Grassroots Development in Malawi

Sometime in the next two weeks, men and women from the village of Kasikidzi, Malawi will harvest and sell one acre of cassava, a starchy tuberous root used as food in many developing countries.  They strategically worked together as participants in buildOn’s Community Education Program (CEP) with the goal of generating revenue to be reinvested in their own lives.

Their journey started in 2008, when a group of U.S. high school students from buildOn’s Trek for Knowledge program in Connecticut spent two weeks in Kasikidzi working to help build a primary school for the children in the village.  The school was completed in 11 weeks and the men and women of the village contributed more than 2000 volunteer workdays to finish the project. Currently, 396 students, 210 of whom are girls, benefit from the additional classrooms.

Following the construction of the school, men and women from the community eagerly enrolled in buildOn’s Community Education Program, an 18-month course designed to teach literacy and community development skills to mostly illiterate adults. The course is now near completion, and the participants are taking stock of the noticeable improvements in their lives and in their community.

“Before the Community Education Program, most of us could not read, write, or do basic math,” Aida Akimu explained to me as we walked through her village. “Today, we can read street signs, write letters, read the bible, and understand how to account for money.” Mrs. Akimu currently serves as treasurer for a club her CEP class created to collectively increase agricultural output and invest in livestock.

The club’s chairman, Anton Chipemba, debriefed me on their strategy. “During CEP class one day, buildOn brought in a guest speaker to talk about raising pigs and goats. Afterward, we decided to work together to plant, harvest, and sell an acre of cassava and use the revenue to buy and raise pigs. Using the construction skills we learned during the school project, we built a covered pigpen that is now ready for use. Our goal is for the pigs to reproduce to the point where every member of our class has a pig of their own.”

This is the definition of grassroots development at the most basic level. buildOn programs provided the men and women of Kasikidzi with the opportunity to improve education and community development, and they met that opportunity with a high level of dedication, enthusiasm, and follow-through.

Their journey, however, is not complete. With the imminent completion of CEP classes in Kasikidzi, buildOn and the community will begin preparations on the next phase of this meaningful partnership—a second school block to meet the needs of the growing demand of primary school students in the village.

In Building Schools, Malawi, Photo Gallery, Uncategorized

The Need

Across the country there are 15.1 million teenagers without access to quality afterschool programs. Without a safe place to go after school, boys are six times more likely to commit a crime and girls are 50% more likely to become teenage mothers. Overall, teens are twice as likely to drop out of school.

The need is clear.

At buildOn we not only provide U.S. youth with a safe space afterschool; we empower them to change their communities and the world! buildOn students, from some the most challenging and under resourced schools in our nation, contribute literally hundreds of thousands of service hours to their communities.

From Oakland to Southside Chicago, from Detroit to the Bronx, buildOn students spend their out-of-school hours listening to U.S. veterans at homeless shelters, bringing groceries to individuals afflicted with HIV/AIDS, and cleaning and caring for our community. They have traveled, just as you’ve seen in “From the Field,” to remote villages in impoverished nations to help break the cycle of poverty, by bringing education to those who need it most.

And what’s more, 95% of buildOn students in the U.S. graduate high school and attend college.

This is why I’m so pleased to announce the launch of the buildOn Afterschool Campaign at buildonafterschool.org in support of our critical programs.

Through this campaign you have a direct link into each of buildOn’s 118 programs nationwide. You will meet students living in your city right now and are working to make the community better for all. You can learn about, and then support, the buildOn program that means the most to you.

We hope you will help us in celebrating the students who have the drive, compassion and foresight to spend their after school time with buildOn. We are inspired by their work and are thankful for your support.

Visit buildOnafterschool.org and make an impact today.

In Community Services, Empowering Youth, U.S. Programs

A Simple Act of Kindness

One of the most powerful service experiences I have witnessed takes place each summer in the unlikely town of Lexington, MI. The YWCA Camp Cavell invites buildOn students to volunteer as camp counselors to support the women and children from the YWCA Interim House for a much needed week of healing. The YWCA Interim House is a shelter in Detroit that offers services to battered women and their children.

The buildOn students are responsible for getting the families to meals on time and taking the children and mothers to the different activities around camp. They also play games with the kids during free time. Over the week buildOn students and the women and children from the Interim House participate in swimming, kayaking, tree climbing, horseback riding, hayrides, arts and crafts, camp games and dancing.

buildOn staff and students discuss at length how this week is a critical step in the healing process for these women and children. As relationships form and trust builds some of the women share their powerful and tragic stories. Our students quickly begin to realize the strength and resiliency that it took for these women to protect themselves and their children. By supporting, encouraging and nurturing the women and children of the Interim House, buildOn students make a difference in their lives and learn from the women and children. Over the week, buildOn students learn about domestic violence and how to avoid it, but they also learn about giving and the simple joys and aching sadness of life.

Lisa Kraiza is a buildOn volunteer and teaching advisor at Oak Park High School. Here is what she wrote about her time at Camp Cavel:

My real breakthrough moment came at horseback riding. It also happened to be my wedding anniversary that day. While I was waiting for all the kids to take a turn, including my own daughter, Essence comes up to me and says, “While you are celebrating your anniversary, I am celebrating a divorce.” She then began to share parts of her life with me. Essence had this glow of positive energy around her. She knew that she had a dark past, but she was resigned that from now on she would look to the future and do what she could for herself and her son. I was so proud of Essence and so happy that she opened up to me. I told her as much.

The rest of the week I would check in with Essence and she would reveal a little more about her life to me. We cried and we hugged. I found her a stone on the beach that was worn down like a worry stone. I gave it to her at dinner and told her to keep it in her pocket to remind her of camp on those rough days. She responded with a letter to me that moves me every time I look at it. I will keep her letter forever. Her last line sums up what buildOn is all about, “Thanks for your simple, but much needed act of kindness.”

In Community Services, Detroit Students, U.S. Programs

First Days of Construction

Join us on the work site as we unite with the people of Ntiola, West Africa to build a school in 100+ degree heat!

In Building Schools, Mali

The Covenant

Today we gathered to sign a covenant to build the school with the community. If all in the village sign, we will break ground and build the school!

In Illiteracy, Mali

Welcome to Mali!

We are completely off the grid in the remote village of Ntiola in Mali, West Africa. The video you are about to see was edited in the field and uploaded from the nearest internet access point—nearly three hours in a 4WD vehicle from the village. You will see how the community welcomed our team of 15 American students as we join them to build a school. Check back as we will be posting from Mali the next few days!

In Building Schools, Mali

Hard work isn’t easy…

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the different opportunities buildOn provides for youth.  After 4 weeks of summer programming (covering Global Education, Service, Sponsorship, and of course, FUN!), I have quite an extensive list.  However, I think one of the most important values that I try to instill in the fabulous students that I work with, is HARD WORK. Life isn’t always easy.  School can be challenging. Friends and family can be frustrating.  But, if you know how to work hard, you know how to persevere.

With all the service that we do in our communities- both locally and globally- my heart can’t help but melt when I see students dive in, get dirty, and make a difference.  A common misconception among many people (not just students) is that hard work is easy. Hard work is hard, but with a big heart anything is possible.

Hard work often involves sweat, exhaustion, pushing yourself beyond what you thought you could do.  On our latest service adventure, I saw my student do just that.  Not a day went by where we weren’t sweaty, hot, filthy, and tired.  They worked as a team, and they worked hard.  On our last day, I couldn’t help but ask them, “Why?  Why do you work hard?”  Here is part of what they said…

“Because I knew I had the opportunity to do something new and inspirational..”

“I know I would want someone to work hard on something that was important for me (like a house or school), and I’m sure the people in need would feel the same way…”

“I worked hard because I wanted to show that I could work as hard as I possibly can in any weather or any place.”

“I think every community should have the basics…this experience (although very painful and physically/mentally draining) was amazing and I wouldn’t take it back fro anything.”

“I put all of my heart and my strength to make my work look great, so that the people who will receive the good of my work will be proud to know that a determined person did that for them.”

“I felt I couldn’t give up because I wouldn’t want anyone to give up on something I needed.”

In U.S. Programs

Camping in the Back Woods of Brooklyn!

In New York City, we are in the midst of our Summer Leadership Program.  We’ve been taking students to the backwoods of Brooklyn for a camping adventure at Floyd Bennett Field.  Each week, a group of about 15-20 students from different schools across the region come together for a week of team building, leadership development, canoeing, community service, and real rustic camping (i.e., no running water, no showers).  Think: domestic Trek!

This week, Sung-Mun and Charlene, along with a teacher volunteer, led a dynamite group of 15 students from Brooklyn and the Bronx.  Monday, they kicked things off with a tent-pitching challenge: four teams, no directions, and a lot of encouragement.  An hour later, we had shelter and some awesome team building!

But any youth worker will tell you that the best way to get a group to bond is to tie them up–literally–which is exactly what we did next: the Human Knot!  Students joined hands in a semi-chaotic circle and had to unknot themselves without letting go.  Communication challenge, anyone?  Oh, but they stepped right up to it and untied themselves with grace, all the while learning the lessons of effective communication and resilience.

Next task: how to build a fire when the ranger is out of firewood?  Fifteen brains prove better than one–and we raced to gather wood!  It took a few tries, a lot of lighter fluid, and some laughter before we got the flames up.  But once we did, we had a great cookout of hot dogs on branches!

After dinner, we played some cards and kept an eye out for raccoons, which we’ve been told can stealthily
take anything from a pack of marshmallows from INSIDE a sealed case to an un-assuming Nike sneaker (happened the previous week!).  But this night, the clouds and drizzle seemed to keep them away–how lucky!  Off to bed–I mean the ground–until the next adventure!

In New York, U.S. Programs

Haiti: Six Months after the Quake

I’ve been paying close attention the past few days to how the media is covering the six-month anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. While most reports highlight a painfully slow process, bottlenecks, and frustrations by key stakeholders, other reports capture the strength of the Haitian community in meeting the almost impossible daily challenges. Both are accurate portrayals of Haiti.

Haiti is no doubt one of the most challenging places to work, and the need for better schools and improved education is perhaps greater in Haiti than in most other developing countries. That’s why buildOn is committed to scaling up our work there immediately.

While the challenges are significant, progress and success are never out of reach. buildOn just completed a three-classroom school in the remote fishing village of Flammand, where community members contributed more than 1,500 volunteer work days. buildOn opened a door of opournity and the men and women of Flammand walked through it with discipline and determination. They did it for their children, for their future.

As I personally reflect on Haiti six months after the quake, I think back to the following journal entree that I made after visiting in June:

June 20th, 2010:

Deep, fresh wounds are now left to mend on top of old Haitian scars. The healing process of this recent catastrophe will take decades even if the combined efforts of the Haitian Government, the international community, and the Haitian people are successful.  This is not a pessimist’s viewpoint. It is reality.

At 4:53 p.m. on January 12th Haiti changed forever. The changes are more than just structural–thousands of flattened buildings with cement slab roofs sitting atop rubble as if they were melting under the hot Caribbean sun. The changes run much deeper than the harsh lessons of human suffering taught to us by an estimated 230,000 dead, 300,000 wounded, and 1 million people homeless. The changes are also psychological, economically crippling, and have led to a complex ripple effect of uncertainty, fear, and despair from Haiti’s major cities to its remote and isolated provincial communities.  These changes will not reverse themselves quickly, but will dissolve gradually with the help of the lime covered backs and the calloused hands of the Haitian men and women.

One thing that I am convinced will remain in Haiti is the resiliency of its people. I have witnessed some of the worst that nature has to offer mankind, and I have seen the Haitians respond with dignity, humanity, and courage.  More than the government or the international community, the citizens of Haiti are the real heroes of the relief effort.

In Haiti

Realizing a Dream

In December 2007, we put the finishing touches on our 233^rd school worldwide in a village by the name of Shishaya, in Nepal.  The other day I had the opportunty to return to Shishaya to visit the Community Education Program graduates who had just finished their  two year buildOn literacy, life skills and community development program.   We have done a lot of work since we finished the school in Shishaya, and in fact the previous day, I had been to the inauguration of our 73^rd school in Nepal and our 363^rd worldwide.

However, what I found in Shishaya was truly remarkable.  It was a testament to how many people in buildOn villages around the world are taking control of their lives and their struggle to dig themselves out of extreme poverty.  The schools we build and the Community Education Programs we provide are an essential part of a community’s ability to create lasting and positive social change, but it is the efforts of individuals that make the difference.

I went to Shishaya to visit a woman I have come to know well over the past 3 years.  Her name is Jyoeshena and she has been an inspiration to me since we first met in 2007.  I didn’t know what exactly she was doing with her life now but I knew it would be good.  Jyoeshena is originally from Bangladesh and is now 24 years old.  Like so many thousands of boys and girls growing up in extreme poverty she was not able to go to school and instead grew up in the slums of New Delhi, India, working in a restaurant washing dishes and cleaning in order to help her family survive.  It was there that she fell in love with Rup Chandra Chaudhary, a young man from the village of Shishaya who was also forced to go to New Delhi to look for work.  Because they came from different cultures and religions they were forced to elope and she has not spoken to her family since.  They married and moved to his village in  Nepal.  That was 7 years ago, and now Jyoeshena is quite comfortable in her new life in Shishaya.  She has taken on a local name “Rekia” and has become fluent in the local language, Tharu.   They have 1 son and 1 daughter.

Continue reading…

In Education in Developing Countries, Illiteracy, Nepal