A Better Back-To-School Experience

Thupa Primary School in Malawi has been educating children in the community for over 60 years. But without desks and proper infrastructure, students have been forced to learn on the floor in dilapidated classrooms. Now, thanks to buildOn, students like Tabita Banda are having a better, brighter back-to-school experience.  

This year alone, buildOn has already completed construction on 100 schools, which means thousands of children will have the opportunity to learn in real classrooms for the first time this fall. But buildOn doesn’t build schools for communities––we build schools with communities. And the residents of Thupa were committed to providing their students with safe, updated classrooms to help them thrive in their studies. The community contributed the land and natural resources such as sand, water, and gravel to the project. A Project Leadership Committee consisting of six men and six women from Thupa were selected to oversee the school build. These incredible leaders not only helped to collect supplies, but they also organized crews to volunteer on the worksite each day. By the end of the project, the men and women of Thupa had proudly contributed 2,344 volunteer work days to the building of their new school!

“I believe I can make it despite that I am a girl. I want to be educated and help the sick people in our country.”

Tabitha Banda, Student in Thupa

Tabitha, now a second grader, is thrilled with her new classroom, and her favorite subjects are math, Chichewa, and English. She also dreams of becoming a doctor when she grows up. “I believe I can make it despite that I am a girl,” she says. “I want to be educated and help the sick people in our country.” 

Tour the old school in Thupa and learn more about why buildOn chose to partner with this community to build a new school.

Before beginning construction, community members signed the buildOn covenant, where they agreed to volunteering on the worksite and sending girls to school in equal numbers as boys. Those who didn't know how to read and write signed their names with their thumbprints.

Community members dance at a celebration in honor of breaking ground on their new buildOn school.

The parents of Thupa worked hard to build this school for their children.

The new school was completed just in time for classes to begin this October.

Tabitha practices reading in her new buildOn school.

Instead of learning on the ground in an open-roofed structure, students in Thupa are now enjoying their lessons inside their new buildOn classrooms.

Thupa Primary School has a network of fourteen communities, educates eight grade levels, and has 450 students enrolled. Haiden Mvuma is a community leader who has led one of the villages and, along with his neighbors, took part in the new school block’s construction. He says community members were filled with gratitude and excitement for the newly constructed block. 

“We were in dire need of adequate school blocks as most of those used by our students were very old and posed a threat to our children’s safety,” Haiden says. “This block has transformed the school and will provide a conducive learning environment for our children and the future generations.” 

The students in Thupa love their new classrooms and improved learning conditions. Moving forward, community leaders and buildOn staff will be identifying out-of-school children in Thupa so they can be enrolled in classes. They will be part of over 159,000 out-of-school children that buildOn and the Education Above All Foundation will be enrolling over the next six years. 

Unfortunately, there are still many students who are forced to study in inadequate and unsafe classrooms. But you have the power to make a difference. Please consider making a donation today, and give more children like Tabitha hope for a better future.