TAKULANDILANI – Welcoming Our Newest WUSC E-Volunteer, Caitlin Wieja

Caitlin Wieja is an e-volunteer for World University Service of Canada (WUSC-EUMC) as the Digital Communications Advisor for the Centre for Youth and Development (CYD) in Malawi and started August 21st. She will be volunteering for 4 months and will help implement communication strategies and social media management to develop online content for increasing digital awareness and engagement of the CYD’s mission and projects that focus on supporting and empowering positive change in the lives of women and youth in Malawi. She will also help with funding initiatives to increase donations and build congenial relationships with current and new partners for future collaborations with the CYD.

A Little Bit About Caitlin: Having her BA in Communications, Minor in Psychology, taking a Creative Writing Course with Ryerson University during the COVID-19 pandemic, having over 4 years of experience working in digital communications, social media, business management, and content writing, volunteering on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Mental Health Organization and teaching yoga for empowered events will allow her to help support the CYD’s communication goals and advertise their mission to make a difference by focusing on projects that create a positive impact in education, community empowerment, water sanitation and hygiene, and ICT for development for youth and women in Malawi.

In Her Own Words: “My expectations are to learn as much as I can from the CYD Team and what the organization needs from me, so I can use my skill-set and experiences to create a communication plan and digital marketing strategies to increase the online profile of the organization to impact programs and content for increasing engagement and increasing performance of local partner organizations. E-volunteering online will help close the financial gap by providing digital access for donations and advertising the projects and work the CYD is focusing on, to open more collaboration and networking access to spread the NGO’s message across the globe.”

“I am ‘over the moon’ and excited to learn, grow with the CYD and I want to help showcase how the CYD is making a difference for the lives in Malawi, by creating sustainable change through their projects and messages to continue the NGO’s mission of empowering the lives of youth and women. We, as a society, can get involved to support this change through collaboration of organization and partners, through sharing information and digging deeper into online communications to help support each other, no matter where we are in the world, thanks to the power of digital technology.”

“I believe in using the digital age to build bridges in the community of Malawi, and to build bridges with other communities, so we can locally and globally continue to support each other and support the CYD’s projects, and other non-profit organization’s work, through online tools to empower donations and content sharing on social media, to create a positive change to the marginalized lives that need it. We can come together online and empower our own communities to provide any form of communication’s support (media sharing, donations, partnering etc) to work together to close the gap on marginalization to help build real-life communities and people a more sustainable, financially safe, healthier, equal, and happier lives for all.”