What a great year we had here at Join My Village!  Thanks to your support and engagement, we were able to unlock $900,000 for CARE programs in Malawi four weeks early.  What a great testament to the power of online actions to help us enact change!

We made great strides in 2011.  We welcomed Merck as a new partner which helped us release even more funds.  We saw the number of secondary school scholarships nearly double – increasing from 161 in Year 1 to 241 in Year 2.  And some of these new girls were helped by reference materials in their primary schools in Kasungu provided by Join My Village.  We also were able to provide mentoring for over 250 secondary school girls which helps them in their studies and to be successful in their schools.  

Our VSLA’s show an even better story.  In Year 1, Join My Village was working with 130 VSLA’s.  In Year 2, we worked with over 300.  Which means that we went from working with approximately 3,200 women to over 7,500!  Some villages even have multiple VSLA’s since the community members have seen how well the concept works for the members.  Our goal is continue growing these VSLA’s and involve more women – and even men – in the coming years.  

In addition, our team continues to work on building houses for teachers – we have built 16 houses since we launched and have 3 others under construction.  Primary schools continue to benefit from reference materials and we were able to provide assertiveness training to over 100 primary school girls.  By reaching these girls at the primary school level, we are helping increase their success and get them ready for secondary school.  

On behalf of all of us at Join My Village, tayamika for all of your support.  As we start in Year 3, we have some more exciting programs and stories to share.  So be sure to visit often and invite your friends to Join My Village!