Our mission is to increase access to higher education for students from Malawi. We do this in two ways: Through direct scholarships for students who choose to pursue education in Malawi, and through mentorship and advocacy for those who wish to study abroad.

A college education, whether in Malawi or abroad, can lift needy students out of poverty and empower them with the skills to drive positive change from within their community. International universities have the resources to truly develop students’ skills. But here in America, African students make up only 3.7% of the foreign student population. Only a fraction of them come from a needy background. The number of poor African students studying in America is so low that they simply don’t show up in educational statistics.

Why does this matter?

Because American colleges produce tomorrow’s leaders. We believe representatives of the global poor — 43.6 percent of the world’s population — deserve a place at the table. We also believe that American college students deserve a chance to view their African counterparts as peers, not abstract concepts.