By Andy Mundori, Founder of ClimateWise

I learned my first lesson about leadership when I was seven years old.

That year, I lost my mother. I was sent to the village to live with my grandmother.

Every morning, my grandmother sent me and three other children to fetch water from the river. We walked two kilometres carrying yellow plastic containers. When we arrived, I saw women washing clothes upstream. Downstream, other women filled their containers with the same brown water. The same water that made the same children sick.

I asked my grandmother: “Why don’t we have clean water?”

She looked at me and said: “Because no one has asked that question before.”

Then she continued: “The government does not have resources to bring a water board to villages like ours. That is why I want you to work hard. Finish school. Be the solution for people like us.”

That moment never left me.

I grew up watching girls drop out of school because no one talked about periods. I watched mothers walk four kilometres for dirty water. I saw neighbours go hungry because the soil was dead. I watched brilliant friends , girls who should have been doctors and teachers, they all disappear from the classroom when they turned 14.

No one asked why. No one asked what could be done.

So I decided to start asking.

The Work 

 

In 2021, right after COVID-19 lockdowns I started ClimateWise Organization with no money and no office. I was 23 years old. My team was a few friends who believed in the same dream. At that time, I was in university pursuing my economics degree. During a break, I went back to the village. I sat with my friends under a mango tree. We talked about the problems we grew up with dirty water, girls dropping out of school, hungry families.

We asked ourselves, Why are we waiting for someone else to fix this?

That was the moment ClimateWise was born. Not in an office. Not with a grant. Under a tree.

I had some working experience with other NGOs. I knew how grants worked. I knew how to write proposals. So I started applying. Small grants at first. Most said no. But I kept applying.

Then we got our first yes.

A small grant to construct one borehole in Ntchisi district. It was not much money. But it was enough to prove that we could do what we said we would do.

We drilled. We hit water. The village celebrated.

That borehole changed everything. Not just for the community. For us. Because when USAID saw what a group of young people had done with almost nothing, they agreed to partner with us.

USAID scaled our project. One borehole became eleven. One village became twenty three. One dream became 23,000 people with clean water.

But the moment I will never forget is not the USAID meeting. It is an old woman named Anita. After we finished a borehole in her village, she came to me with tears in her eyes. She said: “My daughters no longer risk violence fetching water. They go to school while I farm. You gave us safety and time we never had.”

That is why I do this work. Not for numbers. For Anita. For her daughters

What Drives Me 

I am 27 years old now. I hold a degree in Agricultural Economics. I am a certified Project Management Professional. I have worked with UNESCO, USAID, and CARE International. I serve as a Fellow with the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat under the African Union.

But none of that matters as much as the lesson my grandmother taught me under that tree: Ask the question. Listen to the answer. Then act.

What drives me is the belief that the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution. They do not need handouts. They need someone to believe in them.

I started ClimateWise with nothing. Today, we have reached over 25,000 people. But we are just beginning.

Why its important 

I do not see myself as a saviour. I see myself as a bridge.

International NGOs come to Malawi with big budgets and big plans. They leave when the money runs out. I cannot leave. This is my home. These are my people.

I also do not see technology as a replacement for human connection. Speak Up _ our reporting tool is a simple button on a basic phone. It is not artificial intelligence. It is not a fancy app. It is a tool that lets a quiet girl say: I need help.

That is what makes our work unique. We are small. We are local. We are staying.

THE FUTURE

I want to expand Speak Up to twenty schools, reaching 10,000 students. I want to drill more boreholes. I want to train more farmers. I want to prove that grassroots, youth-led organisations can solve problems that big NGOs cannot.

But more than that, I want to inspire other young people in Malawi to ask the question: Why is this happening? And what can I do about it?

My grandmother passed away three years ago. But I still hear her voice: “Because no one has asked that question before.”

I am asking now. And I will not stop.