SHU Begins BuildON Chapter on Campus

SHU Begins BuildON Chapter on Campus

Worldwide, 900 million people cannot read or write. Without the ability to read and write, a lot of hope is lost for the future. Without the ability to know about the world, how could one ever believe in something?

BuildOn is a global service learning program that focuses on helping people get educated all over the world. The group’s founder, Jim Ziolkowski came to Siena Heights University last year and encouraged the students to start a Siena Heights chapter.

Ziolkowski started BuildOn when he stumbled upon a party in Nepal. A small village was celebrating the new school they had just built. The excitement of the villagers inspired him to help underdeveloped countries around the world put up new schools, to become educated and empowered. BuildOn is now an organization at SHU and is looking for new members. Its first meeting was Sept. 16, and although the next meeting date is still undetermined, it will be some time within the next couple of weeks.

The Siena Heights chapter is led by President Madison Phillips and the faculty advisor is Ian Bell. At the first meeting, Bell captured the mission of BuildOn in a simple sentence, “The point of BuildOn is about establishing an attitude and mindset of service to people both locally and abroad.”

BuildOn works in a very organized way. In a community people are responsible for servicing those around them as much as they can by volunteering. In the meantime, their other responsibility is to raise donations by selling coffee or by using a personalized BuildOn donation page. After enough money is raised, a trip to Nicaragua will be scheduled that will allow students to help build the foundations of a new school.

Starting a new school is one of the biggest key factors of BuildOn. When one moves to the community he or she will be helping, they start building the school with the local people, and local people finish the school. By allowing the local villagers to finish the school, it gives them a sense of empowerment, Ziolkowski said.

When the school is finished by the village, it will give them the ability to say, “I built the school that my son or daughter will go to and learn.”

According to the organization’s web site, “For over two decades BuildOn has engaged school communities in breaking the cycle of poverty, literacy, and low expectations by building primary schools alongside villagers in the developing world. The impact is profound and sustainable for both the rural villagers and the trek participants.”

Those interested in helping the world both near and far, joining BuildOn is certainly worth looking into. Please contact either Phillips and Bell if interested, because “BuildOn is not a charity. It is a movement.”