Marie Da Silva had been a nanny in the USA for 19 years. She has taken care of more than 14 children.
Marie is Malawian, born and raised in Malawi.
In 1997, Marie lost her father to AIDS in Malawi. Conquering AIDS in Malawi became Marie's pursuit through a situation that arose in her village.
Eleven years ago Marie learned that a village school held in a Baptist church was to close. Fifty students would be displaced without education. The majority of these children were orphaned by AIDS
Along with her mother, Marie turned her childhood home into a school. Eight years ago Marie's mother passed of a sudden heart attack, but Marie continued the quest with the money she earned as a nanny. Every part of this home, inside and out, was transformed into a learning center. Bedroom, dining room, living room, garage, and gazebo became classrooms. The kitchen turned into a staff room, and the pantry a library. In lieu of blackboards, the walls were painted black. There were no desks or chairs, the children sat on the floors and a few plastic stools. The library had eleven books. Learning materials and necessary school supplies were extremely limited. Limited money allowed only the employment of student teachers. Marie worked through the tedious task of foundation paperwork, thus the Jacaranda Foundation was born.
Three years into this endeavor, student attendance grew to over 100. After she heard that children were dropping out of school due to hunger, Marie developed a program that would raise funds to pay for daily porridge. She reached out to 10 of her U.S. nanny friends. Each gave $10 a month, and for the following 3 years students were given a meal a day and they remained in school.
For seven years, Marie funded all the needs of the school with her personal earnings as a nanny in the U.S. Each month, a third of her salary paid teachers and headmaster, purchased school supplies and funded the children's examination fees and uniforms.
By 2007 students’ attendance grew to 230 students. 98% orphaned by AIDS. In Malawi all secondary schools charge attendance fees, her school The Jacaranda School for Orphans is free to both primary and secondary school. In addition, Marie funds students all the way to completion of college.
In 2007 CNN nominated Marie for the CNN Heroes award. Out of over 7,000 nominees she made it to the top ten. On February 14, 2008 a three-minute clip was aired on CNN national and international T.V. and for the first time Jacaranda School received public donations. However, Marie continued to provide the schools’ needs using her salary and saved the donations for a greater purpose. The original school, once her house, was now too small and inadequate. A more suitable building became a necessity.
With the use of saved donations, on October 24, 2008 the new secondary school opened. 160 secondary students were moved from the house into the new facility. Her house remained the primary school and this shift created room for more orphans. Additional donations employed qualified teachers, purchased textbooks and necessary school supplies.
In November 2008, sixteen students took the high school MSCE (Malawi School Certificate Examinations), Malawi's national school exams. Seven passed and went on to college. Today Jacaranda School has sent over 25 students to college in Malawi and a sponsored student, Stella Kugwimba, is in Pasadena, California.
The first graduate from The Jacaranda School to complete primary and secondary school and two years of college is now employed at ICB (International Commercial Bank in Malawi). Four are now employed at an NGO called Mary's Meals Malawi others at Concern Universal and the main internet provider "Sky band Malawi". Many others are in qualified jobs throughout Malawi.
The academic progression has been remarkable! 2010 Jacaranda students entering college selected subjects such as rural development, business management, hotel and catering, carpentry and joinery, business administration and accountancy. This year graduates will qualify for higher education courses and receive Bachelor degrees. 2011 four graduates passed with six credits and 2012 two students passed with 18 points at MSCE each qualifying them for entrance examinations into Malawi's finest universities; Chancellor College, Bunda College, Mzuzu University, Polytechnic, and Lilongwe Technical Universities.
One student Kondwani Dave is now entering Bunda college of Agriculture. He is a student who started school in Standard 5 when Marie had no desks in class. And Frank Banda another student has entered Polytechnic in Malawi and is studying Accountancy.
In 2007 the Jacaranda school library had only 11 books, as of 2013 there are over 8,000. And the campus has a primary and secondary school library.
2011 Jacaranda School's primary school pass rate is 95%, junior high school 86.5%, and senior high school 56%.
Today, the school has toilets with running water, compared with the four pit latrines that 230 students used in 2007.
Today the school has it's own separate physics and science lab.
2010-2011 Marie introduced a self-sustainable program at the school, a chicken farm of 100 broilers and 200 layers. The layers provide eggs for the children, the broilers and excess eggs are sold for profit. In addition there is a vegetable farm. Here the children learn agriculture (a subject on the Malawian school curriculum). They plant crops such as maize, beans, soya, spinach, cabbages, tomatoes, carrots, Irish, sweet potatoes, and cassava. At maturity, vegetables are given to the children to take home to share with their family and excess is sold for profit that is used to maintain the school. This teaches the children self-sustainability, and how to be future farmers, businessmen and women.
In 2011 a nurse’s clinic opened, which was a significant addition to the school. A registered nurse is employed to maintain students health records while attending to every student. An important source as 98% of the students are orphaned by AIDS and many of the children in the school are born HIV and need that extra attention for them to stay healthy and not miss school. That goes for all the other students. For the HIV positive children, the school also provides nutrition and transportation to and from the hospital to receive their ARVs (Antiretroviral HIV Treatment).
2013 the school has an IT room with 20 laptops, 20 computers and an IT teacher who teaches both primary and secondary.
In addition, the school gives at least 40 families a monthly allowance for their guardians so that the children do not go without food at home. Believing that if the household is stable, then the children will be able to attend school. Making sure that their grandmothers and guardians do not go without food at home.
In addition Marie has renovated and built over 20 homes for the most underprivileged students in their villages.
Attending students come from ten surrounding villages. Jacaranda School on the whole is reaching out and making a difference in these areas to those extremely impoverished. These are the guardians of the children who were unable to work because of illness or old age. Now the school provides employment to such as caretakers of the school grounds, builders, gardener, electricians, plumbers and guards. All this aid has created a more stable and healthy environment for everyone in the surrounding communities.
Last year the school students were involved in a project of making solar lamps. Today each of the 400 children's households possess one solar lamp. Made by the students themselves. This project was introduced to Jacaranda by another CNN Hero Evans Wadongo from Kenya. This project of the solar lamps enables the children to read and study at home in the evenings and at the same time cut down the costs of families not having to spend money on paraffin or candles. Even more it is a skill that the students have learnt where they can design their own model as the school has a well equipped science lab.
Jacaranda school teaches its students several vocational activities. Children learn to sew, secondary girls learn about make-up and hairdressing, and there is carpentry, painting, building, craft making and all this is taught as vocational training.
2012 witnessed wonders at Jacaranda School. First of all this school did not possess any musical instruments for many years. In 2009 Marie asked for donations of musical instruments. Kids started to learn to play instruments, write their own songs and sing. Due to this, two Jacaranda School students were invited to perform with the British group Noisettes at the Pre Olympics. They performed to over 20,000 people on the Africa stage on the Thames River in London.
This school lacked a library or books for a long time and Marie took literacy very seriously. A library came to life and reading and writing was a must. 2011 a 12 year old Jacaranda student John Samson who was a beggar on the streets before he joined the school won the first prize in the Junior Commonwealth Essay Competition for the 60th Queens Jubilee and travelled to London with Marie. November 14th John had the pleasure of meeting Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth to receive his award.
November this year two students have been invited to perform in Glasgow and Vienna Austria. They will perform with the Royal Orchestra. Unbelievable that a school where children sat on floors and children have no parents is able to bring forth such bright, talented kids. this is the tireless work of Marie who believes that she can make a difference.
This year Jacaranda has for the first time gone outside its gates and built a Community library in the village. The main purpose for this is to open it to the community wheres guardians, and neighboring schools are welcome to read and borrow books. In terms