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LWALA - Living With A Life-long Ambition – is a youth based organization that employs innovative ways to involve youth in fundraising efforts for worthy causes. Our goal is to connect youth with tangible solutions for epic problems. Our AIDS focus brought us to Lwala, Kenya where the efforts of this organization in conjunction with the LCA have helped to build a health clinic in an area suffering from high rates of HIV, AIDS diagnoses (above 30%) and which is additionally disadvantaged by its remote location and lacking infrastructure.
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The founders of LWALA, Alexa von Tobel and Danielle Snyder, went to Lwala during a summer internship for 85 Broads in 2006 to create a documentary about AIDS that would inspire and motivate their peers to become part of the solution. The location and focus of their documentary is the result of a friendship between Vanderbilt students Danielle Snyder and Milton Ochieng'. Ironically enough, LWALA, the subsequent non-profit organization, is the result of a friendship as well—a lifelong one between Alexa von Tobel and Danielle Snyder, who have been next door neighbors and best friends since their childhood.
Milton Ochieng’ is a Lwala native, who after losing his parents to AIDS felt compelled as a Vanderbilt medical student to fulfill his father’s dying wish—the creation of the first Lwala Community Health Clinic. Despite his dedicated efforts, the clinic was far from fruition due to a lack of funding. Danielle read about his situation in a local paper, and decided to involve her peers at 85 Broads in the endeavor.
During July of 2006, Danielle and Alexa, along with three other students from Harvard, Princeton, and SCAD traveled to Lwala, Kenya to make a documentary about the village and its AIDS crisis. Through their documentary, "Journey to Lwala," they hoped to enlighten and motivate their peers to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
Upon returning to the states, the two realized that their trip was not just a life-changing experience—it was the beginning of a life-long ambition to make a difference. While in Lwala, they worked with village leaders to test approximately 500 villagers and found that more than 30% of the village was infected. Further, they found that the reason so many villagers had not been tested was not because of fear, rather it was because they lacked access to healthcare. In August 2006, the Lwala Community Health Clinic was but a distant dream, and the closest district hospital was roughly 40km away.
With the support of 85 Broads and its non-profit, Miles To Go, the first LWALA benefit took place on November 2, 2006 at the Asia Society in NYC. The 300 person fundraiser featured their documentary, Journey to Lwala, and raised ~$15,000 for Lwala. In response to the benefit’s success, Alexa and Danielle vowed to continue motivating and inspiring their peers to remain dedicated to the dream of the Lwala Community Health Clinic. During her last semester at Vanderbilt, Danielle threw the 2nd Lwala Benefit with the Vanderbilt student organization, Students for Kenya. The 500 person LWALA benefit raised close to $30,000.
To date, LWALA has raised more than $90,000 for the village which has effectively been put to use by the dedicated staff of the Lwala Community Alliance. As a result of the LCA’s dedication, the Lwala Community Health Clinic finally opened on April 2, 2007.
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