"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

· Nelson Mandela

The poverty-ridden country of Malawi was devastated by AIDS. Host Julia Howe interviews the founder of Jacaranda Foundation, Marie da Silva, a Malawian education activist with a powerful personal story. Auntie Marie was working as a nanny in the US when she heard the local school was closing in the midst of the brutal AIDS epidemic in Malawi. Marie lost more than a dozen family members to AIDS herself. She funded the very modest project with her remittances, and the school started literally in her home -her kitchen is nowadays the headmistress' office! Marie talks about her work to educate, feed, and provide free healthcare to over 600 orphans and underprivileged youth. She shares the successes of her students and how their lives have been transformed

Bios:

LONG

Born and raised in Malawi, Marie Da Silva worked as a nanny in the US for 19 years. She lost many members of her family to AIDS -Malawi was one of the hardest-hit countries by this epidemic. In 2002, after learning the school in her village was closing, she founded the Jacaranda School for Orphans in her childhood home. For nine years, Marie sent to it a third of her salary. Her Foundation now schools, feeds and provides healthcare to 600 children. In 2008, Marie was recognized as Top Ten CNN Hero. She has also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of Malawi. Her and her husband, Jacaranda's Executive Director, Luc Deschamps, are also responsible for Luc's Libraries, an initiative that has created 37 libraries through donations, reaching 80,000 children. https://www.jacarandafoundation.org/

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