How it all began

While traveling through Southern Africa back in 2019, Travis Leon (now co-founder and president of Empower Malawi Inc.) stumbled upon the relatively untraveled country of Malawi. He knew very little about the country, besides the fact that it was known for it's beauty and it's poverty alike, but his love for travel and adventure drew him in. Travis researched the best places to visit and ended up making his way to Monkey Bay and then Cape Maclear.

In Cape Maclear, Travis watched as a group of kids played football out in the fields. No shoes, right there in the dirt, happy as can be. He was introduced to a man named Danson (aka Snoop), who was doing his best to keep kids off the streets by providing structure to their lives through sports. Snoop was coaching several teams, organizing tournaments, and was trying to find donations for shoes, clothes, and balls for the children.

Snoop told Travis that he was especially trying to help girls get into sports because they are often neglected in Malawi. Travis did some research and found that the best way to increase the productivity of an economy and bring a country out of poverty is to empower the women, because they make up half the workforce but often aren't contributing in many poorer societies. So once Travis got home he rounded up some friends who were each interested in sponsoring a group of kids. Those groups formed teams and each sponsor got the chance to name their football team, chose their colors, and sent money for jerseys, balls and other sports equipment.

From there, Travis recruited more help to assist Snoop in organizing larger tournaments. Travis actually played in one of the tournament with the kids while he was there and ended up bonding with a few that he later went on to sponsor through high school. We then set up a program to find school sponsors for multiple other students and that's how Empower Malawi was born!

On their way to a tournament

Before the games

Valencia Bees sponsored by Maria Sosa

Team and Coach Snoop