““Madam Alexandra, what was your biggest challenge when you were my age?””

This question gets asked of me over and over again at Jacaranda School for Orphans in Limbe, Malawi. I don’t know if students are attempting to bridge the age gap or the cultural one, but I am often mute in the face of their challenges: loss of parents, poverty, AIDS/HIV to name a few.

As a privileged teen I was an awkward creature, consumed by hormones and angst. So I was honest about an early teen challenge: “I had a crush on Rich Bayer and he didn’t like me.”

That summer, as I led the creative writing club and taught reading and writing in Standards 3 and 8, I realized that, of course, hormonal angst is a connective thread across cultures. Love and heartbreak were on their minds, whether it was Ridhwan’s story about what became of the girl who dumped him or Christopher’s story about winning the heart of the King’s daughter.

I have volunteered at Jacaranda for two summers—with a promise, before the pandemic, to be there every summer. I will be back. I promised. My first steps on the campus and I knew I belonged. Not as a white savior, but merely as a woman who strives for connection and believes that art and literature can educate and lift. Marie Da Silva, the Founder, opened her childhood home as a school when her village was ravaged by AIDS epidemic. Now it hosts a medical clinic, a French drama club that has won two national tournaments, two hot meals a day, and a library. Oh, there is more: the literacy club, the science room, and art everywhere. On my first day, Marie told me, “There are no rules.”

As a woman who felt hemmed in by rules in her stateside life, I found this concept overwhelming. What was my volunteer experience to be? I had spent so many previous summer volunteering on farms around the world –I enjoyed meditative and silent manual labor. But here? What would I do?

“Imagine it and we make it happen,” Marie said. I did. One unsure foot in front of another, I began to dream and take action. Together with eager students, we created a writing club that swelled from six members the first year to more than thirty the second. And that club yielded a literary journal, Jacaranda Writes. Check out the link below to peruse students' writing and art.

Community

The Jacaranda School provides a holistic approach to educating children. In addition to free primary and secondary education, students receive daily nutrition programs, AIDS awareness activities, medical care, music, arts, sports and environment enrichment programs, and university scholarships to selected high school graduates. In 2019, Jacaranda completed the majority of the construction of the vocational school and launched the construction of the preschool.

Jacaranda takes a comprehensive approach and support the community as well as the students. Its work includes building libraries and literacy programs, a medical and physiotherapy clinic, and a community entrepreneurship and microfinance program.

Donate

Your donations allow Jacaranda to make profound changes in the lives of vulnerable children – providing education, nutritious meals and medical care - and upholding human dignity and giving hope. They also allow us to plan ahead, serve more children and make our operations even more effective. The Jacaranda Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and donations are tax-deductible in the United States.

Your contributions will go far in Malawi. Here is an example of what your donations can fund: