Meet Mother Māelah of Rebuild. Savannah “An Unchained Reaction” in Savannah

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mother Māelah.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Mother. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Rebuild.Savannah was created with three ingredients, my childhood trauma, Black Wall Street and Ants. Curious? Well, here’s how. I was born in Savannah, Ga. I was raised in the Woodsville Community where I experienced lots of love and a strong support system. At age 11, I went through a culture shock after I moved. My new neighborhood and school was nothing like my old one. I was in the 6th grade at Derenne Middle School in classes with 16 and 17-year-olds, 11-year-old girls who were pregnant, and pre-teens and teens either dying or being incarcerated on a daily basis. The crime and teen pregnancy rate was at an all-time high during those days. If I could paint the perfect picture, it was like the scene in the movie “Life” where Clyde (Martin Lawrence) and Ray (Eddie Murphy) started noticing all the prisoners dying off, the only exception was they were old and my peers were way younger. It wasn’t until age 20 after a close friend’s death that I realized how much I had suppressed my childhood trauma. The death made me reflect on my early stages of life. During my reflecting process, I became very depressed. Then, one day it hit me, I’m a rainbow baby (a child born after a miscarriage), I wasn’t even supposed to make it out the womb. All those times, I could’ve died or been hurt, why wasn’t I? Clearly, I’m still here for a reason. I literally asked myself are you gonna stay down or get up? I made a choice to get up. Each and every time life threw something at me, I made a conscious decision GET UP AND REBUILD. You see Reflection is necessary what you may discover can make you depressed, but it’s all a part of the process, you can’t grow without it. Once you make it out of that depression, you can’t be stopped! Rebuild isn’t just for my people, it’s personal and testimony for me.

Black Wall Street
I’ve always been interested and rather informed about black history, but it wasn’t until I attended college that I learned what Black Wall Street was. To those that don’t know Black Wall Street was one of the most well-known assemblages of Black Owned Businesses in the Greenwood Community of Tulsa, Oklahoma. They had Hotels, Hospitals, Banks, Dentist Offices, Gas Stations, Markets, Police Station, and many other entrepreneurial establishments. It was a very prosperous town until the Tulsa Race Riot occurred resulting in all the Black Owned Businesses and Homes were either burned down or destroyed. Learning about Black Wall Street made me question how we go from having a community with over 300 black-owned businesses to never having it again at all ever. I thought to myself, “how can I recreate this”?

Ants
One day while at the park little girl and myself noticed an ant bed next to my foot. The little girl stepped on it aggressively and Asked her “Why did you do that? You just destroyed their home”. She looked at me, shrugged, and ran off, but I stood there and watched the ant bed. As I watched, I noticed that within 30 secs the ants had built the ant bed back to where it was before. This intrigued me so much that I began to do research on ants. I found that black people had a lot in common with ants. For instants, ants come in four colors Black, Red, Brown, and Yellow, Just like African Americans. Ants are overworked and overlooked, just like blacks. Ants have built this entire world with their bare hands, just as blacks have built the U.S during Slavery. Also, the fact that ants live in their own colony and build for their own children and families took the cake for me. I thought to myself, why isn’t my family like this or why isn’t my city like this, we have work do.

So, there you have it, Rebuild. Savannah “An Unchained Reaction”! Rebuild. Savannah not just a personal testimony, but because us Blacks have Built and need to REbuild continuously. The tagline “An Unchained Reaction” came from understanding that my people have suffered through loss, poverty, lack of awareness, oppression, and enslavement and now, it’s time to act upon those things for progression. Although I felt alone during those times of going through I knew I couldn’t be the only person on earth who had experienced those things, so I decided to create an organization to help others. Rebuild.Savannah “An Unchained Reaction”, from Crabs in a barrel to Ants in a colony. 🐜🌱💪🏾

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This road has been slow yet steady. I understand that this type of thing takes time and patience so I take everything as it comes. The hardest thing about this organization is the fact that there are not enough people who are passionate about the betterment of the Black community as a whole. I had to learn that everyone isn’t going to understand the mission at hand and that doing it alone is probably the most peaceful way. People say they want to help but their form of help is giving people things not so much knowledge and awareness to maintain those things. Our people need guidance and healing. “My people perish from lack of knowledge”…

Rebuild. Savannah “An Unchained Reaction” – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Rebuild. Savanah is a community organization that focuses on mainly Community Development. From Establishing, Promoting, and Supporting Black-owned businesses to bringing about awareness to the black community of Savannah. We Establish businesses by helping with business start-up (Business Plans, business cards, logos, flyers). With every service that Rebuild.Savannah provides comes with that business being listed on RebuildSavannah.com. Businesses are promoted daily on our facebook page @Rebuild Savannah. Rebuild. Savannah supports the community by Sponsoring events, Hosting/Managing events, Public Speaking and simply showing up and volunteering. We bring about awareness through a movement called “Operation Heal the Land”, where we provide different scenarios that may occur throughout life along with examples on how to work through them. and heal. This movement is what I am most known for, along with my infamous quotes. I also have a Graphic T-shirt line called “Unmuted Silence”, dedicated to mental illness and to all the trauma and oppression African Americans suffer through. These T-shirts are used to encourage others young and old to speak out about anything they’ve been through. Let your silence be “Unmuted”.

I am most proud of the people I have reached outside of my city. I’ve reached people from Cali, Jacksonville, Fl, South Carolina, Chicago, Il, New York and even as far as Germany.

What sets me apart from other businesses and organizations is the fact that what I do is way more beneficial to others than it is for myself and that my organization is focused around healing and understanding.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I measure Success first by the positive effect I have on those close to me, and 2nd by the footprints I was able to leave behind for whomever else to fill and surpass. Success is the legacy I’ll leave when I’m gone.

Pricing:

• “Serenity White” Unmuted Silence Graphic Tee
• “U Black, Maybe” Unmuted Silence Graphic Tee
• “Gray Area” Unmuted Silence Graphic Tee
• All shirts are $25 for sizes S,M,L and $35 for Xl-XXXl
• ALL SHIRTS ARE SOLD ON REBUILDSAVANNAH.COM

Contact Info:

• Website: RebuildSavannah.com
• Email: Rebuild912@gmail.com
• Instagram: @Rebuild.Savannah
• Facebook: @Rebuild Savannah

Image Credit:
Photographer for “We can do it”: By: Clifton Kimble company name ThoughtOutMind
Unmuted silence graphic design: Antwan Myrick
Unmuted Silence T-shirt Photoshoot: Curtis Cuttray
Rebuild Savannah Logo -Mother Māelah
All photo editing done by Rebuild.Savannah – Mother Māelah
Models: Mother Māelah, Jayla Diggs, Jasmyn Buchanan, Justin Jenkins, and Cassius Christopher

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