abstract:buildOn is an international nonprofit organization that runs youth service afterschool programs in United States high schools, and builds schools in developing countries. The organization's programs engage young Americans from mostly urban areas in community service, and promote literacy among children and adults in developing countries.
Raising Malawi at first planned to build a major girls academy, but later revised its goal and joined buildOn to construct smaller schools in villages.
Madonna's manager Trevor Neilson said buildOn, the non-profit group that partnered with Raising Malawi to construct the schools, was "mystified" by the claims about school buildings.
It was through persistent self-advocacy that I convinced my father to let me spend three weeks of my sophomore year of high school building a school in Mali through BuildOn.