Once bitten...

The majority of those who have either visited or lived in Africa for any length of time know about “the Bug.” This is no ordinary bug. This is the Africa Bug. When you’ve been bitten by the Bug, nothing that you do can possibly reverse its effects. Cara and Dustin Pattison, founders of Bola Moyo, were bitten by the Africa Bug in 2003 on a two-and-a-half month volunteer trip to Malawi. They went as representatives of Operation Crossroads Africa, an organization based in New York. Their job was to partner with a local non-governmental organization (NGO) in the town of Balaka and aid their efforts in educating youth on the subject of HIV and AIDS.

For Cara and Dustin this experience represents a classic example of the educators becoming the educated. What they learned on that trip and the relationships that were formed would change both them and the paths that their lives would take.

After about a year and a half of processing and absorbing this important experience as well as maintaining, albeit from quite a distance, these new relationships, the Pattisons, in an incredible leap of faith, took on the arduous and exciting task of forming a non-profit organization. In November of 2004, a group of seven others with a passionate concern for the Malawian people were brought together to form a board of directors, a common mission and purpose was solidified, the appropriate paperwork was filed, and Bola Moyo was born.

Though Bola Moyo makes sure that it is treading slowly and lightly over the ground on which it walks, recognizing that our success as an organization depends on the strength of our relationships and not on mere quantitative data, it is amazing still to reflect on where we have come and what we have accomplished in just our first two and a half years.