Presentation of the founder

The recent tragedy in Darfur, Sudan, which has caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of war refugees likely to starve to death in neighboring countries, is nothing but another episode in the ongoing tragedy that is affecting Africa.

On top of the wars and violence, Africa suffers from great poverty. While other parts of the world are making rapid progress, the majority of African countries are moving backwards and the number of citizens below the poverty line keeps growing.

The bad policies implemented through the years and the intransigence of rich countries (European, Japanese, and North American) when it comes to reducing the agricultural protectionism that prevents poor countries from competing in equal terms, are some of the causes behind the terrible economic situation in the sub-Saharan region.

In addition, three terrible plagues (malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS) devastate the population of the continent. Malaria kills about 7,000 people every day, most of whom are still infants. In the south about one third of the inhabitants dies from AIDS and about 50% of the pregnant women are infected (which means that half of the babies are already born with AIDS). The AIDS orphans already total more than 14 million children.

The tragedy of the sub-Saharan continent has become a vicious circle: poverty creates instability, violence and diseases. In return all of these create poverty. All together condemn Africa and its inhabitants to have no future, to have no hope.

This is why we decided to create Umbele. Umbele means “future” in the most widely spoken language in East Africa, the Swahili. Umbele is born with the hope to build a structure so that the citizens that are rich and privileged enough to have been born in the developed world can help bring back the hope, the future, to 700 million Africans.

When founding Umbele we thought of three important aspects. The first was that, although the solution to most of the African problems is a macroeconomic solution (the pharmaceutical companies have to invent a vaccine for malaria, AIDS, and tuberculosis, the African governments have to abandon the absurd wars, the rich countries have to reduce the tariffs that impede la African farmers the import to our markets, ect), there are many ways to help at a microeconomic level. A level in which regular people can do something.

The second was the realization that there are a lot of people in rich countries that are horrified by the continuous deterioration of the situation in Africa and want to do something about it. The problem is that they either don't know how to help or they don't trust some of the NGOs that seem to have become multinational corporations, with huge organizational expenses, that take a large part of the resources donated. They also distrust the local lords, politicians and other corrupt leaders that steal the goods donated by the rich world and sell them in the black markets.

The third thing we noticed is that, in order to help in an efficient manner, one does not need to deploy a new network of volunteers (which is very expensive). Instead, one needs to use a network that is already in place, a network of people that we all admire for their sacrifice. This is the network of our missionaries. Whether we are religious or not, whether we like or dislike the religious authorities, we all feel a special sympathy for these men and women that are giving their lives to help the peoples who most need it.

It was after we put these three things together that we decided to create Umbele, a foundation whose main objective is to channel money given by you to some of the poorest citizens in Africa through the network of missionaries with the most direct and efficient way possible, without losing resources along the way.

The idea is to use the missionaries in two ways. First, we want to use their experience and knowledge to identify problems and suggest solutions. Although the missionaries are free to suggest ways in which the money is to be spent, we want to keep in mind that the main goal is to help Africans help themselves, whether this is helping them set up their own business, inducing kids to go to school or encouraging them to go to the clinic or hospital to get tested or vaccinated. The second way is to channel money donated by the citizens of the rich world.

Finally, transparency is our commitment. The missionaries that we are working with have committed to provide a record of how the money is used. This record post is posted in this webpage.

The foundation guarantees that absolutely all of the money donated will go to missionaries in Africa: Our motto is “One Euro Equals One Euro” . That is, one euro given by you is one euro that will arrive in Africa. The financial expenses and transfer fees are paid by Banc Sabadell and the administrative expenses are paid by the patrons of the foundation.

In sum, Umbele is a channel through which we, citizens from all over the world, can help the peoples that most need our help, in a transparent and efficient ways . We ask you not that you stand by us. Rather, stand by some of the neediest citizens of the world by donating money -no matter how small the amount- and help to bring back their future through our foundation. The Umbele Foundation.

Xavier Sala i Martín
Founder UMBELE Foundation