Opening Doors Through Partnerships in Education

Partnering with Local Leaders

Our partners are native to our project areas. They know the language, customs and challenges. But they’ve also traveled to developed nations and have seen how education can transform lives. They understand how lack of opportunity binds children to a seemingly inescapable fate of poverty and deprivation. They hold a solution in their minds, one that would fit, one that could help. They are creative and capable, already working for change in whatever ways their limited resources allow. That’s where we come in.

Sustainability Through Community Involvement and On-going Relationship

We encourage the sustainability of programs by maximizing local participation. Villages produce a significant portion of the overall investment in the form of land use, labor, materials and expertise. We provide a workable context by filling gaps in a community’s resources. Their drive for a better future does the rest.

Buildings and books alone will not educate children. To do well in such challenging environments, quality teachers and school staff need on-going support. We remain closely involved over time as a partner, to promote the long-term success of each program. Vision Builders program liaisons monitor school development and progress, providing a lifeline for local staff to the knowledge and resources available in the world beyond their small villages. Most schools in developing regions rely on rote learning to instruct children. We introduce other methods to engage children in more active learning and problem solving to stimulate their desire to learn and their capacities to think.

Creating the Conditions

Meeting Basic Human Needs Frees Children for Learning

Easing the hardships of the larger community frees children for learning. To ensure that the schooling made available is a viable option for each child, we help meet local needs for food, clean water, clothing, health care, infant care and sustainable resources.

Medical Care

The areas we serve are so remote that majority of people living there have never seen a doctor or received medical care. Our Mountain Medicine Initiative sponsors traveling medical teams who visit schools and treat the students and local villagers. These medical teams provide vital treatment and carry in much-needed medicines. They offer preventive health and hygiene classes, and other educational services.

Clean Water

Access to an adequate water supply adds considerable health and economic benefits to households and individuals. Worldwide, the lack of clean water for drinking, cooking and washing, and the lack of sanitary waste disposal are to blame for more than twelve million deaths a year. About 1.2 billion people are at risk because they lack access to safe water for cooking, bathing and cleaning.

Children at risk for parasites and life-threatening, water-borne diseases like typhoid, dysentery, polio and hepatitis, cannot thrive. Vision Builders packs in and installs solar powered water purification systems. Villagers assist in transportation and installation, and are trained in system maintenance.

Housing, Food and Clothing

Many of the children we serve are from poor families that are often unable to provide basic life necessities for their children. Families that can pay the required public (not free) school enrollment fees would still have to send their child to an urban area where such schools exist. For these reasons Vision Builders makes sure that dormitory housing is available for school children. They are assured regular meals, and warm bedding and clothing, while continuing to benefit from contact with their families.