Jacaranda School & Community Programs
The Jacaranda Mullen Preschool
With generous support from John and Ann Mullen and Michael and Barbara Tarnoff, the Jacaranda Foundation opened the Jacaranda Mullen Preschool in 2022. This early childhood education center serves the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community and gives them the tools to thrive in their early years and succeed in primary and secondary school and beyond. Using a holistic approach that integrates cognitive, emotional, and social development, the school provides our youngest students with a strong educational foundation. Our preschool currently serves 114 children.
The Jacaranda Primary and Secondary School
The Jacaranda Primary and Secondary School currently educates 404 children. Our students come from families who lack the funds required by government schools to purchase school supplies, books, and uniforms for the children. By providing these necessities, we have made it possible for thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children to attend school. We inspire these children to recognize and value their own potential and motivate them to dream big and work hard to achieve their dreams. And with 100% pass rate on the 2021, 2022 and 2023 mid of high school (Junior Certificate of Education) and end of secondary school national exams (Malawi School Certificate of Education) - and 97.5% pass rate on the 2022 and 2023 end of primary school national exams (Primary School Leaving Certificate), our educational outcomes far exceed the surrounding schools - and positions itself as one of the best schools in Malawi.
College Scholarships Program
The Jacaranda Foundation offers college scholarships to selected Jacaranda School graduate students. Currently, 30 Jacaranda scholars attend colleges in Malawi, and 17 are studying in universities outside of Malawi with the help of the MasterCard Foundation scholarship program.
The Jacaranda Jan Kulczyk Vocational School
With early seed funding from the So Family, and further development funding by the Kulczyk Foundation, the Jacaranda Foundation is operating the Jacaranda Jan Kulczyk Vocational School. The school gives our students the technical and vocational skills that they need to get jobs, start businesses and succeed in life. Located on a satellite campus, the Jacaranda Jan Kulczyk Vocational School facilities include classrooms, workshops in tailoring, cosmetology, carpentry, painting and decoration, a conference room, a multimedia production center including a sound studio, editing room, photo studio, TV studio.
The Jacaranda Physiotherapy Community Clinic -The Jacaranda Physiotherapy Community Clinic is a community based pediatric physiotherapy center that provides care for children with disabilities. Our takes a holistic approach to treating each child’s disability and engages family throughout the treatment program. We provide free quality care to more than sixty five special needs children on a weekly basis.
Nutrition Program
Ensuring nutritious meals for our orphaned and vulnerable students has become one of our most important jobs. Our program is made possible by our long-term partnership with Mary’s Meals. Jacaranda’s students are served a nutrient fortified hot porridge cooked at our main campus twice a day. This has resulted in a dramatic improvement in the health and educational outcomes of our students.
Home Support Program
Jacaranda Foundation’s Home Support Program was developed to help keep students in school by improving their living standards. This program is especially vital for child headed families, families with elderly guardians, or families with sick guardians. Support includes assistance with food, clothing, blankets, money for rent, microcredit loans for guardians, renovation of homes that are in severe disrepair, constructing new homes, and energy efficient clay cooking stoves. Since this program began, we have helped over 60 families with food and money for rent and 41 families have benefitted from home repairs or received new homes.
Visual and Performing Arts
The arts serve a backbone to the Jacaranda School. Every day, children participate in our co-curriculum of performing and visual art classes, a program made possible thanks to our partnership with Raising Malawi. These classes enable students to express themselves and build their self-confidence. Many of our students have experienced the trauma of family deaths and the arts provide a healthy emotional outlet. Our students have become highly accomplished artists, performing at major festivals both in Malawi and internationally, and gaining admission to prestigious arts colleges.
Environment & Ecology Program
The Jacaranda School teaches environmental stewardship and operates a number of environment and ecology programs. We teach sustainable agriculture to give our students sustainable farming skills and address food security issues. We also run a reforestation program, an environmental conservation program, a permaculture program and wildlife clubs. And we operate a small farm with goats, sheep, donkeys, chicken, turkeys, guinea fowls.
Women’s Entrepreneurship Program
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Program was developed to ensure that the guardians of children attending the Jacaranda School and the Jacaranda Physiotherapy Clinic have a means of generating income and escaping the vicious cycle of poverty. The program coaches attended the Street Business School entrepreneurship training program in Uganda with the support of the Segal Family Foundation. This program gives young women the skills to find jobs or start their own businesses and the ability to earn an income and uplift their families. Together with entrepreneurship classes, the students also learn technical skills at our vocational school, in tailoring, cosmetology or carpentry. So far, 106 women have graduated from these programs.
Luc’s Libraries
In alignment with Malawi national literacy goals, the Jacaranda Foundation is helping to foster a culture of reading in the country. Luc’s Libraries, developed by Jacaranda Foundation Executive Director Luc Deschamps, builds, stocks and monitors libraries in public primary schools, as well as community libraries - throughout the Blantyre region. In just a few years, the program has opened 30 libraries, reaching 69,000 children.
Each library project involves transforming a vacant space into a library: renovating, painting and decorating the space and adding shelves, chairs, tables. The majority of the books are donated by Jacaranda Foundation supporters in America and the UK, and they are sorted according to children’s reading levels. In conjunction with the opening of each new library, Jacaranda conducts a tree planting exercise.
The libraries also serve as platforms for Jacaranda School graduate students volunteer program - who help children learn how to read and write - give remedial classes - and develop co-curriculum activities in tree planting, girls empowerment, as well as art, music, chess.
Sounds of Malawi Acoustic Sessions
In an effort to encourage the youth in Malawi to develop their artistic skills and the artists of the country to continue valuing and keeping alive their national heritage of traditional music and dance, Jacaranda Foundation has developed the weekly music series called ‘Sounds of Malawi Acoustic Sessions’, hosted at the newly established Alliance Française de Blantyre (formerly Jacaranda Cultural Center and Maison de la France). The program is giving the youth and the artists the chance to showcase their talents and access international platforms. For instance, singer Keturah and band The Kasambwe Brothers traveled to the US and recorded albums at Hen House Studios in Los Angeles, CA - and performed at MASS MoCA Museum in North Adams, MA.