At Causely, we pride ourselves in the strong partnerships we build with our non-profits. Without our non-profits, Causely would not be what it is today and we wouldn’t have the opportunity to change the lives of others in such an impactful way each month. We wanted to take the time to celebrate these partnerships in a special way!
This is why from July 2022 – September 2022, we will be running our first ever 3 month campaign to celebrate our 8 year partnership with buildOn. buildOn has been there with us since the beginning. Together, we have been changing the face of education since 2014.
So, let’s dig a little deeper into the amazing work buildOn does and what we have done together over the past 8 years!
Internationally, buildOn has built over 2,000 schools alongside communities in the top 8 economically poorest countries in the world. They work with these rural communities in developing countries to help empower local residents to build schools, re-enroll kids who have left school, and also advocate for adult literacy! They help communities in Guatemala, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Nicaragua, Mali, Nepal, Senegal. They have created a sustainable approach that builds schools with their communities not just for them! When buildOn partners with a community there are 3 pillars involved:
Pillar 1: The buildOn Covenant is signed, which outlines the contributions from both parties.
Pillar 2: An inclusion statement is stated for gender equity and equality in the buildOn schools.
Pillar 3: Women and men work side by side to build the schools, and with the construction of the school comes the commitment to give women the opportunity to hold leadership positions in the community.
In our 8 years of partnership, we’ve helped build 6 schools:
Laureles de El Cua, Nicaragua – The first school we built with buildOn helped replace a school building where the conditions were so poor, the majority of students and teachers chose to walk 2.5 miles to another community to attend school. That left 45 students and 2 teachers in the current building. By giving the students and teachers a new school, we helped many families be able to attend school in their village and stay together within their community to help it thrive.
Camp Hermosa Jalapa, Nicaragua This school is helping 147 students (68 boys and 79 girls) and 8 teachers. The students and teachers were previously walking nearly 2 miles to another community for school because of the dilapidated conditions of their school house. This school gives these families a chance to stay together to build a stronger community.
The schools we helped build in Kachere, Malawi (697 students, 343 boys and 354 girls), Mtenthera, Malawi (619 students, 276 boys and 343 girls), and Chabuula, Malawi (528 students, 274 boys and 252 girls) are actually small communities, but because they had school houses, children walked from many of the surrounding towns to attend. This made Kachere and Mtenthera important education epicenters with a great need for structurally sound and safe school buildings. So, they not only help the town the schools are in, but expand the educational potential for so many children around them.
St. Antoine, Haiti is the newest school that our community helped fund. This school helps educate 152 children. Before this school was built, children were walking nearly 4 miles to the nearest town to attend school. We have given this town the gift of time and education.
While our partnership with buildOn is to help them build schools, they do so much more! They have a wonderful program in the United States that helps students in some of America’s most under-resourced high schools. Students that are part of buildOn’s Service Learning Program are empowered to take on some of the most challenging issues in their communities through direct action. These students learn service through first hand experiences in regards to helping the elderly, the unhoused, and mentoring younger children.
There are two other programs that go alongside building schools: Enroll and Adult Literacy.
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- Enroll is the program that works with their partnered communities and local governments to help bring students back into school to help them get caught up and then focus on the continuation of their education. Since 2016, they’ve helped bring thousands of children back into school!
- Adult Literacy also works along the schools that they build. They teach both men and women literacy and numeracy in the context of health, enterprise and relevant life skills. This education, for both parents and grandparents, gives them the ability to build better lives and stronger communities!
We hope that you’ve enjoyed learning a little bit more about our history with buildOn and their mission! Let’s work together over the next few months to help them continue their mission by checking in or writing a review on Facebook! If you’d like to learn more, check out www.buildon.org.
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