Our Loving Arms Journey.

Loving Arms Malawi was co-founded Loving Arms in July 2014 by Livinia, Sunga, and Pempho. The three young women went through different experiences that created one beautiful story of hope when brought together. Pempho explained, “We met in college, when we were pursuing our undergraduate degrees. We were in the same undergraduate program.” During this period, they got acquainted and became best of friends. However, their professional collaboration with Loving Arms emerged after working together at an academic institution in Lilongwe.    

When explaining the first time they talked about starting Loving Arms, Sunga said, We had a group chat that we used to communicate and still do. So one day, I told the ladies through the group chat that I had an idea that we had to discuss. We met on a cold Sunday afternoon; it was after we came back from church. So that day, I brought up the idea about how we could use our stories and our diverse experiences to share with others and encourage them. After I shared with them, it was exciting to see that Pempho and Livinia had similar interests. We decided to combine our passions to create one big idea.”

The ladies shared how they wanted to contribute specifically in a way that aligns with their passions and interests.  Livinia also explained, “It was so exciting talking about how we want the organization to look like. The most interesting part was coming up with a name for the organization.” Pempho agreed with Livinia, and she explained, “It really was fun trying to come up with a name, but the most important thing was to be more creative and inclusive. Open Arms was our first choice but it was taken so we settled on Loving Arms. We based our name on sharing love in a lot of different ways; the feeling of being welcomed and embraced. We hoped that our organization would be a habitat where young people feel loved, safe, and unjudged.” 

According to Livinia, “‘Loving Arms’ would be the best description of who we are and what we do.” In general, Loving Arms was born with a mission to bring healing and hope and change the world one story at a time.