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New Lakeland Lecture to Focus on NGO Seibo, Malawi, and Social Entrepreneurship

Sep. 15, 2025

On September 25, 7pm, at LUJ's Muskie Hall, the Lakeland Lecture series will have its first of three talks this fall term. 

Leading off will be Seibo President Makoto Yamada, whose talk, titled "Doing Charity by Doing Business," will focus on Seibo's work in Malawi. Through Seibo, Yamada launched the Warm Hearts Coffee Club, with part of its mission "to provide its members with 100% Organic & Fair-Trade coffee from Malawi." 

To learn more about the Mr. Yamada's talk, see the poster below. As always, the lecture is free and open to the public. 

Mr. Yamada took some time out of his day to answer a few of our questions. 

Can you tell us about your initial interest in coffee? Have you always enjoyed it?

I’ve always enjoyed coffee, but my real interest began when I learned about its connection to people’s lives in Malawi. Coffee is not only a drink we enjoy every morning—it can also be a bridge between cultures and a means of support for children’s education. Through our Warm Hearts Coffee Club, every cup connects directly to a school meal for a child in Malawi. That realization transformed coffee from a personal enjoyment into a mission.

You joined Seibo in 2017...had you always been interested in working with an NGO, or was it more simply an opportunity that came out of the blue?

To be honest, it was not something I had planned for many years. I was working in business when the opportunity to get involved in Malawi came to me. But once I saw the impact of providing school meals—how a simple meal can mean the difference between a child attending school or not—I felt called to continue. In that sense, it was both unexpected and deeply vocational. Seibo gave me the chance to bring together my professional skills and my faith-driven desire to serve.

You'll be giving this lecture in September 2025...how would you like Seibo to grow in the next five years?

In the next five years, I would like Seibo to grow not only in numbers—more meals served, more schools supported—but also in depth. I hope we can strengthen our partnerships with schools in Japan, so that young people here experience global solidarity firsthand. I also envision Seibo as a platform where charity and business meet, where sustainability and compassion go hand in hand.

In regard to numbers, we would like to cover all the financial supports for Malawians working for school feeding projects in 5 years and start to think of spreading more school partnerships locally. 

Here's a link to our Annual Activity Report for 2024, in case you'd like to know more. 

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For more information about the Lakeland Lecture series, please contact the director, Roger Grabowski, at grabowski@japan.lakeland.edu

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