Kwaze-Kwasa [USA] Inc.

Kwaze kwasa is isiZulu for 'the new dawn' or 'morning has broken'.

Our Motto: "A hand up trumps a hand out!"

A fresh start signifies the wishes and hopes that many in Africa hold for a solution to the Sub-Saharan AIDS pandemic, extreme poverty, malnutrition, high rates of infant and child mortality, unemployment, lack of health and education, and many other related issues widespread in the poorer communities. Our mission is to support impoverished African communities in their daily struggle with these issues by working to eradicate them through sustainable income generation rather than handoutsty.

A non-profit 501(c)3 organization founded by concerned Africans and Americans desirous to make a positive impact on humanity.  Most of the problems of the African continent stem from the abject poverty many of its inhabitants are born into without any future.  The effects of the sub-Saharan AIDS pandemic has compounded and worsened the conditions for many of the impoverished peoples of Africa.  We are dedicated to a practical business plan to lessen and hopefully eradicate poverty.

One of our aims is to show and share with the world a positive view of Africa that often is thought of as a place of disaster and suffering. Behind the tragic and often sad headlines, people go about their daily lives, including many African artists and artisans who continue to produce excellent arts and crafts despite the poverty of many communities.

Eradicating poverty and providing sustainable employment is implementation of our motto "A hand up trumps a hand out!" and the Chinese Proverb:

 Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. The impoverished artists know how to fish exceptionally well, the potential harvests are rich and sustainable.  With little or no equipment, their harvest is small to nothing.  With few, if any, paying customers the harvest quickly perishes.  Kwaze-Kwasa provides the equipment, transport to, and the market venue full of hungry paying customers.

The artists and artisans get direct access to the worldwide market place through Kwaze-Kwasa's online retail and wholesale stores. This access (free of middle and often exploitative agents) provides them an unparalleled opportunity to attain sustainable income.  Previously denied to them by force of their impoverished circumstances and compounded by the general absence of or very poor levels of basic technology, amenities, services, and finances.

The bridge to the market provides impoverished, talented, and hard working Africans access to compassionate and understanding people in the world's more affluent and developed societies.  The opportunity for anonymous strangers to get involved jointly and indirectly, without peer or other external pressures at their own personal comfort levels, free of any guilt and consummate a mutual transaction to uplift humanity is a win-win solution.  A saner and friendlier world that works for and supports all can be achieved.

Orphaned and vulnerable children are one of the long-term legacies of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Many of them will grow up on the street, form child-headed households, be brought up by elderly grandparents, or be placed in institutional care. We assist the children through financial and material support of their community-based solutions that strengthen both families and communities in a variety of ways. Support can be anything from providing transport, school needs, skills training, food, and emotional support, to running pre- and after-school supervision programs, training care workers, etc.

We only work with credible community partner organizations that have existing, ongoing, locally approved, and supported secular grassroots projects.  We believe that the people of these communities understand and know their problems, needs, and solutions better than outsiders. Thus, we do not intend to establish and run any programs ourselves that would increase overheads and diminish badly needed resources. The projects focus on home-based hospice care for HIV/AIDS patients, day and foster care of orphans and abandoned HIV babies and infants (vulnerable at-risk children), education, and sustainable employment.  Support needs exceed our current revenue and consequently we are forced to be selective and are biased towards the needs of infants and children.  Despite community needs being overwhelming and growing daily with the most urgent being transport, food, clothes, and funding of existing ongoing projects, we see progress.

With citizen representatives in Nairobi, Kenya and Harare, Zimbabwe, all of our efforts are currently focused in southern and eastern Africa.  The representatives assist us with contracting and supervision of the employment contracts and maintain oversight and contact with all ongoing community projects in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. Plans include expanding to other AIDS-impacted communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa as budgets, donations, and sales permit.

Supporters should know that we will always do our best to:

Ø   acknowledge the spirit, uniqueness, value, and talent of the African artists and people to our mission;

Ø   deliver an excellent quality of service to all who use our resources;

Ø   exercise fiscal frugality and responsibility as a means of achieving our goals;

Ø   value our volunteers and employees and their contributions to our endeavors;

Ø   embrace innovation and harness technology to maximize our effectiveness; build partnerships that help us fulfill our mission; and

Ø   preserve our credibility by remaining secular, independent, and objective.

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