It started with a question. “How many of you passed first grade?” All hands went up.
“The reason I asked you that question is because…we’re dealing with issues and trends that are really, really troubling.”
Monday night in the 900 Room, Building Tomorrow founder and executive director George Srour lectured on international development and his work with educational infrastructure through Building Tomorrow, a non-profit organization.
Srour then explained that if the 25-person audience were a typical class of students in Uganda, only the first row, six people or 20 percent, would continue from first to second grade. He continued with another statistic: there are 41 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa with no access to education.
For lucky girls that complete fifth grade in Uganda, the likelihood of their contracting HIV/AIDS is lowered by 50 percent. In a region where 25 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, Srour said, that’s a big deal.
Srour then asked another question. “How many of you are literate?” All the hands went up again. “In Uganda,” Srour said, “you can reasonably expect only the right side of the room (56-57 percent) to be literate. Education really holds a lot of keys.” Because of this low literacy rate, the United Nations has set increasing access to education as one of the Millennium Development Goals to be completed by 2015.
During his senior year at William and Mary, Srour founded Building Tomorrow as a social profit organization that aimed to build schools in Sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly Uganda.
Upon graduation in 2005 with a degree in government and international relations, Srour was awarded the James Monroe Prize for Civic Leadership as well as the William E. Simon Fellowship for Noble Purpose.
Though the goal of Building Tomorrow is to raise funds to build schools, Srour insisted, “Education is not just about filling classrooms.” In fact, each Building Tomorrow school, though funded by Srour’s organization, is built entirely by the Ugandan community. Over 25,000 hours of labor go into the construction of each school. In fact, the community is so involved in the building of each school that everyone from three-year-olds carrying bricks to an 83-year-old woman mixing concrete are seen at the construction site.
Srour emphasized that simply building a school is not enough to help a community, but rather, listening to the distinct needs of the community ensures a successful project. “Oftentimes, aid organizations come and build great schools and [they] are handed over without figuring out exactly what the community needs,” Srour said. “They’re useless because there’s no interaction.”
Once the school is funded and built, the Ugandan government funds all teachers’ salaries. Because these ongoing costs are covered by the government, however, the curriculum is somewhat biased. Srour explained that the first three years children are in school, they must take an exam, similar to our standardized tests. These exams are offered only in English; however, the Ugandan government mandates all students must be taught in their native tongue.
“Any guess how many languages are spoken in Uganda?” asked Srour. Guesses ranged from 15 to 30, but the actual figure is 54 spoken, seven official. Srour asked the audience if that made sense to them; for the first time, no hands were raised.
Other obstacles that Building Tomorrow faces include getting parents to allow their children to actually come to class. Because students are relied upon so heavily at home to farm or raise their siblings, Srour explained, a surprising obstacle has been parents. To solve this dilemma, Building Tomorrow schools now offer agricultural theory classes as well as vocational training, in order to better prepare students for success both at home and at further levels in school.
“Why Uganda?” an audience member asked. Aren’t there similar education and literacy problems in the United States? “Uganda is the world’s youngest country,” Srour said. “One-half of the population is under 15, [meaning] all of us in this room are over the median age in Uganda. It’s [also] a unique country in sense that its one of the few east African countries that’s adopted universal primary education. The funding is there to pay for teachers, but not infrastructure.”
Each Building Tomorrow school serves 325 students in grades one through seven. In the past, Building Tomorrow has worked with universities with architecture schools whose students actually create the designs for the Ugandan schools. Recently, UVA architecture students planned a Building Tomorrow school in Gita, which is currently under construction, Strour explained.
“Philanthropy is more than you having a lot of money and giving it to a cause,” Srour said.
The actual buildings themselves are vast improvements from the typical Ugandan school. Compared to mud walls that melt when it rains and straw thatched roofs that attract snakes, the Building Tomorrow schools have the option for solar-energy harnessing and rainwater collection, though the funds to implement such initiatives have not been raised. In addition, Building Tomorrow strives for environmental sustainability, using local materials to cut down on transportation costs.
College chapters of Building Tomorrow exist nationwide, 18 in total. Davidson’s chapter has existed for three years, which Srour said was one of the longest running chapters. It meets every Sunday night at 9 in Duke International Lounge.
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