TEAMLIFT
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : d*************c@g***l.c*m
Mission Statement
TeamLift, Inc. is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to eradicate chronic poverty in Malawi, Africa by addressing education, healthcare and nutrition with a focus on girls and women.
About This Cause
ORGANIZATION SUMMARY: In my 17 years as director of the Opus Prize Foundation (www.opusprize.org), which annually awards a $1 million humanitarian prize, I have traveled to some of the world’s most impoverished regions. I am continually humbled during these visits, sharing time with fearless individuals and organizations who are effectively addressing the root causes of poverty. Their work is tedious and always challenging, but at the end of the day, these “…champions of faith-filled change” dramatically improve the quality of life for people who suffer far more than we can ever imagine. In 2010, I visited an NGO in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries. I walked away from that visit knowing that I had to do more, in part because over the years, I had met so many talented and committed individuals who could help me. I joined with Peter Daino, an American missionary who spent 45 years in Africa and passed away suddenly in August, 2022, talking with global experts and village chiefs in northern Malawi. Slowly a vision, a mission and a dedicated group of individuals emerged who sponsored a new nonprofit, TeamLift, Inc., committed to eradicating chronic poverty in Malawi, Africa by improving education, healthcare and nutrition – focusing on girls and women. The TeamLift mission is based on a belief that in order to effect transformational change in a village, multiple inter-related issues that impact quality of life need to be addressed. We also believe that an investment in girls and young women will not only change a culture of neglect, but will accelerate the alleviation of generational poverty. The teenage girls who attend our school constantly tell us that they “…want to prove we are just as smart and talented as boys in Malawi.” In 2010, TeamLift began to implement its three-pronged strategy. EDUCATION: In partnership with local chiefs in Karonga District who donated the land, TeamLift built St. Mary’s Secondary School for Girls. Construction of the 70-buildings was completed on time and within budget, employing 300 villagers over the three-year construction period and investing nearly U.S. $4 million in the local economy. The boarding school campus includes 12 classrooms, four science laboratories, a library/computer lab, administration building, two kitchens, dining hall, six dormitories and 15 restrooms, convent, 27 staff houses, and sports fields. The entire campus was built by local residents without the use of a single power tool. St. Mary’s is currently at full capacity -- adding one class of 150 students each of the last five years – and is the largest and one of the highest ranked secondary school in the country exclusively educating girls. Four classes totaling 568 girls have graduated from St. Mary's Secondary and 99.9% passed Malawi's college entrance exam - compared to 45.9% nationwide. TeamLift and its partners are providing college scholarships for 118 of our graduates with 69 more scheduled to begin college in the coming months. Our students realize this is their chance to escape the generational poverty of their families. They dream of becoming teachers, bank managers, doctors and nurses, lawyers and engineers and architects. The best student in our Form Four class wants to be a biomedical engineer. The girls’ study seven days a week when on campus. St. Mary’s is educating some of the most talented and inspiring young women in Malawi who are developing not only their minds, but their hearts and spirits as well. The locals refer to St. Mary’s Secondary campus as “…the light on the hill.” Annual St. Mary's tuition for 2023-2024 is $470 per student. We are delighted that 309 St. Mary's grads are currently on scholarship at Malawi colleges. They will be joined this fall with the first cohort of 69 Peter Daino Scholars -- graduates from St. Mary's Secondary in 2022 who are sponsored by TeamLift donors. Tuition and fees at a public university in Malawi total $1,500 per year. A college degree for these young women is nothing short of life-changing. HEALTHCARE: TeamLift has just completed construction of a hospital on the St. Mary’s campus and a clinic in nearby Zambwe, Malawi. The Sisters of Providence Hospital system in the U.S. is providing all the necessary equipment and supplies for the facility, allowing St. Mary’s to offer an array of services including comprehensive physical assessments, primary care, eye and dental care, and the treatment of malaria, hypertension, and HIV/AIDS. A maternity wing will afford women a place to receive basic maternal, obstetric, and neonatal services in a supportive environment. Five teams of students from Oregon Health Sciences University’s Capstone Program assisted with the design of the management systems, and TeamLift will continue to work with OHSU’s graduate students. Six houses for the medical staff have been built near the hospital and clinic. In the past two years, TeamLift and University of Portland nursing students conducted vision tests for 3,300+ secondary school students and village residents at 16 sites in partnership with New York-based NGO, Vision Spring. More than 1,800 individuals received prescription eye glasses at a cost of $1.50 a pair. NUTRITION: Capstone engineering students from the University of Portland designed and installed a solar-powered irrigation system for a seven-acre farm adjacent to St. Mary’s School. The system provides water for two additional plantings a year, along with the December planting in the rainy season. Produce from the seven-acre farm will feed our 600 girls – an $80,000 annual savings -- and greatly improve students’ nutrition with the inclusion of plant-based proteins in their diets. TeamLift plans to build a small classroom on the site to train women-headed households who farm in the region. Two women from “Soils, Food and Healthy Communities,” a Malawi NGO, will conduct the trainings. TeamLift, which purchased a tractor / plow for its farm at St. Mary's, will till the land of the women-headed households we train so they can at least double the acreage that each farmer plants. TeamLift has ambitious plans to expand its impact in northern Malawi, including the development of two factories to process tomatoes and honey, and the construction of a hostel/study center to house our graduates who are attending college. We are grateful to our partners and donors for what their support has allowed us to accomplish to date.