The First Phoenix Chisomo Fundraising Event!
Thank you to everyone who came to support The Chisomo Idea and our growing movement! It was a great success with lots of food, music, family, and friends. We hope that you were inspired by the videos and words from our founders Noel and Melissa Musicha. Our movement has grown over the past few years and we have witnessed amazing acts of volunteerism and charity which we greatly appreciate! Here are some of the pictures from our party…
FRIPPLE EFFECT: Thanks For Your Support
We would like to take this opportunity to thank different people that helped propel our movement through organizing and performing at Fripple Effect. It is people like you that keep us going. Trevor Davis, Andrew Schlegel, Junior Crew and many other performers…you guys did an amazing job. Thank you, thank you, thank you…
Many thanks also to the Flood High School students for making the show happen. Paul Gillcrist you showed tremendous leadership from planning to execution.
Many thanks to Ralph Rubio [of Rubios Restaurants] for providing the food at the pre-Fripple Effect fundraiser. You helped us so much. The event could not have happened without you.
Many thanks to Flood Youth staff. You guys are all ROCK STARS.
On behalf of Malawian kids and youth whose lives will continue to be impacted by aftermath of the event and on our own behalf…THANK YOU AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU.
The Chisomo Idea Team
BTW: For pictures go to FACEBOOK: The Chisomo Idea
Give Hope to Their Dreams
For the last few months we have been planning, and creating strategy on how we can go after our ultimate goal within THEATER OF DREAMS, pulling off an academy. Our goal is to raise $100,000 towards the project through individuals, churches, and corporations. We will dedicate the month of May to pray for that venture so we want you to get ready. Here is what you can do in the meantime:
1. Donate to our ongoing programs
2. Create and run benefit events for the cause
3. Invite your friends to do the same.
We love you and we are always inspired by you.
Noel Musicha
The Chisomo Idea
Fripple Effect Hosts: THE FLOOD YOUTH GROUP
Here is the group that helped host FRIPPLE EFFECT, a benefit show for The Chisomo Idea.
To check out the youth group, go to FACEBOOK: FLOOD YOUTH and http://www.diveintoflood.com/high_school Thanks all.
Theater of Dreams Kids ROCK the WORLD CUP TROPHY Tour in Malawi
It is true that when we fulfill one of our dreams, we begin to believe that more are possible. I got to this thought because I was wondering what it meant for our Theater of Dreams kids to be part of the World Cup Trophy tour to Malawi and to be at the same function as our president.
I know that when I was their age, I would have given anything to be part of such an occasion.
…To our team [Chisomo Idea] even more important than the occasion itself is the courage of one of our friends, Mzithembi Mbekeani. Thembi had never met the Theater of Dreams kids before this occasion but she believed that they are worth this life-time opportunity. She believed that in the midst of all the discouragement that these kids go through, in the midst of all their pain, one day of such fine memories could mean the world.
People like Thembi are the reason we have the courage to dream at all. They capture the essence of our movement–the young and young at heart who will do anything to use their time, talent, resources and influence to make a difference in the lives of the marginalized.
Once again, remember, it is not about how much you have, but what you do with what you have…
Noel
For The Chisomo Idea Team
Report on Young Women’s Seminar
Our second annual Young Women’s Seminar was held on the 17th of October 2009 at the ABC Chapel in Malawi, Africa.
Overall, the conference could be considered a great success! I would like to break it down for you guys to give you a clear picture of everything.
Pre Conference stages- Planning and logistics
As you might have known, there were five of us working to put things together, namely Catherine Mloza Banda, Shonduri Manda, Keneoe Ngulube, Alinafe Kwilimbe and Wanangwa Gondwe. Catherine graduated from Bunda College in September this year. Keneoe is a graduate of ABC while the rest are still studying at ABC.
The objective of the conference was to encourage the young ladies to emerge as people of influence within their communities. After some brainstorming, we saw that one of the greatest weaknesses of the young women in our generation was the inability to see themselves as givers but as recipients. Most young women, whether Christian or not, are tied down by inferiority, fashion, low self esteem, self inflicted mistakes and cultural perceptions that in the end keep them from being what God intended them to be. We therefore wanted to tackle issues that affect us as young women and eventually keep us from being leaders, or at least role models.
Out of this, we derived our theme: ‘ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, GO!!!’, an imagery of how one can eventually be the person you were created to be. We have attached a booklet of the lecture notes we used so you can catch a glimpse of how we did our sessions and everything.
We planned to invite 70 people of which more than 50 were communicated.
Our budget was pegged at MK 14 000. As you know, money is never enough. We had to do some re allocations. Eventually, everything was covered and we left no outstanding balance.
During the Conference
The conference was a success. The theme and sessions turned out to be relevant to the listeners. The main problem however, was time. We arranged everything on time and by 13:30, which was the starting time, we were ready to get things going. Unfortunately, the first participant came around 14:10. The next came in around 14:20. We had to wait to somewhere around 14:45 to start and at that time, we had about 25 participants seated. We therefore had to cut our sessions short because we only had about 2 hours left.
We photocopied the notes we were using so everyone could take a copy back home.
Post Conference
One girl actually came out and asked to talk with some of us in the team about her life. We took that as an achievement on our side. We still however have to do some follow ups in the near future once we et organized. We also will have to see if we can strategize on holding another seminar since it seemed the young women liked it.
Overall, I could say we had fun and we’ve learned a lot even as the taskforce.
Regards,
Catherine
From Pretense to Pain
One of the world’s biggest tragedies today is the art of POVERTY PIMPING. This may not be a term that most of us are familiar with, but it is an act most of us have participated in- in one way or another. Poverty pimping is the use of the stories of the poor to grow our own capital, financial or otherwise. The tragedy in this is that the line between pimping and helping is so thin that it is hard to pick the two apart.
…Unfortunately poverty sells so even corporations and companies in the quest to hit their triple bottom lines have join in what merely used to be helping the poor. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great benefits to this, but there are certainly things we must also worry about…
Part our dream within The Chisomo Idea, is to create a safe enough environment where such things can be talked about. We hope to create space that allows people to wrestle with what it means to “suffer with those who suffer.”
Our hope is that our dialogue can help move us from building our own Kingdom to truly feel for our brothers and sisters that need us to live our most heroic lives. We hope we can raise their concerns from mere “issues” to “pains” and effectively feel with them. We hope to not only marvel in the glory of talking about poverty but also deeply feel its consequences.
…to move from pretense to pain.
Speak to you soon,
Noel
Using Recycled Trophies To Make A Difference
One of the things I used to love as a young boy was a chance to play in a soccer tournament. I remember the British Council had a U-14 tournament that my team won a few times. I did not just like the tournament because we won it often but because tournaments provided an opportunity for us to hang out with people from different townships and sometimes districts.
This is why The Chisomo Idea THEATER OF DREAMS tournaments are so important to me. We may not always afford to do them well, but we still like doing them for the kids.
If you notice in pictures, you will see that we had some recycled trophies as prizes at our last tournament. We can use real/new trophies but since at the moment we cannot afford them, we will use what we can…
Thank you Luse and Thom for making this happen for our little brothers.
Noel
“Do Small Things With Great Love” – Mother Theresa
This week I was part of a CCDA conference in Cincinatti, Ohio. The conference was an opportunity for me to learn from some of the globe’s finest leaders. Among many people that spoke at the conference were two of my heroes of faith- Shane Claiborne and Dr John Perkins.
Shane is an extraordinary man of faith and has written such books as Jesus for President and Irresistible Revolution. He had an opportunity to serve along side Mother Theresa in India.
Dr Perkins, on the other hand, is considered by many to be the modern day Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of the influential figures in the Civil Rights Movement.
Among many things that I learned from these fine thinkers and visionaries is the idea of DOING SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE.
…So would you do small things with great love today.
Speak to you soon,
Noel
ps: Pick up their new leadership book FOLLOW ME TO FREEDOM…Leading and Following as an Ordinary Radical on The Simple Way website, www.thesimpleway.org
Prayer Still Changes Things…You Think????
We have a few projects coming up:
-A Young Women’s Leadership Conference run by ABC and Bunda students and graduates in Lilongwe, Malawi
-A Theater of Dreams Soccer tournament for Under 14 and Under 17 at CIVO stadium
-A surprise program that we are launching in December with students from ABC, Johannesburg- South Africa, and Blantyre International University.
To help us pray please add your prayers as comments.
Thanks friends,
Noel
