 Welcome to Muzuzu, the northern part of Malawi, but I've always been telling you guys we are not leaving any story behind. If you are in the southeast or west of Africa, we are going to find you and we are going to tell your story. But it's a matter of time, it's a matter of you supporting the journey. It's a matter of you encouraging us by liking these videos, sharing these videos, subscribing. The main goal of this whole channel is to inspire Africans to be great wherever they find themselves. The story I'm going to tell today is one of my favorite stories. I've read about this lady, I got to know her existence the day I interviewed Salah Torres from Uganda. And people started tagging me in her story telling me that Maya, this is one story that you need to tell. And when I came to Malawi, I had to make it happen. But when I checked her location, I was like oh my goodness. So here we are, come along with us, let's go meet Tosaiwe. I hope I mentioned the name right. My name is Tosaiwe Munkondia, but most people call me Tosaiwe Yana. I'm 24 years old and I'm a founder of an organization that is called You Are Not Alone, Yana. So I am a foster mom to 100 kids, but also we learn preschools that helps more than 200 kids. And mostly it's like a charity work that provides education, empowerment to young mothers and also shelter and safety to children who have been abused sexually and any physical abuse. How do you feel anytime you come in here seeing happy faces in those rooms? Honestly, I feel good because I've taken some of these kids when they were young. So seeing them growing up, I can't wait to see the future of them being president or anything that they choose to be. It will be a great feeling and right now it's even much better. It's a great feeling to see them grow and expand. So what motivates me to do all this is because my mother abandoned me when I was a baby, when I was so young and she never wanted me from that day. So I grew up with people that have loved me and some haven't loved me. So I've always felt alone. That's why I call my organization, you're not alone. When you're growing up, you had no one to take care of you. Yeah. But you're taking care of them. How does that make you feel? It makes me feel happy. That's why I make sure that the home should look, I make sure that they look clean because I take care of them more of like my own kids. I don't want to do it, I don't know, I'm just taking care of orphans. But I make sure that they feel that they have a mother and they have someone who wants the best for them. What makes me happy is when I see the kids having a place to sleep and when I see my son having a family because that's what I've always wanted for myself to have a family of my own. So him having a family through different people from different places that makes me so happy. What keeps me going is him because I just want to make it up for him and other children who needs me, honestly. You know, we have created family. It's not just like people that I've met, but we have created family. You see, we have a mom, we have a dad, you know, where everybody can go and say, mom, I need this, dad, I need this. You're always troubling me. Yes, because we haven't had that privilege of having a mom and dad before. And then God giving us this privilege, you know, we are all like happy. We all feel like now we have a home. And also if there is any young mother like me, I just want to advise you that you can do it. I was once a nobody that never knew that maybe I can one day build a school or build an orphanage. But you can do it and you can become a greater person if you just put your heart in it. It's a great feeling knowing that you're training future leaders, the future doctors, future nurses, future farmers. And future entrepreneurs. I can't believe I'm seeing you. Me too, I really can't believe it. You know, what you're doing, I was expecting to see somebody huge, you know, because what you're doing is huge. Oh really? No, you have no idea. You know how many people have asked me, don't leave Malawi without meeting you? I'm not sure, but also people take to me that I should take to you that you should meet me. And I tested you. And she tested back. So here we are. Thank you so much. Doesn't it mean amazing? It means blessings. Oh, to say you. So I'm going to say this. My first son, the name will come from Kenya. Okay. So the first female that I'm going to have, I'll give her the name to say you are. From Malawi. That would be great. No, because what you're doing is a blessing. And I want different names of blessings in different languages in Africa. So I have one from Kenya. Kenya Masai. If you ask me what is the name, I don't think I'll know. What's my Masai name? Lamayan. Lamaya. Yeah, blessing name. Lamaya. I'm going to name my first son Lamayan. Lamayan. I got my first son name from the Masai people. Yeah. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Listen, I wish you can tell me the journey. How it all started. But I think a lot of people don't know what you do. First of all, let's start from there. What do you do? I don't know how best to explain what I do. But I do charity work. I do charity work that empowers young mothers and also give education to children and also give them shelter. Yeah, that's the brief that I can give. You are 23 years old. I'm 24 now. 24? Yeah. You know, we were born on the same day. Really? Ninth match. So I was born on ninth match. You see, I've done a lot of research about you. That is so great though. We got the same date of birth. Wow. I'm sorry, my only third match, yeah. My only third match. But you know, what you doing? Knowing that we shared the same birth month, I'm more proud of you. Thank you. How did it start? How did it started? So before I started this, this is an organization that is called You're Not Alone, IANA. So before I started IANA, there was another organization that was called Empowering Young Mothers. And that's where I was empowering the mothers and their babies. Then I found out that there were a lot of street kids, a lot of abandoned babies and also looking at myself because I gave birth to a child when I was 16. So I was like, what if I do more of helping children as well? So that's where I was like, okay, I'm going to start an organization that is called You are Not Alone for everyone when it comes to the elderly, the women, the children and people with disabilities. Should I say that whatever you're doing is because of your personal story that inspired you to do what you do? Yeah. First of all, there is my story and also my story of my child that has empowered me and that has motivated me to do whatever I do. Tell me more. You got pregnant at the age of 16? Yeah, I got pregnant at the age of 16 but before I got pregnant at the age of 16 my mother abandoned me when I was a baby. So growing up without a mother without a father it has been very hard. I know there have been people who have tried to give me that love but you always want to have the mother's love when you know that they are alive. So looking at how abandoning me and how not wanting me, that really hurt my feelings and it also made me grow up with trauma. So that's also part of the inspiration that made me to take in abandoned babies and orphan so that I can give them the love that I always wanted. He's a mom's thought of life. Yeah, she's still alive. Are you guys friends now? I forgive her and I chose to love her from a distance. But I believe that whatever your mom did made who you are today. Yeah, yeah. I always tell people I lost my dad in 2017 and I was so dependent on my dad. But the day my dad left that's when I became a man. If my dad was still alive I might not meet you because my dad was so straight that you have to be an engineer. I completed my engineering degree but because my dad was not there I was like, you know what it's time to take my own path and here we are today. That's great. I would love you to use this platform. One day I would love to see you hugging your mom. Okay. Because whatever, no, I'm serious. Whatever happened that give back to who you are. What has been the pain that you went through when mommy abandoned you? Who are you staying with? What were you doing at that moment? Don't cry. We're not going to cry in this video. Please. Because I could see that you just want to if you cry, I'm going to cry too. Please don't cry. Okay, fine. The challenges mostly that I saw was there were people that I used to stay with and there are people who really look after me but there were people who were hurting me in the process of looking after me. You know, whereby I don't know what happens but when someone is taking care of another child that is not theirs there is always a difference that is always there, you know. There were times where they would tell me that, oh, this is why your mother abandoned you. This is why your father ran away from you. This is why you are alone. This is why you do this. You're not going to prosper in this life. So looking at those words that have been said to me they used to break me, not just from my mom but also from other people around me. But like enough, I had my grandfather. My grandfather has always been there for me since I was born. Even when I got pregnant he was the one who always had my back and he was always the one who was looking after me and always believing in my dreams and my goals. I read about you and what I saw on the internet that you were kicked out of the house that you were staying in. Yeah, because the moment by my uncles so they kicked me out of the house twice. The first time it was because I don't know. It was just like that time I used to go to church from morning up to five o'clock. So they said you're going to church maybe you're lying that you're going to church so you have to get out of this house. So I got out of the house and I told them this word that you know what, the rejected stone turns to be the corner stone. And they were saying oh you're lured, why would you tell me all that. So things kept going on and on so I had to leave the house and I started staying in this other place that wasn't even nice and we could struggle to eat. I could only have to find like I can say one dollar to make sure I provide food for myself and my son. So yeah. You're so young. I know that time I was around maybe 18, 17. And you went through all of that? Yeah. Then I was kicked again out of the house when I was around I think 20 years because I opened a school that was helping children in the community so they were saying I want to inhale it in the land so they had to kick me out of the house. Where exactly is that? I mean was it a family member's house or you just go... It was my grandfather's house. So since my grandfather loves me so much there were other kids he has other kids who love me and also there were other kids of his that didn't love me. So they thought maybe once my grandfather has died I'm going to inhale it the place, the land, the house and everything so they had to close the school. So with your grandfather's house you decided to establish a school over there? Yeah before I was kicked out. What led to the school that you established in your grandfather's house? So since I have a child who has special needs so every time when I send him to nursery schools preschools they used to abuse him because they were not able to know what is wrong with him because people are not aware of autism so that time we thought he has autism so he wasn't able to communicate not able to use the toilet so I think because of that that's why the teacher was getting angry and you know maybe you're teaching the child it seems like they're not making progress so they were abusing the child so that's when I was like you know what I'm just going to open a school for my son and I'm going to take other children in the community to make sure that they're benefitting from this as well. You successfully opened a school for your son how many people were you training that time? That time I took there were almost 25 kids that were coming for free I could provide food I could provide school info and there's a certain lady in this house that still helps me that we used to work together so she was the one who was like a teacher to the kids and I was also being a teacher to the kids as well but you had nothing you had nothing but you're still I mean taking care of other people's kids what were you getting the funds to do that? I was selling samosa so do you know samosa? so I used to sell samosas we have freezers I used to sell freezers then I managed to buy this other bike people here can rent bikes so I bought a bike and that was making money as well so I would support so you were using that money to take care of the children? yeah you got kicked out again? yeah I got kicked out again apart from that being me being kicked out also I made a decision for myself because my uncle that time right now he doesn't drink that time he used to drink so whenever he's drunk he could hurt us me and my child and the other woman other girl who was there so this other woman once told me you know what Tusa if you keep on saying at that place what if your uncle kills you who is going to be with your child so apart from him chasing us away then I just decided to take a state and go back to the village so I went to that village and I talked to the chiefs and they gave me a free building to have kids in so a hundred kids came into that school so I started teaching the kids then this other woman was helping me monthly with money to pay for my lint and also buy food and I could use the same money to share with the kids by cooking porridge for them so this kid came kept on coming then we were like okay per kid everyone will be paying one dollar to make sure that we we pay the teachers and pay other staff so then I joined TikTok and that's when people a lot of people came in to support after they heard they heard my story and as I was there in the village that's when I was like there's other kids who are still struggling to have a place to sleep people are still abandoning babies and that's when I started taking in babies and teen moms and that's when the family kept growing how many kids have passed through your hand so far like what do you mean? like in total kids that you've been taking care of because I believe that some of them comes and goes all of them has to be with you so we want to right now we are planning to have the kids until they become independent because there's other organizations there's a law that maybe kids have to go back to their families when they are 18 but there are other kids that don't even have a family so if we let them get out of the orphanage or the safe home that means they'll go back to the streets so we just want to make sure that when the kids are leaving the center they should be able to be independent or they should have a job or business or something that they can help themselves so currently how many kids are they okay? right now we have 100 kids 100 kids they all live here no we have two houses this is the first one do you own the house? no we are currently renting this house because the house that we were staying in the village became very small so we decided to come in town and rent a place where by the kids can be safe and they can have like security and water and dairy city so you took the kids out of the village and brought them to the city yeah plus they just wanted to experience life in town so I was like okay I'm going to give you that you are amazing thank you and you pay the rent yourself I have people who donate through social media so they help us with Lent but we are moving out because here in Malawi once people know that your organization they start raising the land every month so we were like maybe we should just have our own place where but we don't have to do with Lent, water and maybe electricity so are you building your own place now or yeah we are building our own place so we are going back to the village going back to the village can you take me there I will I really want to see it you know when you meet people that are so inspiring it touches your heart it makes you want to even just stop what you are doing and go and do what they do because it's just mind blowing because you're so young you know and what you're doing it's it's massive thank you what really inspires you I just want to heal and be there for kids that don't have anyone to be there for them to so like at what age do you pick them up I take babies with the two days three days I take them have you had a baby of one day old I mostly have had like three days three days yeah they give birth to them and abundant them they give birth to them and mother dies while giving birth to the kids so yeah do you have people that you work with yeah I have many I really can manage everything by myself how many people like we have almost close to twenty something or thirty something women and you have to pay all of them yeah I have to pay them but what job do you do apart from this it's just this is my job so that means I have to talk to you donors I have to like proposals I have to do that to make sure that people eat I pay people and make sure that the people are happy as well as they are working with great job guys say hi hi I'm she's an African doing incredible stuff and I wish as Africans watching this video will come true for her do you have pages that you accept donations or stuff yeah I have mostly put the link for donation on my Instagram but I also prefer people who there's other people who want to make like big donation then they want us to write to them like I'm okay with the rings and people just donating to my GoFundMe it's okay as well give me GoFundMe page that you around yourself so I'm going to lead this campaign myself I always do from the day we release the video from the first day to one month I'm going to make it happen I I don't want to cry I'm crying so hard because I feel like what you're doing is man blowing thank you so much and whatever I can do together with them we're going to make it happen to support it you know they say Africans don't support each other but I'm telling you guys we're changing that narrative the GoFundMe is going to come from here just like what you did for Salah Torres the school is already the school is almost ready I'm going to go there take you guys there for you guys to see but I believe that we can have that impact in Malawi let's make it happen the link is in the description this is the second house yeah this is the second house also you own it it's also rented oh we are currently renting it as well we've been renting it I feel like I feel like you're doing too much you know renting house to take care of people yeah I think it's a lot of work and also my advice to other people who want to start the same thing like it's better to be on your own land and on place because it cuts some cost like when it comes to lentils and all that but for us as I told you that the house where we're staying in the village became very small so we decided to come in town so that we can lend some space for the kids so the house in the village is what you own now you're building you expanded it no the house in the village it was just given to us of course that time but it was still small but the house but there's another village where we're building it's close to that village okay so you're building the new house right now yeah which is your own right yeah which is our own house so we are like building a village so when it comes to when you're building a village you build schools you build houses hostels school and you do farming that's amazing yeah you guys gonna eat what you produce yeah but I feel like the kids in here are older than the ones that in the other you separate them along the journey yeah we did okay this ones too have been with you for that long we just moved in this house like this year oh so they used to stay in the same house yeah they used to stay in the same house so it was still like not healthy when it comes to mixing babies and other kids so that's why we just had to separate them but some of them they have gone to the baby's house we passed them we passed them when they were going to live okay okay nice to meet you and they have been with you since some here have been like for a year two years okay he picked them from the street too yeah some in the in the village that I was staying that's when they had to come to our house hey Superman come here Superman here here not this is not America Captain Malawi captain what's up you're good that's your son yeah that's my son he lives here with the kids yeah he does he lives here with the kids since the beginning honestly when we started this whole all this like he's been staying with the other kids but I feel like he's the pioneer whatever you're doing he's a pioneer he's a lead of this group oh wow but yeah he's the one who motivated me to do all this you know the fact that you never gave up on your kid and you see your kid right now how does that make you feel it feels good it feels good yeah Captain Malawi grew up to become a captain and you fly a mom everywhere okay too sir this is the place yeah this is the place a new home you mean you did all this yeah and we have done it for five months we've been building for five months now when you're saving or money that comes from donors and you put all of them together to establish this yeah like all the funding that people have been donating I've been putting it into building cause like I feel like once we settle on our own place we're going to be able to do a lot of things instead of just lending a place can I ask you a question yeah do you have your own home do you have your own house I don't even have I don't even have like even people ask me do you have a personal I don't even have like I just want to make sure that the kids are okay and they're stable that's what I need bless your heart yeah and what building is that that is the secondary school that is going to be done like almost like next week secondary school yeah why are you building secondary school because as you can see where we are there is no school here so with the children that I have they won't be able to go to the schools that are very far so just to make sure that they get their education and they get also like for distance wise I think they're going to benefit so much on that and plus as you can see this house is huge so we decided to start with the secondary school so that we can we can get done with it quickly so that we can move in there then we can finish the house so you move in there to stay there yeah while the secondary school is still going on yeah and you take time to finish this yeah we have been building this as well as we were building that we have been building this why are you taking so long to finish it because it's huge so there's a difference that is like a small a small classroom of course it's like this is that is entering two times in this so looking at this we wanted to take time to make sure that we do it properly because it needs it will need I don't even know how best to explain this but it will need than what a classroom can need do you have the funds for this already yeah there's some people who are finding it through the GoFundMe as well on the on the social media what is your total amount on the GoFundMe account for this I mean like how much money have you saved have you had so far from the GoFundMe account I'm not really sure about that yeah but we had the we've been learning the GoFundMe for a year so the GoFundMe has been able to help us with buying cars that have been used for transportation to bring stuff here the site we have used it to buy the land we have used it to feed the kids pay school fees and pay the lentils from where we are where's the land allocated for the clinic so for the clinic for the clinic the land that you are seeing that has been cleared that's where we're building a clinic we're starting next week because ever since we started building to this land we have witnessed almost more than five death of young children because they haven't been able to go to the hospital because of distance so some could even die on the road some would die at home because even the parents are not able to buy maybe pannado or something like that I know you need a clinic so badly but as I stand here I feel like you still need a primary school because when I went to the first school I saw so many kids that you had and honestly I know we are building a lot of stuff but this is because we have come here to a place that looks like there's nothing like a desert and when you are looking after children there's so many things that can happen a child can die a child can do can get very sick so that's why we ended up like okay let's build a clinic let's build a secondary school just because we wanted to be sustainable we wanted to be a place where you can stand on its own like if we have images of the kids with diabetes if we have images of kids with asthma we should be able to treat them here before it gets worse if I had the power I would have done a lot but I feel like there is power from the new media that the social media I don't know bring the camera man I don't know if I have to go I mean I don't know I hardly do this but I have to go on my needs you know for you guys to know that I am very serious I wish you know I recently did a story in Uganda and the impact that I saw is because of the power of you guys man but I feel like he's so young to carry all this bed I'm going to New York as well no no no you just start let me do this on your behalf so I just want to do this I want to be an ambassador for this young lady she has not asked me to but I feel like what she is doing she needs help or support from you and I so I am going to do something I'm not going to tell you guys but I want you guys to also do something I'm giving ourselves like three months I'll be back here but within that three months set up a new GoFundMe for me I'm going to let it come from you not from me so that everything will come from your side what we're going to do it's more like making sure there's primary school here making sure there is a clinic in here making sure there is even a small playground for the kids to play on I know that I have the power on the internet I know that I have people who can even donate a clinic by themselves let's make this happen in three months let's in three months I'll be back here and I'm going to be back here to celebrate with you guys man I don't think she has to be she has to go through all of that to make sure that kids have education kids have proper health wow you're an inspiration thank you and I'm going to try all I can to make it happen I'm your ambassador that is really great so you can call me any day your ambassador what's happening we're making sure you get the school the primary school here making sure you're going to get what do you call it the clinic small playgrounds anything to make kids live in a comfortable environment you and I are going to be part of this history so don't disappoint me the link is in the description thank you in advance how old are you I'm 24 you don't look 24 you sound like maybe a 90 year old woman in a 24 year old body because the things that comes out of your mind it's like it's crazy thank you keep up the good work I will see you soon trust me I'll see you in three months I'm looking forward to that I will call you if you don't come in three months you say you will come in three months I will see you in three months and I will tell you people that he didn't come in three months I'll see you in three months and when I'm coming back I'm coming to see the effect or the impact of this baby that's why I'm saying I'm going to see you in three months I mean