Students working to begin microlending program in Malawi

Four Bellarmine students plan to spend their summers in Africa. For one student, it is returning home to Malawi, but for the other three is it the opportunity of a lifetime.

Tumaini Malenga, a senior, is headed home for the first time in five years. Home for Malenga is Malawi, Africa. One would expect Malenga to take time and settle into her homeland, but that is not an option in Malenga's mind. She intends to show the struggles of her people to Bellarmine students in hopes of enlightening and inspiring them to help.

"Tuma is an incredible person who wants to make a change for her people. I am honored to be a part of that change," said Hannah McNally, a junior.

Three junior Bellarmine students, Rachel Henderson, Sergio Victor, and Hannah McNally will accompany Malenga to Malawi and spend the summer working with a number of organizations to help the people of Malawi, an incredibly impoverished country highly affected by the AIDS epidemic.

"The opportunity presented itself. I had to take it," said Henderson. "The experience of a lifetime and the opportunity to help. It was not an option to say no."

One organization the group will help is the Friends of Mulanje Orphans, a non-profit organization set up to help children who were orphaned by AIDS. The students will help with construction, healthcare, education, and entertainment for the children at the orphanage.

Volunteering in the local hospitals and at women's shelters is another area these students are exploring.

Malenga and Victor have spent the last semester doing an independent study on microfinance in Malawi. A micro loan is a small loan given to a family who is struggling to get by. The loan is used to provide lessons about a trade to begin a small business. Eventually the loan is paid back and the family is able to provide for themselves.

"Microfinance has given the world's poor a chance at profiting from the global market. It has given them the means to trade in the new economy," said Malenga. "It has saved lives and provided hope for the next generation."

Malenga and Victor have explored a number of organizations that provide such loans and hope to shadow workers who are in the process of helping a family. All four students are working to fundraise for the micro loan and will work with an organization to get the project off the ground by the start of the trip.

During the students' stay, they will be the eyes and ears for Dr. Rhodes, who hopes to turn the trip into a study abroad program for future Bellarmine students with a focus on the microfinance project.

Henderson, Victor, and McNally will return to Bellarmine and work to inspire other students to look into traveling to Malawi, a country in need. Malenga will be home, working to provide opportunity for the people of Malawi and wait for the word that the next group of Bellarmine students is headed to stay with her.

If you are interested in learning more or wish to donate money to the project, contact Tuma Malenga at tmalenga01@bellarmine.edu or Hannah McNally at hmcnally01@bellarmine.edu.