Our Work
Together, we’re breaking the cycle
Our mission is to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service and education. We mobilize U.S. students to transform their communities through service learning and change the world by building schools in developing countries.
Where We Work
From America’s most underserved urban high schools to the world’s economically poorest countries, we build hope and opportunity where it’s needed most.
- Global locations
Our Impact
Hours served by U.S. students
Students active in buildOn service programs
of buildOn students graduate high school
Our Programs
We empower U.S. youth as they transform their communities, our world, and themselves by serving their neighborhoods and building schools in the economically poorest countries on the planet.
Service is at the heart of everything we do. From America’s underserved urban neighborhoods to the world’s economically poorest rural villages, we empower people to take on the most pressing issues in their communities through direct action. It’s not about what we do for the students and families we serve with, but what they do for their communities, our world, and themselves.
We believe that the people closest to challenges of poverty and illiteracy are best positioned to address these issues. In the U.S., this means empowering youth to investigate the biggest concerns facing their communities and providing opportunities for them to take action. Globally, we don’t build schools for communities, we build schools with communities, putting local residents in leadership roles and employing a construction model that centers on collaborative service.
Khema from Nepal
“After school I want to become a lawyer. There is so much injustice and I want to fight for people’s justice.”
Today, 11-year-old Khema is learning and thriving in the fifth grade, but not long ago a education seemed impossible for Khema and the other children of Dakshin Bhakari, Nepal. With only a dilapidated building to serve as their classroom, many parents in the community kept their children at home to help support their struggling families. Since the village came together to construct a buildOn school, much has changed, and today children like Khema are learning the skills they’ll need to break the cycles of poverty and illiteracy in rural Nepal. “Now all my friends come to school regularly because we are able to study in a child-friendly environment,” Khema says. “I’m grateful for this school.”
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