STAMFORD, Conn., June 23, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global non-profit buildOn, based in Stamford, Connecticut, will create sustainable learning environments in four rural Haitian communities through a $347,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich.
This project will provide a 3-classroom school in Cavaillon and Maniche in Southern Haiti: Menard, Rousseau, Rambeau, and Vilou.
"We are honored and incredibly grateful to have the support of the Kellogg Foundation for our work in Haiti" said Jim Ziolkowksi, Founder and CEO of buildOn. "We believe that their investment is a vote of confidence in the buildOn methodology, but more importantly it reflects their faith in the mothers and fathers of Haiti who will unite to actually build these schools! We thank the Kellogg Foundation for their support and look forward to continuing a partnership that will empower the people of Haiti to break the cycle of extreme poverty through quality education."
The schools will provide more than 1,126 children in rural villages with a clean, safe and sustainable learning environment. Additionally, through a partnership with each village, buildOn will ensure that at least half of the school's students are female.
Each of these four schools will be equipped with a common area for children to play, furniture for all classrooms, both male and female latrines, a bore hole, a hand washing station, and a biodigestor. Two adult facilitators will be trained to implement the buildOn Adult Literacy Program which provides life and literacy skills classes for adults.
buildOn works to improve access to quality education, adult literacy, and community advancement by empowering and partnering with rural community members who become active participants in their own community's development. For each project, buildOn provides the construction materials, transportation, skilled labor, project management, and construction plans. Each partnering community provides a gender-balanced leadership team, volunteer labor, land, local building materials, and authorization from the government to have a school. Additionally, each partner community commits to sending girls to school in equal numbers to boys. Through this methodology, we not only help provide schools, but the knowledge and the power to change entire communities.
About buildOn: At home or abroad, buildOn's goal is to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education. Across the U.S., buildOn empowers urban youth to transform their neighborhoods through intensive community service and to change the world by building schools in some of the economically poorest countries in the world. Since 1991, buildOn has constructed 624 schools worldwide, with more than 85,000 children, parents and grandparents attending these schools every day. For more information, visit www.buildon.org.
About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (GENERAL FOUNDATION INFORMATION)
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.