|  | | Children in front of their new school in Wena, Mali, in western Africa. |
An important part of Building with Books mission is to help people in developing countries increase their self-reliance through education. This includes building safe, functional schools for children and providing adult literacy classes for the entire community. BwB works in some of the poorest villages in the world where educational opportunities are sorely lacking. Existing schools, if they exist at all, are usually too small, overcrowded, unsturdy, and/or located too far away. About BwB's International Programs BwB has built more than 240 schools around the world since 1993. In addition to facilitating the building of schools, BwB also provides adult literacy and numeracy education through a Community Education Program. Together, the schools and Community Education Program provide children and their families access to the benefits of education, including literacy, health education, improved farming techniques, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of dignity and empowerment. In 2008, BwB plans to build 64 schools in Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nicaragua and Senegal. Through a partnership with Millennium Promise BwB will build 32 of these schools in Mali and Senegal.
Committment to Gender Balance Before BwB and the community begin building a school, the villagers and BwB staff sign a ‘covenant’ that outlines their roles in the project. BwB promises to provide all materials, construction oversight and skilled labor among other things. The community promises to provide a project leadership committee and people to perform unskilled labor tasks. Both groups must be comprised of 50% women and 50% men to ensure gender balance during the course of the project. Since 1992, villagers have contributed more than 500,000 workdays (8 hours a day) to school construction projects in their villages.
Current School-Building Sites
Click a photo below to read current reports and see photos from two international building sites where BwB staff and local villagers are building schools.
Completed Schools
Building with Books has completed construction on 243 schools throughout ten countries, six of which have active project sites: Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal,
Nicaragua and Senegal.
BwB Completed Projects by Country
Choose a country to visit BwB completed school projects. You can access web reports written from selected school sites during the construction process, learn about aspects of village life, and view photos from the sites.
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