The Warm Heart of Africa

28 September 2010

Zachary Levine, a University of California, Berkeley graduate, met three Malawi CC leaders at a URI youth assembly in Mayapur India in December of 2008. Four months later, he was on his way to Malawi, a largely rural but densely populated country known as the “warm heart of Africa,” with a pile of donated laptops. For two weeks, he gave a select group of 75 youth leaders an intensive course in computer literacy that would both improve their job prospects and prepare them to train other youth. A joint project of the three Malawi CCs, Njira Ya Tsogolo (meaning "The Way Through") also generated a small amount of funding for HIV/AIDS education and other youth programs around the country. Today the CCs run three free computer resource centers serving hundreds of youth and are delving into microfinance for young entrepreneurs. As for Zachary, he was hooked. He began working with a group of young seamstresses in Chigumula this year, and is helping them buy a sewing machine to improve quality and increase production.