Beyond Four Walls: How buildOn and EAC Get Children Back in School

Across the world, there are many reasons why a child might not be attending school. For many, their parents need them at home to help out with household chores or farming. For others, their nearest school is too far away or the classroom space and structure are unsafe. For millions of girls in areas where child marriage is still prevalent, they need to raise children instead of attending school.

And the COVID-19 pandemic made this crisis even worse. In 2018, 59 million primary school-aged children were out of school globally. By the time COVID-19 lockdowns reached their peak, that number had climbed to over 1.6 billion!  

Children who remain out of school end up trapped in a cycle of poverty and limited opportunities. Our Enroll Program breaks that cycle.

buildOn’s transformative school construction projects bring communities together to build classrooms in economically-developing countries. But education goes beyond four walls. 

Our Enroll Program, which we run alongside our partners, Education Above All’s Educate A Child Program, recognizes the complex barriers that keep children out of school–from poverty and cultural norms to distance and inadequate infrastructure–and breaks them down. We have four key strategies that we use to do this:

Community Engagement: We work to build trust and understanding within communities, working in partnership with local leaders and families to identify out-of-school children and address their specific needs.

Accelerated Learning Courses: For children who have fallen behind, we offer accelerated learning classes to help them catch up and rejoin school with other students in their grade level.

Income-Generating Activities: Community members are given seed money to create small businesses that can help pay for school fees and uniforms for students.

Direct Support: For the most vulnerable children, we provide essential school supplies and other resources to make sure they can return to the classroom.

The success of the Enroll Program is measured not just in numbers, but in the lives it transforms. Every child who finds their way back to the classroom creates a ripple effect. Increased literacy and numeracy skills enhance opportunities for future employment and income generation. Students who are empowered through education become agents of change within their communities, breaking the cycle of poverty for generations to come.

Through our partnership with EAC and our Enroll Program, we’re improving lives across the globe. But we’re only getting started! We’ve set an ambitious goal to enroll an additional 159,000 out-of-school children by 2026.

While it will take a lot of hard work from our staff and global community partners to reach this goal, it pales in comparison to the struggles these students will face later in life if they never receive a quality education. And at buildOn, we never give up.

Will you support our Enroll Program and bring children back to the classroom? Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today.