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About Us

What is Pamoza?

Pamoza is a Christian Nonprofit organization working in Malawi, Africa

Our mission is to share the Gospel and alleviate poverty and suffering through educational improvements, healthcare, economic empowerment, and food security.
As a Christian non-profit organization, Pamoza’s programs are motivated by obedience to Christ to share the gospel by loving, caring, and laboring with the underprivileged. Pamoza’s work is guided by:

  • laboring together with community members to improve their quality of life – physically, spiritually, and economically.
  • bringing other concerned people to join in helping underprivileged communities to have a joyful and fulfilling life.

Our Vision

To transform the lives of children and families in underprivileged communities through Christian outreach and sustainable community development.

Our Mission

To unite people in alleviating suffering and despair through Christian outreach and discipleship, meeting basic human needs, establishing self-reliance, and promoting environmental stewardship.

Our Work

Our work is currently focused in Malawi, which is among the world’s least developed and most densely populated countries. We started in 2005 in Zowe community and have contiguously expanded to 19 additional communities, and we are currently serving a population of 32,000 people. These communities are rural and agrarian; they have no electricity and running water. They are also susceptible to HIV/AIDS infection, which currently affects more than 10% of the Malawian population.

Pamoza’s work focuses on five main initiatives:

Christian Outreach

Health Care

Education

Agriculture and Food Security

Economic Empowerment

Our History

In 2003, Sociology Professor Dr. Mike Mtika took a group of Eastern University students to Zowe, his home community located in northern Malawi, Africa. The visit was short but the impact on the students was great. The human despair they observed in this remote agrarian community was overwhelming.

During Spring 2004, these students discussed various ways of helping the people of Zowe to improve their lives and community. After graduation in 2005, three of the students, (Melissa, Christy, and Bethany) raised some funds and went back to live in Zowe to facilitate Christian outreach and development in the community.

Their approach, with guidance from Dr. Mtika, was to engage the community members, starting with the leaders, in a critical analysis of their situation. Through this, identification, planning, and implementation of Christian outreach and community development initiatives begun.
In 2006, we partnered with Giving Heart Ministries to serve as our fiscal sponsor and raised funds for some of our first programs including student scholarships, school breakfast, and construction of a clinic. We also identified a Malawian to serve as our Programs Coordinator, our first paid position.

Melissa, one of the original three students, ended up staying in Malawi three years. When she returned to the United States, she helped to launch the formation of Pamoza International as a non-profit organization in the U.S. doing business in Malawi. Pamoza International was formally incorporated in August 2011.

Since then, the organization’s work has continued to grow. We have gone from a staff of two (one in the U.S. and one in Malawi) to nearly 30 (two in the U.S. and 25 in Malawi). Pamoza is now operating in twenty communities
(more than 300 villages) and reaching more than 30,000 people.