each child in our programs.

Many thanks to BIC Malawi for their extremely generous gift. Contributions like this make our work possible. Stay tuned to see pictures of the children receiving their new school supplies at the distribution ceremonies.

Goods for Good match surplus with the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world.

lighting up luzi

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Light Up Malawi, a venture  to bring 100% sustainable energy to Malawi, recently donated a solar power charger to Goods for Good partner organization Luzi. Founded and run by Malawians, Luzi is a community-based organization whose mission is to reduce the suffering of children impacted by HIV/AIDS. Luzi managers a large networking of nursery schools and youth programs that care for the most vulnerable children in their community.

Luzi will be using the solar charger as an income generating activity. The organization will permit villagers to use the charger to charge their cell phones and in return, Luzi will make a small profit.

Thank you to Light Up Malawi- we hope this is the beginning of a wonderful new partnership!

Goods for Good matches excess goods with the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world.

remembering elijah gondwe

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Today we have all lost a visionary man, a leader and a true hero in the effort to develop Malawi and provide opportunity for its people. Elijah Gondwe, the Director of Luzi Community Based Organization, died yesterday from malaria. His death serves as a reminder to me of how far we have come and how much further we need to go to improve life in Malawi. Elijah’s untimely death makes me think of the existing and future leaders we lose everyday from such preventable causes.

With Elijah’s passing comes a renewed persistence within myself, my organization and friends to continue nurturing and supporting Malawi’s current and future leaders. It is only through them, that our shared vision of opportunity and prosperity for all Malawian’s will be achieved.

Even though he is not longer with us, his contribution to Luzi, the community, the orphans and the whole of Malawi will endure forever. Zikomo Abambo.

-Melissa Kushner

Elijah Gondwe was the Director of Luzi Community Based Organization. A grass roots community center founded in 1999 to provide essential services such as home based care for the chronically ill, nursery school, after school programs for orphans, vocational training and many other programs. Since its founding, Luzi has grown to support over 6,724 people including hundreds of orphans, elderly, widowed and vulnerable people.

NextGen Africa

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You’re Invited to NextGen Africa- A FREE Forum Hosted by Goods for Good

Please join Goods for Good, The Vice President of Malawi, The Right Honorable Joyce Banda and over 30 participating organizations on Monday, June 14th at NYU’s Kimmel Center to collaborate for the advancement of Africa’s next generation.

Click HERE to register for your seat today

5th graders collect change for change

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At the beginning of the school year, River Bend Elementary School’s 5th grade class decided to institute a school-wide fundraiser to support an under-resourced classroom in Malawi. They called it Change for Change and their goal was to collect funds to help support students in Malawi and to learn about Malawian culture and history.

The students passed out collection jars, created goal posters, and made weekly announcements to each classroom in their school to engage their fellow students in the initiative. Eight months later, Change for Change has raised over $1,000, which they’re donating to Goods for Good. That’s enough for G4G to deliver essential school supplies to an entire school in Malawi!

Many thanks to the all of the students and teachers at River Bend Elementary for all of your hard work.  Your motivation and generosity is inspiring and will truly make a meaningful difference in the lives of hundreds of students in Malawi.

Interested in hosting a fundraiser in honor of Goods for Good? Shoot us an email info@goods4good.org.

Getting Them Covered

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Schools in Malawi suffer from a desperate lack of infrastructure– many don’t even have roofs. Class is canceled due to harsh weather conditions and students and teachers don’t show up regularly because of low morale and motivation. Student’s educational opportunities are severely hindered by these conditions.

Goods for Good is embarking on an innovative new project to get these classrooms covered: we’re repurposing former billboards by turning them into roofs. There are about 1 million billboards in the U.S. alone; after about a month-long lifespan, these heavy-duty vinyl boards are thrown into landfills. G4G is working with HWKN Architecture to turn them into a low-cost, easily implementable roofing solution for our schools. Stay tuned for more on this project!

See more pictures HERE

Goods for Good matches excess goods from the U.S. with the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world.