buildOn Partners with Madonna to ConstructTen Schools in Malawi!

We’re very excited to announce that buildOn is partnering with entertainment icon Madonna and her nonprofit Raising Malawi to construct ten new primary schools in the country of Malawi! Their contribution will allow us to expand on our success in that African nation’s remote villages, where we’ve already built over 50 schools that are helping individuals take the first steps out of extreme poverty every day.

Read more about this partnership in the official press release.

buildOn’s global school construction program is founded upon a core methodology produced from years of research. 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. After the school is completed, Malawi’s Ministry of Education will provide the teachers and run the curriculum in the classroom.

Read more about our methodology.

Madonna feels passionately about her vow to help Malawi’s neediest children receive an education. “This remains a very big priority in my life and I am excited that with the help of buildOn we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently. We now will be able to serve twice as many children as we would have served with our old approach,” said Madonna. “I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel confident that we can reach our goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more practical way. Constructing smaller schools in partnership with buildOn has restored my faith that we can accomplish what we promised we would,” concluded Madonna.

Consistently ranked among the world’s 20 least developed countries on the UN’s Human Development Index, Malawi has long been challenged by economic stagnation and a lack of access to education. With support from Raising Malawi, we will leverage our 19 years of experience in Malawi to construct 10 new schools with the capacity to educate at least 1,000 children per year, half of whom are girls. Malawi has over a half a million children orphaned from the Aids epidemic. Raising Malawi has helped support many of these children for the last several years through various programs.

Read more about the obstacles Malawi faces on our blog, and how education can help.

“Because of Madonna and Raising Malawi’s support, we will be able to build schools for children that the rest of the world has left behind. Generations of children will have access to education and be empowered to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations,” said Jim Ziolkowski, our Founder and CEO.

About Raising Malawi: Raising Malawi was founded in 2006 to bring an end to the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi’s 1.4 million orphans and vulnerable children. Raising Malawi supports community-based organizations that provide these children and their caregivers with critical resources including food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, and psychosocial support.