Who We Are and Why We Started: The Story Behind Mamo Memorial Peace Foundation

Who We Are and Why We Started: The Story Behind Mamo Memorial Peace Foundation

By Abdulmalik Nuhu, Founder

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A Question I Asked in a New Country

When I first arrived in Canada from Nigeria to study at the University of Waterloo, I didn’t know what most of my days would look like. I didn’t know the streets, the seasons, or the small rhythms of a country that wasn’t mine yet.

But I knew one thing about myself, something my parents put into me long before I ever boarded that plane: Usually, the first thing I do when I get to a place is ask, “how can I help?”

So I sat down with my laptop one evening, opened a browser, and typed in two words: volunteer opportunities. The Food Bank of Waterloo Region popped up. In January 2024, I officially became a volunteer.

I didn’t know it then, but that small act, that single question typed into a search bar, was the beginning of Mamo Memorial Peace Foundation.

What I Found at the Food Bank

I thought I was signing up to sort cans and pack hampers. And I did. I sorted non-perishable food into organized categories, packed boxes with fresh fruits and vegetables, and helped accept donations from community members who simply wanted to help their neighbours.

But what I found there was bigger than the work.

I found a system of care. A warehouse running not on money or machines, but on a chain of volunteers, strangers who showed up week after week because they believed people in their community deserved to eat. I watched how synchronized it all was. How dignified. How quiet and effective.

I also found something I wasn’t expecting: connection.

“The happiness I get that I’m supporting to give food to the people, and the opportunity we have to talk with one another — that connection is amazing.”

I said that in an interview with the Food Bank in April 2024. I meant it then. I mean it more now.

Through standing next to other volunteers, eating donated coffee in break rooms, and being a brand ambassador at events like Canstruction, I learned something newcomers don’t always get to learn: what the culture of this land actually feels like. Not the official version. The real one. The one held by ordinary people doing ordinary good.

That experience didn’t just help the Food Bank. It helped me. It is one of the small acts of kindness that I received in a new country, and it became the spark that wouldn’t go away.

The Spark Becomes a Foundation

When I was interviewed by the Food Bank that April, I said something that I now realize I was making a quiet promise:

“If possible, I will replicate something like this back home.”

At the time, “home” meant Nigeria. But as my life in Canada continued, home began to expand. It became wherever I was standing. And eventually, it became Northern Manitoba: Treaty 5 Territory, the homeland of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, the Cree, Dene, and Oji-Cree peoples, and the Red River Métis.

We didn’t choose this place by accident. We chose it because the work of belonging, of helping people feel welcomed, respected, and supported, is needed everywhere, and it is especially meaningful here, on land that has known both deep community and deep harm.

We came as guests. We stay as listeners.

In 2025, Mamo Memorial Peace Foundation was born here in Canada (an idea becoming incorporated).

What MMPF Is — and What We Are Not

Let me say this plainly, because honesty matters more than image:

MMPF is not an Indigenous-led organization. We are a non-Indigenous-led nonprofit, registered in Northern Manitoba, that exists to support Indigenous communities as allies, partners, and learners.

We are not here to speak for anyone. We are here to host the spaces where people speak for themselves.

Our work centres on four simple ideas:

• Peace and Dialogue. We host conversations and create safe spaces for sharing and learning.
• Youth Engagement. We empower young people to lead, speak, create, and connect across communities.
• Welcoming & Belonging. We support individuals to build relationships and reduce isolation, because I know what it feels like to be new somewhere.
• Community Action. We back small, practical initiatives that bring people together.

Our programs, Mamo Connect, My Story, Educonnect, and EDVolun, are how those ideas become real days in real people’s lives.

Why “Mamo”?

Mamo is a word with weight in our family and in our memory. It carries the spirit of someone we loved, and the lesson she lived: that small kindnesses ripple farther than we ever see. We named the foundation after her because that is what we want our work to be: quiet, persistent, and rippling.

Memory, in our tradition, isn’t behind us. It walks beside us.

What We’re Asking For

We are a young foundation. We are still learning the land, the protocols, and the people. We will make mistakes. We will keep listening.

If you have read this far, here are three small ways you can walk beside us:

• Learn with us. Read our blog and stay tuned for stories from the communities we work with.
• Volunteer your time. Reach out; even one conversation, one event, one introduction, helps build the kind of foundation we want to be.
• Support our work. A donation, whatever size, helps us host the next dialogue, run the next youth program, fund the next small act of community.

A Note on the Land We Walk On

Before our name, there was this ground. Before our work, there was this water. We are guests of Treaty 5 Territory, neighbours to the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, the Cree, Dene, and Oji-Cree peoples, and the Red River Métis, whose homeland this remains. We are grateful. We are listening. We are still learning. We carry this knowing with gratitude, and we walk gently here.

That’s not just a paragraph at the bottom of our website. That’s the orientation of everything we do.

Thank you for being here.

Abdulmalik Nuhu Founder, Mamo Memorial Peace Foundation

About the author: Abdulmalik Nuhu (who goes by Malik) is the founder of Mamo Memorial Peace Foundation. He arrived in Canada from Nigeria to study at the University of Waterloo. He was featured by the Food Bank of Waterloo Region in April 2024 as a volunteer profile during National Volunteer Week.