How We Got Started

Building Schools Builds Prosperity


In 2005, founder Dr. Lorne Parker was assisting a non-Rotary humanitarian project in the Xai Xai region of Mozambique and was invited to participate in a tour of a school site in the small village of Macambucuine.

Under trees, out in the open, and in a few small reed-built huts were nearly 400 children.
In a country with blazing hot sun and frequent torrential downpours Lorne made a promise to his hosts of helping to make a change to this ‘school’. He returned to Canada and shared his experience with his Rotary Club - Edmonton Gateway, who in true Rotary fashion committed to supporting a new International Services project.

In 2009 the Macumbacuine Campus opened! Now over 1,700 students attend school in properly constructed cinder block classrooms, complete with a library, modem washroom facilities and a community centre.  The site is protected by a security wall, ensuring safety of the children and assets.  School construction didn't stop there nor did the excitement with other supportive Rotary Clubs - Edmonton Sunrise, Edmonton North East, Grande Prairie and Rotary Club of Yellowknife.

Next up came a 500-student Pussa School, replacing a previous school destroyed by a cyclone. In addition to providing school buildings, funds raised are used to purchase desks, a variety of teaching and learning supplies.

The Muchisso School Campus is the next project, with a classroom and sanitary block completed.

Teachers are provided by the Mozambique Ministry of Education. To support those teachers we are working in collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Alberta with education professors from those two post-secondary institutions currently providing direct pedagogical support to teachers at the Macambucuine campus.