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Welcome to the Never Been Promoted podcast. I'm your host Thomas Helfrich. We are on a mission to help you cut the tie to everything holding you back so you can unleash your entrepreneur. We release five shows weekly, all types of guests, and they are really powerful, impactful things to help you move forward. So hit that follow button. That's my only ask. The follow button on your favorite podcast player, Apple, Spotify, crush that follow button. Thank you so much for listening and enjoy Never Been Promoted.
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Hey. Welcome to Never Been Promoted. I am your host, Thomas Helfrich. We are here to help you cut ties to all that shit holding you back so you can unleash this entrepreneur within you, and and you know the things that hold you back. It's the way you think. It's people in your life. It's things you think you're entitled to. And what I hope you get from any one of our guests are the challenges they overcame to get to where they are, the things that they know they're facing. And and in our in our interviews, you will learn something about their business, something you can apply to your business or something you're gonna do in the future. I have a really simple call to action. If you listen on Apple or Spotify, follow it. That's as simple as that. Just hit that follow button. We do tons of content, lots of great interviews, so that way you can get alerted, when it comes out. Today, we're gonna be with, a a few people here. Alaina Baker and Heidi Hamels of, Uplift Malawi. I think I said that right. That's a country. I bet you 99.9% of you listening have no idea it's a country. God knows I didn't. But we're gonna learn about what they're doing there and how they've built this, organization to help others and all the things they went through as a as a not for profit. So let's bring them on the stage. Come on. Oh, see what? That works better like that. Look at that. We can we can I can stack you full full? We I was making a comment on the graphic. If I put you in the kind of small mode, it's way better. I'm not sure how Opus Clips is gonna do this. We're it's gonna be like we just have eyeballs when it makes the short maybe just the mouth, and it's just really not attractive. It's like mouth talking. How are you?
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Wonderful. How about you?
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I'm delicious. Thank you, Bryce. I always answer that in the grocery store that way. How are you doing today? Delicious. Feels like the appropriate place to do that. It is. Right? And and it really tests if people cared or not. Because they don't pick up on that, and they're like, what? It's great. They're not actually listening. They don't care about you. And you should tell them you don't really care about me, do you? When you're doing that with a checkout person, usually, it makes their day when you just start messing with them because they made it easy. Agreed. Completely. Nothing to do with what we're gonna talk about today. Hell. There's a few people. We normally do the the one on one show. So I, you know, we're playing in racquetball. We called cutthroat. So it's two against one. Maybe we'll team up on you know, Elena will team team up on Heidi for a while, and Heidi will team on Elena, and you guys will definitely team up on me to to to find the answers to the questions of life that everyone seeks. Not true also. I'm lying early on in this podcast. Alright. Do an intro, Heidi. You start, and then we'll go to Elena.
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Thank you for that. I'm Heidi Hamels, founder of Uplift Malawi, what used to be known as the Hamels Foundation. And, part of my background is in, third world curriculum development. And, yes, I'm an entrepreneur. I own several other companies, and I think it's been an amazing ride to help harness a nonprofit and make it work like a a an actual company, not just some do gooder situation. But I think it's been an amazing ride to, to be part of Uplift Malawi for as long as we've been doing this and to actually shape quite and Elaine Elena will speak to this, actually shape a country for the better. It's it's been an awesome ride.
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Yeah. Well, thank you. Elena, why don't you jump in now? Yeah. Sure. I'm Elena Baker. I'm the executive director of Uplift Malawi. I've been with the organization for ten years. So, out of out of fifteen, you know, a better part of going through all of the the challenges and the highs and lows and getting us where we're at as Heidi mentioned. Really excited to kind of break into the space of talking about how an organization fits into entrepreneurship, because the journey is really similar and very, very interesting. So,
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I hope to give people a lot of great takeaways from this. I love the idea of a non for profit because it gets people excited to jump in, you know, to give money or to give their time. Mhmm. The thing that scared me as part of these is that I'm I'm no longer the guy that owns it. Yeah. Like, there's a control issue because it's your vision, but then with the with the board, a board can say, sorry. You're out. Mhmm. And also you're you're out of your own vision. And I know that doesn't happen a lot. It's probably an unreasonable thought. But, for those who are because I meet people a lot of entrepreneurs, and they're like, oh, I'm gonna make it a non for profit. I'm like, are are you sure you wanna do that instead of, like, a for purpose b corp? Mhmm. Right? Great. And maybe just to start, you know, when you started this thing, why long ago, you know, I want you to talk about your mission, first of all, but why a non for profit versus just in your organization versus the, like like a like a c corp? Because my premise is and and anyone who's who's listening should know this. If you don't have money, you can't run a business or a not for profit. Everything runs on money. It like, time, even volunteers at some point run out. You need funds. You so so it's not evil. It's what's necessary to get things done. Maybe just go back to getting, how you started it to what what the mission is, what you're trying to accomplish. Get you know, fast forward as three fourths to the movie and then come back to, like, the early days.
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I I think, you touched on something just dead on Thomas, which is, and you didn't say it was fear, but fear based of the what ifs. Right? And especially in a nonprofit, Well, really any company, but in a nonprofit, that's actually how it started was, okay. I I want to be part of something great in this world. I wanna be part of something that would actually change the lives of of children. And when I really started digging deep in what that might look like, a lot of nonprofits out there, were keeping upward of 80% of every single thing you donated. So, yeah, that's very common. That's massively inefficient. It's very, very common in the world. Everybody else. They make their job, their business out of it. Oh, for sure. Elena will, I'm sure, speak to this, but the biggest some of the biggest ones you can think of are in the 90 to 95% that they keep.
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So when I really Sorry. And this is where, like, the, let's say, president or the the leader of it is probably making millions a year. It's like there it's some gross amount of money that's more than going out to what the people are getting. That's absolutely correct.
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So just to your point, Thomas, of saying, you know, what what would be a a fear? My fear is, you know, that is this really impacting a child? Like, really and and and look, we all run on some type of fear, all of us. It's human nature to do so. So my actual fear was, what am I actually doing to help a child? And what does that look like? What to your point, probably more of a control freak over here.
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What does that look like? Anybody who start hey. Anybody who starts a company is a control freak. It's true. It's true. Just accept that as fact. Yes. It's true.
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So I really started, delving into the world of nonprofit and what does that look like. I mean, really look. I I ran a company prior to that. Thank goodness. Because it helps you. If you're starting any company without a p and l, you're starting any company without, a one year goal, five and ten year, you know, just what does that actually look like, and then break those, back down your year into, quarterlies, etcetera. Also to your point, how are you gonna raise money? I mean, there's just so many things that go into a nonprofit, I e business, that you really need to have, you know, wrap your head around. And on top of that, how educated are you in that system? So if you're gonna start a nonprofit, do you know if, like, if somebody wanted to do kidneys and kidney disease, do you know everything about, kidney disease? Do you know everything about the, the new and upcoming research on kidney disease? Do you know all the other nonprofits out there? You know, you really should be well versed in exactly what you want to do. So that led me down a very crazy I don't know. At some point, it's a dream, but I went to several third world countries all throughout Africa, Asia, you name it. I mean, quite a few. And landed in Malawi because Malawi was one of the only places that the government, first off, it's a gun gun free zone, but the government did not necessarily dictate how much money would be allotted to a child. Meaning, if you built something in most countries, the government or a church would take over that entity, and then they would then make the profit on it and then give the scraps to a child. Malawi was one of the only people that I actually interviewed and got to work with the, the, the Ministry of Education. And they said, look. If if you think you can raise the funds, we're gonna we are going to help get the land. We're going to actually work with you. We will help bring teachers in. Just saying, if you can't find a partner like that, you are up against some pretty serious stuff, especially in a third world country.
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So when you're talking with numbers earlier, just so you give a dollar, by the time it gets to the the benefactor, the child Yep. You're seeing, like, 5 or 10¢ of it might get there after you've figured in factored in The US takeout, the government takeout where you're going, the local business that needs its cut. And and and so what you're trying to do is remove as many middle players as possible to go from donor to child. Correct. So donor to teacher child supplies or something. That is absolutely actually impact. So directly impacted. What if I can ask, what's your what's your this is an executive director. Yeah. What is the, what is your guys' ratio then? Yeah. We actually
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operate on a % model still. So every single dollar that is given goes directly to support children in Malawi, our programs, our teachers, our schools. To kind of give the overview of our mission, we build sustainable schools, life skills programs, and local partnerships in Malawi. So every child does have the opportunity to create that brighter future for themselves. We are talking about a developing nation where all of these kids, you know, they may get a third grade level education and then be reintegrated back into the village, and then there's no economic opportunity for them to thrive. So we wanna make sure that every single cent that is being donated to us is going directly to to that mission.
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How do you how do you do that though and still pay yourself a salary or, other team members? Like, is it just volunteered? Or what's the how do you do that? How do you keep the %? We have a very structured endowment fund and operational
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list of funders specifically. So what we kind of do is have we we have buckets that are donor related, but then we have certain donors or partially founders and things like that where that bucket is filled specifically for operations. So that's not coming specifically out of a donor's pocket. And if they choose that that is what they want to support, there's that option too. Mhmm.
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So Well, and the reason I asked is because we're part of a Northpointe community here in Atlanta that's a huge southern church, but they're an outward facing church, meaning they support they don't do sports and all this kind of stuff. It's all volunteer ran for the most part except for our staff. But when they they do a be rich program, they may raise 9,000,000. They give it to organizations directly. So a % comes in. They don't take anything for salaries. That's done from the patrons, the people, the members that pay kind of pay for the church to be there, but then they raise millions and, like, literally more like, it's a 5,000 person type of environment. Right? Literally, you'll do a QR code while you're sitting there. They'll raise, like, $8,000,000 in, like, 200. That's that's so rare. You guys should be on that list of places. I don't know. I just use US and only, but, like but if you're if you have a mall and I think they look for people who go the money goes right into actually help. So they're like frontline peep people. Yep. Anyway, I just hey. Entrepreneurship, you get unsolicited advice. You like it or not. That's how we roll entrepreneurs. So I'm just I understand that model. You have money. You'd love to be on that list, number one. And number two I have no I've no I I wouldn't know how to do it. I just know No. But that's such a good exactly what they do with it. That's exactly right. In a way of donor money to benefit something, and they've handpicked the partners that also have that, like, well, we're we take our we buy resources from whatever x, and we fly them ourselves there, and we actually hand them out ourselves there. Literally. Many
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middle middle people removed. So that's great. Yeah. We literally take suitcases full of books and backpacks and shirts and stuff with us when we go, to eliminate any possible risk that is not getting directly to the child. Like, it goes from our hands to the child or the children. And when it it can't be us, that's why local partnerships are so important because we've built these relationships with people that we can trust because we've learned our lessons on that, believe me, where, you know, you send something over and it never gets there. It's intercepted by the government or whoever before it even even gets to the school or the campus. So Well, I love that because it's like when you then do a funds campaign,
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you can claim by audited books that you're like, hey. A % of this donation will go to them. Yes. And here's the details of what that is to the pencil, the eraser, to the piece of paper, right, to the hour that we pay the teacher. In a separate dinner, it's like, hey. We're running money for our organization. So when we do these campaigns to this but you you, you know, wealthy individuals give us money for the endowment piece or whatever. The point is it's separate and it's clear Exactly. That that operational money is for internal versus external facing. And then you're what you're telling me in the muddy waters of bigger organizations, facing. And then you're what you're telling me in the muddied waters of bigger organizations, they muddy that intentionally so they can make as much as possible. Yeah. They would never say that, but you're you're you're saying that basically there's a lot of waste Well,
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yeah. And I would say too, it's interesting because the landscape of that is changing in the nonprofit world. So I think even the 100% model is becoming kind of a buzzword for people where there's this understanding that in the past, there's been a turn off to donating to organizations because you're not sure about how much money is going to that specific cause, what impact it's making. But then we've leaned into this era of authenticity, and you can source where funds are going. And when people hear 100% model, they're thinking, okay. That's wonderful and all, but that's not attainable for a lot of organizations. Right? So there is more of a fine line now of people who are genuinely okay with their donation going to paying a portion of a salary or a portion of a program because that is still a direct impact. Those things wouldn't be happening. The mission wouldn't be possible without doing those things. It's like if there is an actual breakdown that they're able to to see, which I mean, that's why there are, many, many websites you can go on and check where nonprofits funds are actually okay with that because they understand that that's part of what it takes to run the nonprofit in the program. So it's interesting to kind of see that landscape changing where it was a a really big turn off for many many years. And now it's becoming almost the opposite where if you have a 100% model that you're shoving down people's throats, it becomes equally as annoying. So,
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I mean, annoying is I get that. And it's like, I would say, I just would like to know that the dollar I gave for this cause is going to who you said it would, and you have your business in place. And that might just because I run a business, I get it. You can't run anything. But but for you to present that, as long as you're like, no. We have other funds, other campaigns that help fund this to allow us to do this. Mhmm. Okay. I'm good with that. Because I don't wanna give a dollar so you can run your business to another campaign down the world. It's like I don't, you know, I don't care about parts of Indiana. Yeah. I don't know. Whatever. The point is Valid. I also don't want you to have a $42,000,000 a year, you know, office that doesn't that takes away from that. But if I know you can have it as long as I know that dollar goes there. So it to me, it clears the path to add value to the mission. I don't know. Let let me tie that to entrepreneurship. So I think when you guys are doing that, that's a conscious decision, though. Yeah. Mhmm. Yes. Yep. So talk through me through that. I mean, a little bit. I think we've touched on it. But have you seen were you always like that, first of all? And and have you seen an you know, and and then talk about the impact when you do that, like, with the the business outcome? So I guess from taking that model. Yeah. Yeah. We've always operated on that model,
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which has been really, really fantastic. So as Heidi mentioned, we, were formerly known as the Hamels Foundation. So we operated both in The US and in Malawi. Recently is since 2022, '20 '20 '3, after COVID and many, many other disasters that struck Malawi, we recentered our mission directly on Malawi itself because of all of the things we learned, we saw the impact that we were making and that it was really working. So we're able to kind of harness all of these things that we were talking about. And so, Thomas, when you're talking about understanding where all of the money is going and that being a conscious decision, it also helps us measure our metrics so much closer, like, to the number, to the child, and follow their educational journey and where they end up afterwards. So for example, we just ran a campaign for new school uniforms, because that's something that we supply our children. We were able to bring the seamstresses on campus. They made them directly in the setting that they would be going out in, and they were handed directly over to a child, and we know that 168 children got new school uniforms. So being able to measure that impact down to a number, down to a child and see the direct impact, is is really one of those reasons why we continue to make sure that we can operate on on that model currently.
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Yeah. I I think you were gonna say something too about that. The it didn't jump on you. Yeah. No. No. I was
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really, that's the same. The model started that way because I think like most people listening to this, back to the idea of how much of my money actually goes to this cause. In our case, it's a child. But, I work with so many people and have worked with so many people that have this exact same you know, they just wanna give. They wanna be part of something good. They wanna be part of something bigger than themselves. And I wanted to create something that stood for that for that exact thing. So the to your point, the inception of this and all of all of its worldly value here, it started with the with the notion of how how can I actually change the life of a child? And I don't know how to look you in the eyes and say that if sixty, eighty, 90 percent is not going to a child. I just couldn't do it. So I'm like and look. All of us could pick other well, I have picked other businesses, but all of us could pick other things to do than helping another human. We could all do something. But I really thought that especially starting this, gosh, well over a decade ago, Malawi at the time was the largest AIDS HIV percentage in the world per capita. I mean, you could not have gone, yeah, you could not have gone a mile down the road without I I'm not kidding. The first time I was there, I don't think I ever met a single human over the age of 30 because they had all been deceased from prior. They will most of them have AIDS, HIV, and they end up dying, from malaria. So it complicates their situation. And then there's such a stigma on that, Thomas. There's such a stigma, and then the education piece is missing, because they're not educated about what AIDS, HIV actually was. And I imagine this is well over a decade ago. And so I just wanted to be part of something that actually changed, like, actually changed the entire country, and Elena will attest to this. Not just changed the entire country, but used women to change an entire country. And look, I'm very I wanna be very clear. I'm very pro guy and all the things about men who by the way, who have helped me have all been, men actually in this industry. So very pro guy. It just so happens that to change this country, it had to start with women. And, I'm telling you, well over a decade later, when we would have gone to our school of and I wanna be clear for the people listening. This is not a school that you would see that's a dilapidated building or anything. This this really looks like a college campus out in the middle of death and despair. I mean, it's it's quite a beacon of hope for A prep and a pride for anybody who gets to go there too that I get to go to that building and learn. It it it really, really is the hope that and look, in a country where everybody is dying, hope is hope is your best vessel. Okay? And then a clean water source would have been next in electric another question. It's like one of the bigger problems with the areas.
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It's the basics. Like, stuff that we were like they they some of the my understanding is some of the water that would be drank, you wouldn't even give your cat. I mean, it's like like, you just the, you know, the the health. I I had a question. It was just kind of how much since in the ten years have you guys raised for that benefit?
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Over over 4,600,000.0.
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Wow. Is it escalating? So have you you gotten better and better at your fundraising techniques and
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until COVID. Well, it really does. And that's just kind of what it is to be a part of the nonprofit world. So, that's where I would say COVID had a really big impact. Right? Because there were some people who were really tapping into being donors and giving and giving money away, seeing that there were people who were in greater need than we even were. But also, it was a really, really shy year for donations because people didn't have extra money to give. And so, COVID and the challenges that came from that have really kind of harnessed, a different landscape of fundraising for nonprofits. Right? It took away the ability to have in person events if that's what your nonprofit, thrived on. So there was a shift to virtual events or no events or completely changing what fundraising looks like for your organization. So we've had to navigate that space for sure. It did feel like a starting over point for us. But we are we are learning at this point what works for us now, which is really, really interesting. For example, you know, a lot of people harness the world of digital marketing and social media. But as a nonprofit who doesn't wanna put a ton of funds to sponsoring post and things like that because it may come off as inauthentic or is that where your money is really going? Walking that line, it's do we go back to traditional marketing methods? One of our most successful fundraising campaigns this year was because we sent a mailer out and handwritten notes to all of our donors and making Handwritten is super effective. Mhmm. If you have good writing, if you're in mind with Chinese
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with or Filipino, what is this? I mean, we have no idea how to pronounce it. Yeah. So it's it's navigating that whole space all over again, which has been a really interesting ride. It's been really fun, but also it's had its challenges as well. I'm gonna I'm gonna show something. Okay. I'm gonna give you my best my best marketing thing is this I'm gonna I'm gonna do it right now. So if you want, our marketing plan for my marketing company, interesting entree, preneur. Alright. So this is really bad. But this is our marketing technique that works super well. Instagram post where I hold up what I want and I post it. Yeah. No music, nothing. Yep. And I I will I tell people this because, you you know, because I I my main company is instantly relevant. It's a marketing agency, and we focus completely on organic. We don't do the ad side. We just we help you build a brand. Right? What you guys have is a brand, and I I I just for once again, unsolicited entrepreneur advice is what you get. Like it or not, you can't even hang up at this point. It would be embarrassing, so you have to listen. That's awful. And then is simplify it. It's it's like just, hey. Are you interested in helping a child? Mhmm. Yes. Cool. That's right. Here's a QR yeah. DM. Yes. But yes. Cool. Send a dollar. That's right. I mean, it's enough to get the it gets a serious conversation started through your go high level, whatever your marketing is. Like, listen. We'd love to send you where that dollar, hundred percent, all the shit that $1 will buy. Sorry. Shit. Sorry. Yep. Yep. I'm gonna cuss. You don't have to. It's bad for your brand. I just kinda get passionate, and then the customers start flying, and then next thing I'm shirtless, and it's weird. Okay? I just it it's, also not true. But if you could show, like, a dollar and get 17 pencils, four, you know, four weeks of paper, and, two lunches for a kid Mhmm. And they're like, and here's actually what they get for that dollar. Someone's like, well, shit. I'll give 10. Yeah. I'll do it every month, actually. That does a kid's whole month. Right? And my point is, maybe you guys are doing this. I but that simplicity in that little post it note would work for you because it just says, yeah. I'd like to help a child.
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Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I think, you know, we've started to kind of do that on a a personal level too as introducing our donors to a specific child. Like, hey. This is Samuel. He loves these things. Give directly to him. Do you know what I mean? Pay for his uniform. Pay for his two meals a day for $5, you know, and assigning those, you know, dollar targets to exactly what
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it is giving to those children or campus or Set up a camera in that other end and be like, that Samuel comes on. Hey. Thank you, mister Thomas, for for this. This really means a lot to me. You'd be like, just $700 take it. Yeah. Like, give me. Now are you talk about this. Are there things that you've so thinking about the business side, are there things that would work, but you said no to? And an example I'm coming to come up with is a Thera McLaughlin Don't Kill Pets. You know? I will ring. Like, it's so heavy handed. Good god. I mean, like, I don't really like dogs, but I'm still not sending money. Like, that's do you do you have things you just said that would work, but no?
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Yeah. I mean, it's called poverty porn.
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I mean, it's what Poverty poverty what? Poverty porn. Porn. Like Oh, okay. That's I heard the word correctly. Yeah. I I was like
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You'd you'd never want to solicit funding based off somebody's worst
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Like the potbelly kid with the flies in the eyes, the whole thing? Yeah. It's like, yeah, that may be true, but it's also
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to what extent and what are you doing about it. Mhmm. It's just if you wouldn't want your child portrayed that way or your situation portrayed that way, you have to do it the most authentically for what it is. And that doesn't mean that you can't show the sad, horrible, devastating things that are happening. It's just to make that your entire message or your entire campaign or, make that kind of the staple to which you're known by. It's it's no. We wanna flip that script. We want to be known for the hopeful aspect of it, for the impactful aspect of it. So definitely, there are things where, you know, it may work to really pull emotions and heartstrings in a drastic way, but you can do it in a way that's still respectful of a person,
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and their situation. So our country. Right? Not to get the wrong perception of Ethiopia that everyone there is starving. That there's lots of people, but not everyone is. It it's like you get these images of certain countries. You're like, oh, I would never visit there. Like, every like, well, it is bad, but it's not it could there are pockets that people are trying. And I I agree, and I think I think that's a brand decision. I think you guys said you recently went through a rebranding too. You wanna wanna talk about why you what was wrong or right or what was changed in the last ten years and Yeah. How I guess, go through the kind of process of how it came about and what the what your intended impact is. And and because I think when people think about rebranding Mhmm. They spend too much time to it and they do it too often. They could be it's it's Agreed.
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But but for you, you you know, it's ten years in. You did it. What talk talk me through this process a bit. Yeah. Sure. So when we were known as the Hamels Foundation, we had a dual mission. So we focused on The US and Malawi. The whole idea for starting the Hamels Foundation was to focus on building a school in Malawi. However, a lot of the, you know, sources of funding were saying, hey, what about The US side of things too? There's there's problems here. There's impacts that can be made. So one big lesson that was learned is don't let, you know, whether it's board members or major funders steer your mission in any other direction than what you're specifically focused on. So lesson number one was there because what that led us into was many, many years of an identity crisis. People not knowing, hey, am I giving to a US program right now? Am I giving to Malawi program right now? How is this even connected? Because education in Malawi looks so different than what education in The US looks like. And this ties kind of full circle back to something you had mentioned earlier, Thomas, of, you know, a water source not even being something that you would take your cat to. You know, education in Malawi starts with basic necessities being met. If that can't happen,
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quality education can't happen. I mean, you can't build a building with shit water coming in and electricity. Yeah. Like, it can all start. Yeah. It doesn't work. Blasting out. Or even getting, like, the right concrete to make the building to last more than ten years. Like Sure. Like, the materials aren't even the same. Like, in in getting them into the country without getting them robbed and Yeah. Exactly. Or making sure that that community has the resources to upkeep
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that new thing that you just gave them.
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But that's also the job creation. Right? So they're getting paid to do that. And then the then money in a in a community helps. Right? Like, people spend it. They Exactly. They invest in, you know, their own small businesses and chicken farms. No. They're like, you know, there's guys in my team who are in parts of Africa, and they're like, you know, when they they they do writing projects so they can do a local chicken, like, egg market. Like, I mean, like, that's why they don't know how we write because this this is, like, the a great business here, but we need cash to buy the chicken. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
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So, I think we operated knowing that for a little while. We're like, how are we going to shift? And then COVID naturally kind of put us in that position where we saw many organizations offering support to US because we could go with virtual learning or set up Wi Fi hub spots and all of these things where we didn't really have a direct space in The US anymore. But what we were finding was when the doors closed at our school in Malawi, the just complete backset and reset that happened, was devastating. Right? The the level of illness went up. The level of child pregnancy and marriage went up. All of these things that we have spent ten years, fifteen years trying to counteract and and showing results that we were, you saw in a matter of a year start popping back up again. And so right after COVID, they had Cyclone Freddy hit, which devastated many communities, pummeled homes, all of that, and then they had a call. Everyone knows the cyclone is still a hurricane. Just Yes.
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It is just as big. It's just called differently. It comes the opposite direction.
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And then right after cyclone Friday was, the worst cholera outbreak in modern history. So you're talking about a a nation who's not equipped to handle a single one of those issues, who handled three back to back. Our campus actually became a shelter for those who lost their homes because we do have solar water on campus and things like that. So, we have this community focus that's really important as well. So ultimately, what we learned is in order to have the greatest impact Mhmm. We need to focus on Malawi because no one's doing what we're doing in Malawi. Mhmm. We're talking about, you know, there are 98,000,000 children in Sub Saharan Africa that don't have access to school. And that is the only place, only region in the entire world where that number continues to rise except our area in Malawi because what we're doing is having an actual long term impact. You have many organizations who will go into, a place in a developing nation like Africa, you know, or Asian countries or things like that that will pop a school building there and then they'll leave. Mhmm. And these teachers and community members and children have no idea what to do with that new resource. Right? So that's why there's a sustainability component to our school campus, and school campuses that we hope to build in the future is making sure that they, you know, there is a cooking facility that they're getting fed two meals a day, that their solar water that the entire community can access, that is not impacted by their direct funds to pay for water or pay for electricity. That is always functioning because we've put the the renewable aspect in there for them. Yeah. We have teacher housing on campus. So we're bringing back university educated teachers who worked so hard to get out of this village setting, this rural setting. Going to university, creating a better life for themselves, and having this incentive to bring them back to give other children the opportunity to do the same thing. So that's kind of where in addition to learning how to meet those basic necessities and how an actual environment can facilitate that is how do we instill these skills themselves and train vocational skills into the children so they have opportunity beyond just a curriculum based education. And so that's another thing that makes us different as an organization that we have learned just as a business would of what makes you different, what makes you unique, what working for you that you need to chase after is life skills programs. Yep. And for us, that is having a a water sanitation and hygiene program, where girls are, you know, they have a private bathroom. They're learning about their periods and how to take care of themselves where where both boys and girls are learning about sexual health and reproduction to allow those HIV and AIDS rates to go down. Right. They're gonna wash their hands and take care of themselves. All of these things that seem so basic and inherent to us, but that they don't go home to a home with running water to be able to learn these things or still live in a culture where half of these things are taboo to talk about. Mhmm. We have agricultural aspects. We have an orchard on campus. The teachers housing has gardens and chickens and things of that nature where the kids are actually able to learn hands on skills. I had mentioned when we ran our uniform campaign, the seamstresses actually came on campus so the kids could learn the trade of what they were doing and see the return of that. So we just actually started a new sewing and knitting program at the school, so the kids would be able to have that. We have sports programs. Giving them these outlets to learn other things, but also pour themselves into that makes them a whole well rounded individual and doesn't expect them to come into a classroom setting for for eight hours a day, because that also doesn't work in this country.
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So you you guys had talked about, like, the rebranding. So you you came from another organization. Did you take talk about that because you the flip came to drive these the all the things you're describing as value and the all the things you need to do Mhmm. To get to education. So people don't think, hey. It's just books. Like, no. No. Like, to get there, education requires infrastructure resources and all those other things. The rebranding then was specific to get away from that image to say, we have to do all these things to get there. Exactly. We were But I understand, like, the business, like, you guys really tied it in because that was missing. And you you just you described all the benefits, but that was the business decision on rebranding is to get from a to b.
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Yeah. And to have our mission that actually says we build sustainable school campuses, life skills programs, and local partnerships so every child has the opportunity for a brighter future. Be able to directly
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have our mission state what it is that we do because of everything that we have learned. And, Heidi, you can jump in. Yeah. No. I was just gonna say, just to be clear, we were doing all that in Africa. Right? We were. We started with curriculum based models. That's why it actually worked. And because my my background is in third world curriculum development. So that is why this the plan we went in with actually worked. The difference was, to Lena's point was, we were also listening to a lot of people here in The States, and I think that's good. I think we should have. But they were also saying, hey. What about what about our kiddos? You know? So we were fully running this school and everything we signed up for at the same time of running an American initiative. And so what ended up happening with the American initiative was that if we raised a million dollars, it helped very mildly when I tell you. It might have built a school, a playground, which which is wonderful. Our kids need these things, especially in some of the cities we've been in. But only to have the school shut down a year later, it it was heartbreaking. It's it's it's just heart it was it was it was it just kept happening year after year. It's a reminder in that community that just like, here it is. There it is. It's so true, though. So we would put out massive amounts of work and, you know, structure into the American side as well only for a lot of it to be kind of destroyed or taken away. We just it didn't to Lena's point, it just did not impact the world or a child the way we would have wanted to. And the whole time, what's happening over in Malawi is that we went from, you know, like I said, the most devastating AIDS HIV population in the world to now having a school that we tested kids, gosh, you know, what, ten years later. And we had one child, one, with AIDS and HIV. That's the power of AIDS. I'm the one. Yes. That's the power of education done correctly with system. That's that's incredible metric. It it is. It is. So that's insane. And and that's where we're coming from is, hey. This is really do this is moving the needle. Right? In every company, I ask that in every company. What are you doing to move the needle? What is it? Because if it's not moving the needle, we need to get rid of that practice. So Aline is correct. It was not moving the needle in America.
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I exactly. I think the unsaid thing here too is, the child's experience of life Mhmm. In Malawi or any other anywhere is just as valuable as an American one. Correct. It's still human. It's still a person who is like the relative change you do for The US for for the same amount of money is not even marginally measurable. Yeah. Yeah. Because they can just go home and probably have a phone or somebody else's and play on it, and they're super entertained, like, and drink some water and spill half of it on the ground or pee in it, and they don't care. It it doesn't matter. Like like, it it it it it's not that it was it's not noble, whatever else. It's just self centered. Mhmm. And and I get it because we have to take care of our own, but we're we're a land of many, and there's plenty of entitlement. I have to guess the entitlement that you see here in The US or in wealthier countries is not found in because there's no room for it. No. Like, you expect baby to be fed, but not every day sometimes in some of these communities. Like, it's like, I want my mom like and you're you're competing against a family saying, hey. If if you're in school, you're not making food or getting water or doing the things or hustling to go eat the things you need to do. You you have to actually fill a gap of that child's no longer needed to be fed. They get a little bit to take home. They have water, so it's one less burden. They're you know, so you're you're you don't I get it. It's not a perspective that I've ever really thought of until later in life, but if you're just trying to impact humanity, you start where it hits hardest. Mhmm. Correct. And you also had to operation be able to function too. There's probably other countries that could even be better where there's just genocide and other things going on, but you can't get there safely enough to be effective and sustained.
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That is absolutely correct, and we have tried, and it is absolutely correct. My It's dangerous too. I mean, you're you're coming in there, but It is. And my the mentality
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of environments, I there's no way in hell I'd be like, you're not going there. Hell. No. I don't care if you have a security team. No. Well, true. Even in peaceful countries such as Malawi,
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if you go into their refugee camps, you have to imagine there's seventeen, eighteen countries all within one refugee camp and can also be dangerous. So, I mean, I I don't know if people understand that when they're when they're really delving into the land of of third world countries. But on on that note, specifically, I had a mentor, Bill Rankin, doctor Bill Rankin, who is has now deceased who runs, who ran and and is the founder of Gaia, Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance, who him and his wife just reshaped absolutely reshaped the entire country of Malawi. Anyways, he was my mentor. I got to travel with him quite often. And I asked him, Bill, tell me tell me why why this country? You know? And first off, of course, he'd say, well, why not? Why not this country? But I said, what do you say to people when they say, you know, let's let's help our own? Because, look, I have I have children as well. I mean, we you know, a lot of us that you that you want what's best for your child. And he he was a reverend, but he would always say, just explain to me the difference between any of God's children.
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Well, that's I mean, that's a perspective. It it's still a soul Yep. And help and needs some help. And, I mean, the it it seem more troubling when you describe the other countries where it's, like, it's systematically not allowed to help. Mhmm. It it Correct. It's like it's like I don't know what comes to that, honestly. I because it it's just a never ending cycle of power of It is. Let's be honest, men being idiots. This I mean, okay. I love what you guys are doing. I love that you're you're you've you've organized this. Look. Let's talk about the future. You know? It's like, it what's next for your organization? What's the biggest challenge you gotta overcome?
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Yeah. I think, because we're really settling into our rebranding. Right? And and part of that, like, you were saying from a business perspective is finding the thing that you can be best at, the thing that you can harness and and run with that maybe a lot of other people aren't doing. And I think, you know, it's similar to the hedgehog concept or, you know, onlyness and all of that is really settling into what that looks like for us. Means that we get to run with that in the future and and really focus on building those life skills programs that we talked about. And then ultimately, one day we would like to see more support for secondary level education for school. Right now supports, grades one through eight, and we scholarship students through the remainder of their education, but we have a way less control over what their environment actually looks like. So we know that, you know, education goes beyond infrastructure itself, but having some level of control over that infrastructure is really important. So, we definitely have our our sights set high on what that can look like. We've changed our structure for supporting what secondary education looks like this year. So we'll see where that's headed. But in our first year alone, you know, we were able to, increase the number of children we served from 600 to 1,200. So we doubled that number in just the first year of rebranding alone. It's a lot of resources to get to that. A lot of resources. And teachers and Exactly. And right now, we're making sure that our policies are in place to, continue to support that 1,200 and then see where we can go in the future with that.
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What's a hundred dollars due for a child?
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A lot.
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Is it is it 2 weeks, a year, a half month? I mean, what's the what is it what's that translate to when it gets like, go to the benefactor. Like, what what does that child get?
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We always equate a hundred dollars to two desks. So you'd be supporting, four students because we do two students to a desk. That would also incorporate a local craftsman coming into the school and teaching the children how to build one of those desks. And then we always give the donor recognition with a little plaque on the desk. So if they ever were to come visit campus, they would see directly where, their dollars went. So that is a a very tangible way that a hundred dollars, you know, would support a student. But, I mean, if we're talking on an even more basic level, five dollars five dollars feeds, a student two meals a day. $10 Oh, how long? The entire year. The entire year. What? Yep. So
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Okay. Wait. Wait. $5 feeds a two students?
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One. One student, two their two meals a day for the entire year.
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That I mean, from an impact standpoint, people, like, the I I like, to me, it's like like alright. It's just like, you know, like, it's like, just don't go drink one night. Go don't go out to dinner one night, and you can sit coffee in the morning. My kids Yeah. A year. Yep. Yep. Yep. So And then to the point where it's like, people are like, I'm moving to whatever city that school's in in my like, that becomes the biggest because we could just send our kids there all day. Oh, that's great. That is Thomas, that's absolutely what they do. Yes. They should because, like, this is the best place in the world to get water. My kids have something to do all day, and and they're less a burden on us, which means we don't have to make as much food. And they they Also,
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I wanna point on just because I think this is incredibly important to know that if one child from that family unit goes to our school, this specific school, not like here in America, and I love I love America. I wanna be very clear about that. Love love that every person that's fought for this country love America. Just saying in this exact situation, my kids don't come home excited about what they learned and sharing with me and their brothers and sisters. And can you believe we did this thing? Where in Malawi, One kid can be sent, and that one child comes back to the entire family unit and teaches the entire family unit what they learned that day. So you are not teaching one child. You are teaching a a a country, quite literally an entire country.
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It's it's it's a pretty Well, I mean, that was exactly the point. I do miss I was gonna make it that not only does the child come home and everyone in the family gets to learn, which is is fun for them to see the child's eyes light up that they know something. It gives the child confidence, and they it reinforces the learning by teaching. Yep. So they actually become better students by teaching. Yep. And I'm sure they get questions and other things, you know. Wow. It's just it's it's amazing, really. Yeah. Or I just donated 300 right now. Thank you, Thomas. I might it's not that much. I just like, I'm, you know, you guys in events and That's amazing. That is amazing. I like five. So that's 60 kids Yep. In a feed Yes. Through mail to detail. Or or you know what? You can go down 50 and get the 10 really good ones, something extra. I'm okay with the competitive you know what I was thinking in this environment? It it did like, they give kids a microphone to record themselves about their experiences. And and the idea being, like, don't take our word for it. Our kids have this mic they can go record how they feel about what they got, what they learned today. And from a marketing standpoint, not only does it give kids some kind of an outlet to get they're gonna be kinda Of course. Part of a digital world that they are going to be part of the next twenty years, like it or not. Yeah. Even in their in that country, it'd be interesting to hear their voices, like, just they can freely go record something. You you record them and take the ones you are, you know are they are they learning English, or is it done in native language as well? Yeah. English? They learn English. Yeah. Yes. That's, I mean, that's a super viable asset to escape that. The first the first time I landed in Malawi, it was it was a little harder harder press to find somebody that spoke English.
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The school is how far from the airport, Elena? I mean, it's a ways. Hours? Yeah. I was gonna say two, two and a half. That could be 20 miles there. Like, you know, like, it's like That's true. That's true. But so then, you know, five, six years later after, developing this school and and them speaking English, somebody greeted me at the airport speaking English. And I said, oh my goodness. I said, where where did you learn English? You know? And they said, oh, from this Namunda school. My cousin goes there. It's it's our school. I just was like, this is this is just full full circle. It's just a really cool thing to be part of.
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Alright. I'm doing a social media post right now that an amazing organization. I'm gonna tag you guys real quick in it. We do stuff real time. Thank you. Sorry. What what is it the, Uplift? Is that on Facebook how you guys have it? Yes. Alright. Hold on. See,
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Uplift Malawi on all socials.
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Alright. I'll make sure I do. It's not picking it up right now, but that's okay, to get it in there. But, yeah, no. I'll I'll definitely do that. $5 a a buys a child two meals a day for a year. Hundred percent goes to the kids. Yep. Yep. That is truly amazing. And and I think I think if you set your organization up correctly to be able to function and live and go do this, I actually think it's how now for profit should be set up. It should be very clear that the dollar I give goes Mhmm. % to that organization, not through middle people. Mhmm. And that should be I think and I think maybe you have to show that where the money but maybe actually downstream. I don't think you're required to do that. Right? You're not required to show that dollar got spent $10 to bribe this official, twenty dollars to bribe that official, and, you know, it's like No. That It should be though. Yep.
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100%. Usually, all that's masked in, like, a program cost or whatever it may be. But we we have a very specific way that we break down budgets, and the line items are very clear. And, anybody can request that information or find it online too. So it's
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It's it's it's interesting because, like, the country matters so much. I was just thinking from the logistics that right is if if, country's government's like, hey. No. We have the right banking techniques, so you could literally direct pay a teacher. Mhmm. Right? And say, hey. We actually pay that teacher, and that teacher is someone that we've registered. We know who it is. We've met them. And you could direct, you know, direct source the local person sending the money. Here's all the products. Someone on-site has confirmed that all those were bought. So, like but that all starts at a government level to do that It does.
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And access. It absolutely does. It it actually actually have a system like that in place where we do what's called topping up a salary. So we're paying them more on top of their salary to Yeah. It's that their needs are met and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, where you where you choose to do your business or run your nonprofit has a huge impact on, you know, the relationships and what you're able to to offer the people that you're serving for sure.
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That's a %. So, alright. I shared that post. Thank you. Why not? No. Thank you, guys. Originally, you guys have, you you jumped into our community. I I I'm I'm truly on a mission to help entrepreneurs get better. If this helps your organization, be right back at you. Here you go. Awesome. Listen. Thank you. Shameless plug time. I know we're over just a little bit here, but, who wants to take the shameless plug between the two of you? Because you're going full screen.
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Elena. I can do it. Go for it. Shameless plug beans. Donate. Visit upliftmalawi.org. Follow Thomas's lead. As we just talked about, $5 a day feeds one student two meals for the entire year. So we're talking about, you know, if we had a goal of $6,000, we'd feed the entire school, all of their meals for for the entire year. Other ways to get involved are follow us on social media at uplift malawi. Start getting to know these kids and their stories. Start getting to understand the ways that you can help and be impacted. And, we're hoping within the next two years to take a group with us to Malawi. So the more you get involved now, the the more likely it will be that we get to meet in person and, you get to see the direct impact that you're making for yourself.
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And, also, like, you know, you guys have, only, like, about 31 followers on Facebook. We can talk offline how to get that up there without paying for it. That's what our new page. Our old page had more, but, you know, that's that's what rebranding has done. So Right. Right. But it's a climb. Right? And, but that but go follow the page, check out what you're doing, and and and keep keep moving forward. Every every, it's the atomic habits one percent. Right? Just keep building on top of each one. Exactly.
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Thank you guys so much for jumping in here today with me. I really appreciate the extra time too. Yeah. Thomas, I really thank you. Thank you for your time and your effort. And thank you actually, genuinely, thank you for doing this for other entrepreneurs.
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It's it's awesome that you're doing this. I I truly appreciate that. I have a high passion for whatever your entrepreneur goes through and all that. You guys were talking about this fear thing earlier. Actually, the video I just released on YouTube, and I put in the comments of it's the fear excuse cycle Mhmm. Of how it it really creates, you know, limits your potential, creates resentment, but also it it negates the grateful vulnerable cycle, Like, doing that, which takes which is intentional. So I put that in the comments, like, if you wanna learn more about that, literally, it's the video that went out, like, four minutes before we talk. So, which probably means this one will ruin the metrics on that one. I don't care. I don't get all that. We just we just pump out content blindly. Anyway, thank you so much. I'm gonna guide listen. I I love it. I've done some posts. We'll do a lot more coming. We have a whole magazine article coming behind this, with it. But I'm gonna put you in the periwinkle room as I call it, and then I'll be right back with you. Perfect. Thank you. Hey. Thank you so much for everyone who's made it and listened as far, into the show. You know, the upliftmalawi.org. I will spell that with uplift. I hope you get this one, upliftmalawi.org. A % of what you you would give goes to a child. 5 freaking dollars feeds a kid twice a day for a year. That's insane. Like, you can't even get a Chick fil A anything for that. Like, you can't say the words I owe $5. I said Chick fil A. Like, that's how expensive it is. You don't need to do that there, and Chick fil A would probably destroy anybody who ate it there. It doesn't matter. $5. So don't be cheap. Go get, like, a hundred bucks or something. Right? Feed a few. Thank you, everyone who's listened. Get, get out there. Go and lease your entrepreneur. If you're listening to this, or even if you're watching it, give a follow that there's an actual follow button on Apple or Spotify. It's all I ask you to do because we got lots of great guests and incredible content that comes out that's real, authentic, and it's helped you, designed to help you cut the tie to all that crap holding you back. Thanks for listening. Hey. Before you go, hit that follow button on your favorite podcast player, Apple, Spotify. Crush that little follow button so you get the latest episodes as they come out. Thank you so much for listening to the Never Been Promoted podcast.