Giving Tuesday: Choose Education!

Coming on the heels of the commercially driven Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday (this year falling on November 28th, 2017) is the international day for giving. Last year VIP’s Giving Tuesday campaign was a huge success, as we raised tens of thousands of dollars which we used to build a life changing large-scale solar irrigation project in our impact area. This year VIP’s focus for Giving Tuesday is our education program, which impacts the lives of learners from pre-school through university.

Nelson Mandela knew the importance of education, calling it “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” We at VIP know that there can be no sustainable development in Malawi without education, and we are dedicated to increasing the quality and availability of education for learners of all ages.

• Preschool-With no government run preschool program in the country, VIP partnered with local community members to create our very own community run preschool system, so that children could receive the early childhood education and stimulation that we know is so critical to their development. VIP currently provides training, structures and supplies for 15 community run preschools in our impact area.
• Primary School-When community members told us that there was no primary school within walking distance for many children in our impact area, we partnered with the Thorneycroft family to build the Chimpeni School from the ground up. Chimpeni School is now the number one rated primary school in the Zomba region! We are also currently rebuilding the older Sakata School to bring it up to the high standards set by the Chimpeni School.
• Secondary School-When promising learners in our impact area where unable to go on to high school because they could not afford the school fees VIP created a scholarship fund to send some of the brightest students in our impact area to the best high schools in Malawi. 
• College- And finally with the creation of the John Nathan Anderson Scholarship Fund, VIP is now able to send the future leaders of Malawi to University, so that they can reach their full potential and return to their villages as doctors, nurses, teachers and business people. Emma and Cydney are two of the students who VIP will help attain a college degree!

Your support has made all of these changes possible. Will you support us again this Giving Tuesday, November 28th, and impact the lives of thousands of more students?