Global School Construction
For two decades buildOn has mobilized rural villages in some of the poorest countries on the planet to build more than 400 schools. We build schools with communities that have no adequate school structure – where students are squeezed into dark and crumbling mud huts, or are taught under trees when the weather permits, or have to walk multiple miles to a neighboring village, or can’t attend school at all.
Our methodology’s true power resides in the fact that buildOn classrooms are constructed in partnership with the very people who will be benefiting from them. buildOn provides the funding, engineering, materials, skilled labor and supervision. The village provides a gender balanced leadership team, thousands of hours of unskilled volunteer labor and a promise that girls will attend the school in equal numbers with boys. We are currently building schools in developing countries: Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Senegal.
See the impact of buildOn’s Global School Construction.
buildOn’s Global School Construction Program Includes
Before a single brick is laid, buildOn requires that villages form a gender-equal Leadership Team for the construction project. A Covenant is then signed between buildOn and the community that outlines each party’s obligation–buildOn agrees to provide the engineering, materials, skilled labor and project supervision. The village contributes up to 3,000 volunteer work days and a promise to send girls to be educated in equal numbers as boys. After construction on the two or three-classroom school is complete, our staff continues to monitor and evaluate the school. After three years, if gender balance within the school is maintained, we will build the same community a second school. This approach not only ensures the success of the school, but has in many cases illustrated to villages what can be accomplished by teamwork and equality.
The Story Behind the Photo: Nepalese women line up to add their thumb print to the covenant. In villages where buildOn operates most of the community members cannot sign their own name, so instead they leave a thumb print to signify their commitment. Often for the village women, this is the very first time they have ever been asked to sign a document.
Literacy is the foundation of buildOn’s comprehensive Community Education Program, which provides schooling to the adults in rural villages. Since 2000, 11,729 adults have completed the Community Education Program, 70% of which have been women. In addition to reading, writing, and basic math and numeracy, classes cover agricultural topics, sanitation and hygiene, and other issues relevant to local community development. Classes are taught by literate community members who are themselves trained by buildOn.
The Story Behind the Photo: After buildOn constructed a school in the small Nepalese village of Shishaya in 2007, several adults quickly enrolled in our Community Education Program. After completing the CEP, a small group of women led by Jyoeshena Chaudhary, above, decided to use their new literacy to start a sewing business. They trained with local textile workshops, developed a business plan, and are now earning an average of $3 a day from the items they manufacture. Jyoeshena has said that the CEP provided her with the rudimentary skills and the confidence she needed as both a woman and an individual to organize her sewing business. The CEP is literally enabling Jyoeshena to bring herself and her village out of extreme poverty.
Schools constructed by buildOn worldwide are designed to promote gender equality in countries with imbalances between the sexes. In Malawi and Mali, girls are not traditionally educated, and there are few opportunities for adult women. In Nicaragua, the majority of individuals living in abject poverty are female. buildOn’s school building methodology validates the right of women to educate themselves and make decisions in their community. Before construction, buildOn requires villages to elect a Leadership Team comprised of men and women. This team guides the school project, discussing the terms of the Covenant and determining how to provide the unskilled labor needed to build. After the school is complete, the terms of the Covenant require the village to send boys and girls to school in equal numbers. Right now, 49% of students in buildOn schools are female. By building schools in Africa and elsewhere, buildOn has given women and girls in many rural villages their first opportunity to become educated and meaningfully contribute to their communities.
The Story Behind the Photo: Komba Dumbia sits with her two granddaughters, the chalk board reads: “Thank you for bringing the light.” Refused school as a child and forced into marriage at age 15, Komba Dumbia knew how important “the light of education’ would be for her family. That’s why she helped build her village’s first school by providing volunteer labor. She now sits on the Leadership Team for the school which her granddaughters attend during the day, and she attends during the evening.
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