Follow the stories of our supported projects here! The Verea blog brings you interviews, updates and articles about the causes we support. Our goal? To leave you informed, and a little inspired.
Solar For Life: Accessibility to Sustainable Solutions
Verea is a strong believer that access to basic needs is a fundamental human right. We could not be prouder to launch our partnership with Solar for Life (SFL), another student run non-profit organization that initiates projects that provide sustainable solutions to off-grid communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. These projects provide communities with access to life essentials, such as energy and clean water. SFL operates out of the city of Toronto and currently runs its initiatives in South Africa and Kenya.
SFL’s activities can be broken down into two pieces: obtaining funds to donate towards supported projects and facilitating the on-site implementation of the projects.
This organization has done substantial work to raise funds to support the installation of solar lights in off-grid communities and reduce their dependence on kerosene lamps. Some highlights of their work include:
The Solar Lights project in South Africa which was a $15 000 CAD project and included 250 solar lights, a charging station, quarterly maintenance and installation by their partnered manufacturer in South Africa.
Solar lights were installed at a Primary School located in the entirely off-grid region of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. SFL was able to help allow 230 students to study and their families to thrive.
SFL has established great partnerships with over 200 regional coordinators across various schools in Canada and South Africa that help fundraise for their projects and empower through education about sustainability.
Moving forward, SFL will be partnering with more organizations to bring all of life’s essentials (including water, light, medicine, clean environment, entrepreneurial opportunity, and food) to these communities by providing them with holistic solutions. Their ACCESS Campaign projects, revolving around projects in four separate divisions, will work towards achieving this goal.
Verea has partnered with Solar for Life to help fund the ACCESS Lights and ACCESS Clean Water initiatives and promote global engagement in sustainable developments. The ACCESS Lights campaign addresses the fundamental human need for light by investing in renewable solar energy. ACCESS Water, on the other hand, will provide rural communities in South Africa with portable water filters to increase clean water supply. Stay tuned for more information about these projects on our blog!
Mimi is our first featured fashion blogger. As the co-founder of Luxy Hair, she inspires her followers with fashion tips and speciality products.
Age: 29
Passion: She uses her YouTube channel to raise awareness for healthier eating and living and animal welfare.
Why we love her: Mimi is a firm believer of giving back to the community! She spends her birthdays performing random acts of kindness. She has handed out flowers to nurses and donated food to shelters and food banks in the past.
Check out her YouTube channel and Instagram account for daily fashion tips and advice!
We had a chance to sit down with the visionary herself! Here’s an exclusive interview with Ellen Chilemba, the founding director of Tiwale.
A significant challenge in starting your own organization is generating interest and support for your work. How were you able to create awareness for Tiwale and get things off the ground?
“I was 17 years old when I was trying to prototype what Tiwale would look like. In trying to understand the situation on hand, we asked some local women if they would be interested in a business-training program, where we would work with them and provide loans. We decided to run a prototype session for a handful of women but, on that day, 150 women showed up. That’s when we were like, ‘Okay, now we need to start an organization.’ We told them that we were just trying to run a prototype session but they replied saying, ‘Well, we’re here and we’re ready start.’ All I could say at that point was, ‘Okay, let’s start’.”
What were some of the other struggles you faced?
“One of our initial struggles was trying to get initial funding. Some grants require you to be a non-profit organization; others require you to be registered. It can be difficult when you’re just starting up to meet those requirements and get these grants. Also, getting a team together, so the recruiting process was quite the challenge. We were able to overcome these challenges with patience and perseverance.”
Tell us more about your native country, Malawi. What are some of your favourite childhood memories? What was it like growing up there?
“I was raised by my grandparents because it was cheaper for my parents to send me to live with them. My grandmother was a mango and peanut farmer so sometimes she would make things like mango juice or fry some peanuts and sell them on the streets. So for me helping her get those things together for the business was my favourite childhood memory.”
What was your biggest fear when you started this journey?
“When I first started, I was 18 years old, and I decided to take a year off for this project so there was a big fear of whether or not I was using my time wisely. I was worried about whether or not this model would actually work, which comes with any project you are starting up.
Currently, the biggest fear is finding a way for them to be self-sustained. The challenge is to keep myself from getting involved in every small detail.”
Who is the most inspirational person you’ve had a chance to meet and what impact have they had on you?
“In 2013, I was fortunate to meet Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York (HONY). When he featured Tiwale and me, he asked about the Tiwale model. He said that he was going to take my picture and use it for his small blog. He was a very humble, and I didn’t know what HONY was. As he was leaving he just said, ‘Okay thank you very much for your support.’
What inspired me was the way he helped us. He knew what he had in his platform and he created space for us. Beyond that, he continued to follow up with me about our progress. I just really admire how he genuinely cares about and supports people with the platform he has. His blog has grown so much and he has travelled the world to meet so many people. Yet when I sent him an e-mail, he remembered the exact conversation we had. To me, that is an inspiration.”
Who is Ellen outside of Tiwale? How to achieve balance in your everyday life?
“I love music and I’m a DJ. I consider myself an artist. Sometimes the two parts of my life merge together. We have music events for Tiwale and I come in to DJ.
There are times when I feel like I present a certain person to potential Tiwale sponsors at fundraisers and another person to my friends. I’ve found that in just staying true to myself and really allowing people to know who I am in the same lens as Tiwale and my personal life. You just create more realistic relationships with people. It’s mostly about staying true to your self.”
How do you think the relationship between philanthropy and entrepreneurship will evolve in the future?
“From my perspective, combining social responsibility and entrepreneurship is a great way of ensuring sustainable models. Trying to come up with new initiatives is very important for social development. Including entrepreneurship in the education system and teaching it in a way that inspires young people to think about how they are going to change the world is very important compared to just having philanthropy alone. The two must be brought together.”
What advice do you have for young people who want to make a difference but don’t know where to begin?
“I started by supporting other people and other initiatives. I tell young people to look at what other organizations are doing. Volunteer and be a support system to different initiatives to discover what you want to work on. By taking advantage of other platforms, you can learn a lot from other people and their work.”
If you had one wish that you knew would come true, what would you wish for?
“I would wish for a socially just world with every kind of equality.”
Check out our August Editor’s Pick! Fashion Editor, Vrati Mehra talks about this month’s 5 MUST haves. Don’t let the season go by without this addition to your wardrobe!
Akyl
This simple smooth finish peice says it all - literally! This subtle touch completes every look. Wear it under a suit or at the beach.
Delray
Delray will be gone before you know. This one is all the character your look needs. The grey and black tones keep it subtle. The thrilling textures is where the fun is at. Pair Delray with a dark tone neutrals to add depth to your ensemble. Wear it with your favourite summer colours to draw attention!
Marcoa
This is our remedy to make a basic white tshirt a classy hit. The Marcoa collection comes in 4 colours, each of which help you add style to your look, without any effort.
Beatle
Beatle shouts confidence and style. We love to rock these dark tones of brown at our workplace. Alternatively, pair it with a flow-y peach evening dress and leave it up to Beatle to make an impression.
Qila
Watch out for these! Qila is already a popular favorite! These versatile earrings are how we cap off a neutral ensemble. With Fall right around the corner, your wardrobe is aching for this gold pair!
When Ellen Chilemba was 12 years old, she started her own baking business at a local church. She sold cakes and cookies for a profit and was able to grow her small business into a successful bakery. This was the beginning of Chilemba’s exciting journey in entrepreneurship.
In 2012, Chilemba was featured by the social media phenomenon Humans of New York with a post quoting her intention to start a “micro-finance organization to help women in Malawi get interest free loans”. Fans were redirected to her Facebook page a year later and the social enterprise quickly collected followers and established a significant presence in the online community.
This micro-finance organization is called Tiwale.
It aims to help women lift themselves from poverty to achieve financial freedom and realize their dreams. So far, the group has helped 40 women start small businesses and trained over 150 as part of their entrepreneurship program. Tiwale's newest project shows women how to design and dye-print material that is sold to Malawi's fabric-export traders and shipped worldwide from Chilemba's MHC dorm room. The fabrics design project will result in the creation of a new market, which will bring in new income into the community.
By eventually increasing the daily income from $1 to $7 daily, women will be able to afford more daily expenses and on top of that be able to afford educational fees for themselves and their children. This will mean at least 3000 children will definitely be educated.
For all her success, Ellen Chilemba was honoured as one of Forbes “Africa’s Top 30 Under 30,” a list highlighting Africa’s most promising social entrepreneurs. She is thinking ahead to a future in which Tiwale has grown independent of her. She hopes to invest herself in the tourism industry and the education system in Malawi and ease the difficult economic circumstances that people face in her country. This young, budding social entrepreneur is driven to create change.
Stay tuned for a VEREA exclusive interview with Ellen Chilemba!
Mr. Jyoti Vaidya is the outgoing Chief Election Commissioner and Life Member of the Non-Resident Nepali Association of Canada (NRN-Canada). Alongside the Cross Cultural Learner Centre (CCLC) and NRN-Canada, he has launched the Mahendra Lila Higher School Project in Gorkha, Nepal. Mr.Vaidya was born in Nepal, and moved to Canada in 1998, with his wife and three-year old son. He tells Verea about how the idea came about and shares his realization from his most recent trip to Nepal. They’re all set to begin the project in October, 2015.
1. What urged you to take on this initiative?
“As soon as I heard about the earthquake in Nepal, I was determined to take action towards relief measures. I was quick to get in touch with the Director of CCLC, Mr. Valy Marochko to brainstorm ideas about what we can do to help. With much work needed to repair the entire country, I understood the importance of our effort’s longevity. About 23 years ago, I was actively involved in a Nepalese Youth Group, called Lyayamha Pucha, where we rebuilt a school that fell victim to a major flood. That’s how we came about the idea of revolving our project around rebuilding a school. We knew it would be a long, tough project. But as soon as we came down to the idea, we got in touch with the President of NRN Canada, and started working towards making it happen.”
2. Coordinating rebuilding activities across the globe is no joke. How did you go about the launch of the project?
“We left for Nepal on May 12, 2015 with the mandate to identify a school for the project. We based our decision on five key success factors:
Accessibility and Transportation : We had to locate an area that was accessible by students, workers and our team.
Land : We identified a geologically safe area, and managed to gain the support of local villagers.
Academic Standing : MHLS’s academic average stood at 85% prior to the earthquake, which was more than 35% higher than Nepal’s national average.
Accessibility to Safe Drinking Water : Remote locations, especially on hilltops have limited accessibility to drinking water. This lowers the overall standard of the school and makes the construction process much more difficult.
Public Participation : It is important that the local community feels ownership of the project, and is involved in the decision making. The villagers have shown their commitment to volunteer in the rebuilding process of the school, which is really exciting.
MHLS met all these five conditions. There is a need of this school building. More than 500 children study in that school. Some students walk more than 1.5 hours to reach the school. We returned to Canada on June 9th, 2015 to finalize our project proposal and finally launched the project on June 15th.”
3. Have you received support from anywhere else? Financial or social?
“Rebuilding the school will require $58 000. So far, we’ve hosted fundraising events and concerts to move closer to our target. Thankfully, we’ve been recipients of generous donations from multiple London-based organizations. Within a month, we’ve achieved 16% of our target with accumulated donations of $10,000. I am so thankful that Verea has also come forward to join hands in this cause. We are working on partnering with other organizations as well. NRN-Canada and CCLC are actively involved in fundraising. I am confident that you will hear very good news within a month.”
4. What has been your biggest challenge?
“Fundraising is a challenge to begin with. You need to first find time, and then monetary donations. Persistency is key. Understanding the importance of numbers is also crucial. If we ask people to donate $2, and get the attention of 1,000 people in doing so, that’s $2000 right there. There are so many ways people can help us out. By talking about the initiative, sharing it with their family and friends, our goal will seem closer than ever”
5. What has been your biggest learning thus far?
"My philosophy, when it comes to fundraising, is that every donation is worth more than just the monetary value. It encourages and motivates the team behind the project. Understanding our community’s support and being motivated by it will keep bringing us closer to our goal.”
