The Sparkle Foundation Podcast is where we shine a light on the extraordinary people behind our mission: volunteers, changemakers, and champions who show up, roll up their sleeves, and prove that one person really can make a difference. Each episode is an honest, unscripted conversation about what drives people to give back, and what happens when they do. Hosted by Sarah Brook, Founder and CEO of The Sparkle Foundation.



Kelly Lundberg is a personal branding expert, keynote speaker and mentor who has spent over 23 years in Dubai helping people move from invisible to seen. Through keynotes, one to one mentoring and storytelling, she helps her clients showcase their talent, their expertise and their message with confidence.

It began, fittingly, with a podcast. Kelly had invited Sarah onto her own show, and by the end of the conversation, she found herself asking the question she says pulls so many people into Sparkle's orbit. 

“How can I help?” 

It wasn't Kelly's first attempt at giving back. Twenty years earlier, she had raised money for an orphanage in Thailand, selling handmade bangles and filling her luggage allowance with supplies for a single day's visit. It was moving, but it was also a one off. She wanted to do more.

 

“The one thing you do so well,” she tells Sarah, “is that it's not a one time thing.” That longevity, the follow up, the ongoing relationship, was what convinced her. “My heart was set.” 

Kelly's trip to Malawi came with small, human moments that stayed with her long after she landed home. There was the sports day she helped run, complete with an egg and spoon race and medals that she quickly realised meant far more to the children than she expected. 

“I didn't realise what a momentous moment that was for the kids,” she recalls. “I wished I'd taken enough for all of them to win.” 

There was the community education event, where one mother demonstrated how she wrapped her baby to her back for an ordinary day of dancing and working. Kelly's own mother later framed that photograph, and it still sits on her mantelpiece in Scotland. 

And there was the walk in the dark up a mountain path, where Kelly's group stopped to help a woman carrying firewood, a woman she would meet again on a later return trip to Malawi. 

Kelly didn't just go once and come home. She built The Sparkle Foundation into the fabric of both her business and her personal life. When she got married, she and her husband asked wedding guests to donate to The Sparkle Foundation instead of buying gifts. “We opened up all the cards the next day and counted it all up,” she remembers. “It was such a special moment.” 

She has brought her own team to Sparkle events, spent a Christmas party giving back rather than celebrating in the usual way, and taken them along to quiz nights in support of the cause. Before her own trip to Malawi, she asked her birthday guests for their favourite childhood book instead of gifts, then carried a suitcase full of them out to give to the children. 

Perhaps the most visible symbol of Kelly's support is Shakira, the pink elephant now inseparable from her telling of The Sparkle Foundation's story. Kelly's team won her at a hook-a-duck game during the 2025 Sparkle Gala, and the idea for a mascot small enough to travel in hand luggage was born. 



“I actually liked the concept of the elephant in the room,” Kelly explains. “How can we raise awareness about what The Sparkle Foundation does in a way that doesn't feel like just talking about myself supporting a charity? How can we tell the story organically?” 

Shakira has since travelled the world: to Riyadh, on Kelly's honeymoon safari, and to a keynote in Sri Lanka, where an audience member asked to hear nothing except the story of the elephant. Kelly told it with under a minute left on the clock, and was flooded with messages afterwards from people asking whether Shakira had made it home safely. 

After years of showing up, in the studio, at the Sparkle Gala, on stage and on the ground in Malawi, Kelly has now signed on as The Sparkle Foundation's first official ambassador, a role with no fixed end date and a single aim: helping the story reach further than Sarah alone ever could. 

“We're not here for followers or likes,” Kelly says. “We're here for one tangible life changed at a time.” 

If you enjoyed some of the highlights, give the full episode a listen! 

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• To sponsor a child, volunteer, or find out more about The Sparkle Foundation's work in Malawi contact us or reach out via our socials. 

The Sparkle Foundation delivers education, nutrition, healthcare, and community empowerment programmes to women and children in Malawi. With 30,000+ lives impacted and four sites and growing, every contribution makes a direct, lasting impact. 

• Sponsor a child for 150 AED a month. This provides one child with access to healthcare, education, and two daily nutritious meals for an entire month. 
• Volunteer from anywhere in the world. Fill out this form to express your interest. 
• Make a one-off donation at thesparklefoundation.org 
• Bring Sparkle into your business: email admin@sparklemalawi.org