Founders' Story
Martin M’Tambo is originally from Malawi, Africa. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in September of 2022. He currently lives in Northeast Ohio with his wife Margaret and their three children, Ann-Marie, Martin Jr. and Marvin. He is an Adjunct Professor of Graduate Finance at Baldwin Wallace University and also works in corporate America specializing in Strategic Planning, M&A and Competitive Intelligence. In addition, Martin serves as a Board Member for a number of nonprofit organizations in the United States. He is currently in the process of writing a book titled NO SHOES which reflects on his childhood and what he has achieved thus far.
Growing up, Martin had a tough and challenging childhood. He went to school without shoes for nine years, slept on the floor and shared one blanket with one and sometimes two of his brothers. He also had to deal with the negative effects of changing schools due to his parents moving from Zambia to Malawi and later when at the age of 16 he ran away from Malawi and returned to Zambia in search for better learning conditions. Through unwavering faith, hope, hardwork and perseverance, he completed his primary school, high school and also got accepted at the University of Malawi, The Polytechnic, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy degree with a major in Financial Accounting.
Throughout his high school and college, Martin’s biggest dream was to come to America. Also, despite growing up in poverty he dreamed that one day he would build an orphanage. His desire to come to America was so strong that he came up with a daily mantra, “I am going to America, I am an American and America is my home". After graduating from the University of Malawi, Martin's desire and faith to move to America became even stronger. Even though he didn’t have money to pay for graduate school in the United States, Martin started applying for graduate school programs in the USA. He got accepted to study an MBA with a major in International Businesses at Baldwin Wallace College, which was later renamed as Baldwin Wallace University.
Martin believes that God brought the right people in his life at the right time. Firstly, someone whom he got to know just a few days before he went for his interview for student visa stepped in to provide bank statements and affidavit of support documents. Upon arriving in America with only $500 in his pocket, a family that got to meet him the very first week of arrival, after listening to his life’s story they were so touched and moved and they decided to step in to pay for Martin’s first semester tuition. Within a month of his arrival, Martin got an internship with the Cleveland Metroparks as an internal auditor. A year later, he got offered a job by Bendix as a General Accounting Analyst. Bendix proceeded to apply for Martin’s H1B visa (work visa) and also took over to pay for his MBA program. Martin graduated from BWC in 2003 with a Master of Business Administration, with a major in International Business.
Martin is passionate about education and continuous personal development and growth. After graduating from Baldwin Wallace College, Martin wanted to keep his academic knowledge fresh, so he approached Baldwin Wallace College and offered to become a tutor for graduate students in Financial Management, Managerial Accounting and Management Science. Martin views the decision to offer free tutoring sessions for graduate students as one of the most important decisions he has ever made in his life, as it would later lead to Martin being hired by Baldwin Wallace College as an adjunct professor of finance. Unknown to Martin, students were emailing the MBA program director about Martin’s teaching skills and abilities to simplify difficult material into simple and easy to understand concepts. Based on unsolicited strong students’ reviews from his free tutoring sessions, Baldwin Wallace College approached Martin and asked him to join the faculty team as an Adjunct Professor of Finance. Meanwhile, the corporate employer Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems proceeded to petition for Martin’s permanent residence. Martin along with his wife Margaret became permanent residents of the United States in 2013.
As soon as Martin got his green card, he traveled to Malawi with his family. While in Malawi, Martin visited Kawale Primary School, a school which he attended when his parents moved back to Malawi from Zambia. At Kawale Primary School Martin went to school without shoes, sat on the floor and also learned outside under the tree. The conditions that Martin found at Kawale Primary School after being away for more than twenty years were worse than what he left when he ran away and returned to Zambia by himself. The condition moved him so much and felt that he needed to do something about it. When he returned to the United States Martin reached out to his corporate employers to consider funding a project to build classrooms at Kawale Primary School. In 2014 Bendix and Knorr Global Care agreed to support Martin’s desire to improve learning conditions at Kawale Primary School and provided the funds to construct three classrooms, complete with desks. Kawale Primary School needed five classrooms to move all the students who were learning outside under the trees. Martin along with his family (wife and children) continued to raise funds by organizing golf outings in the United States and were able to build two more classrooms at Kawale Primary School. They also renovated old rundown classrooms and also installed a water tank at the school so the students would have access to clean drinking water. The more Martin and his family raised money to improve Kawale Primary School, the more his passion grew to continue what he was already doing. As a result, Martin decided to establish Maraan Foundation in 2019, whose goal is to bridge the gap between learning conditions in developed countries like the United States and developing countries like Malawi, by engaging institutions and individuals to take an active role in this effort.
Martin’s vision is being realized through Maraan Academy which started operating in January 2021 in Malawi. Maraan Academy currently deploys modern learning tools including Google Classroom and the use of Chromebooks. Martin believes this is his life’s Purpose, using his tough and challenging childhood and past experiences as the inspiration to do something positive by helping as many children in Africa to have better learning conditions than he had. Maraan Academy is on schedule to become a full high school or secondary school and an examination center by the end of 2023. Nearly all of the current Maraan Academy students are on full scholarship. Maraan Foundation has partnered with other organizations, families and caring individuals in the United States who generously pay tuition for the underprivileged but bright and promising young people so they can be given a chance to achieve their God-given potential. Martin’s hope and desire is that these young people will break their families’ generational poverty and a life of lack by achieving their greatest God given potential. He also hopes that some of them will achieve way more than he has achieved in life and will grow up to become influential human beings committed to making this world a better place and will be passionate about making a difference in the lives of others. For "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." —John Dewey.