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Towards independence

Community For Better Life is a community-based organization in Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi, founded by young refugee student Gabriel Ndende Muholeza.

It all began when Gabriel created and ran a remedial class program for his fellow students as a way to encourage their studies in science. In 2019 this led him to create Community For Better Life (CFBL) and its constituency grew. New strategies for education were explored and developed as a means to promote self-reliance for young Dzaleka Refugee Camp residents. as well as for the young residents of the Malawi host community who face many of the same challenges.

Dzaleka Refugee Camp is home to nearly 50,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and other countries. Ninety percent of camp residents cannot find work, which results in a stressful situation that seriously impacts their mental health and leaves them with no hope for the future. Creating jobs is not enough – they also need to learn the skills that will get them hired or enable them to create their own businesses.

As young camp residents struggling to help feed themselves and their families, the CFBL team firmly believes that education is the most powerful weapon against future poverty.

Community For Better Life (CFBL) is seeking to raise modest startup funding of $8000 which will be used to create three training programs – tailoring, baking and hairdressing – useful skills that will help young program participants (from both inside and outside the camp) to develop self-reliance and financial autonomy.

Help create a future with what you might spend on :

CFBL programs are youth-conceived and operated. Currently, they are 100% supported by private donations. What you get as a contributor is the knowledge that you are helping highly motivated young people to learn skills that will put them on the path to self-reliance and a better future. Download the CFBL project overview

Training programs

Community-driven programs using local resources

Teaching is done by a community instructor, with all necessary materials provided by local suppliers. Click on a program for more details.

person in black shirt and black pants playing sewing machine

Tailoring

A six-month course to learn basic tailoring skills, with a special focus on student teen mothers and orphans.

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man in white button up shirt

Hairdressing

A 6-month course to learn techniques for shaving and hair styling.

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brown wicker basket on black table

Baking

A 14-day course teaching you how to create custom birthday and wedding cakes.

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Recent activities

New offerings at CIBL

Community for Better Life is up and running and with the help of generous donations, we are adding materials and programs as we go along. We are now offering English, digital marketing and other useful topics, taught by the CIBL team and volunteers. And we now have more furniture! Read more about our ongoing programs […]

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A new home for CIBL!

After rains flooded and damaged CIBL’s borrowed office space, the team decided to build a new one from scratch. Here are some shots of the process over a few months.

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Youth for Economic Empowerment – online conference September 23, 2022

The CFBL team held their first online conference to discuss strategies for economic empowerment.

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