I have been a nanny in the US for the last 19 years and have taken care of more than 14 children.
I was born and raised in Malawi, Africa.

I have lost fourteen members of my family to AIDS in Malawi.
My father, brothers, their wives, nieces and nephews.

Nine years ago, when I heard that a school that was based in a Baptist church in my village was to close down, and 50 children would be out of school, I decided to take action. The children in this school were mostly AIDS Orphans. Among the students were my orphaned niece and nephew.

I then decided to open up my childhood house to school the children.
The children studied in my bedroom, dining room, living room, the kitchen turned into the staff room and our pantry into a library. The garage we used as a classroom and sometimes children learned outside in the gazebo.

I could not afford blackboards, so we had part of the walls painted black.
No desks or chairs, children sat on the floors and some on plastic stools.
We had a minimum of 11 books in their library. Very limited school supplies and learning materials.
I could only employ student teachers as I could not afford to pay qualified teachers.

Three years into the school, with over 100 children I started providing the children with a meal of porridge in the morning due to children dropping out of school from hunger. I reached out to my nanny friends in the USA to help me. Ten nanny friends donated $10 a month and for the next 3 years I was able to feed the children and have them stay in school.

For the first seven years, I funded all this with the money I earned as a nanny in the USA.
Every month I sent a third of my salary to pay teachers, headmaster and buy school supplies, including paying for the children's examination fees and uniforms.
By 2008 there were 230 children attending school in my house. 98% orphaned by AIDS.
In Malawi there is no free secondary school.
But at our school, both primary and secondary school are free. Today, we take the children all the way to completion of college free.

When CNN heard my story, they honored me as one of the ten CNN Heros of 2008.
CNN aired a three minute clip of my work on February 14th 2008
For the first time I began to receive donations from the public.
I saved the money, because I had a purpose.
My house was too small to school 230 children.
They needed a proper school building.

With the money I received from public donations, I built a secondary school on the compound. This happened just within six months of saving the first donations. I opened the secondary school October 24th 2008 where we moved 160 secondary students into the new high school.
This enabled us to bring in more orphans into the primary school in my house.
Today there are 400 Orphans. All free school on the compound where I was raised as a child.

With the extra donations funds I received, we employed qualified teachers, bought textbooks and the necessary school supplies.
November 2008, sixteen students took their high school examinations (MSCE) and seven passed.
They all went to college.

This year Jacaranda School will have sent 25 students to college in Malawi, board and tuition paid for. One student Stella Kugwimba was sponsored and is in college in Pasadena California studying business studies.

The first graduate from The Jacaranda School to complete primary/secondary school and two years of college has now started work with ICB (International Commercial Bank in Malawi).

The students of last year took subjects such as Rural development, Business management, Hotel and Catering, Carpentry and Joinery, Business Administration and Accountancy in college.
This year's graduates will be going even further with Journalism, and bachelors of Arts, Science and Education.
Four of this year's graduates passed with six credits each and are sitting for entrance examinations into Malawi Universities such as Chancelor College, Bunda College, Mzuzu University, Polytechnic, Lilongwe Technical, e.t.c. These are top colleges in Malawi.

Jacaranda School's pass rate last year for junior certificate (JCE) was 87.5% and senior certificate (MSCE) was 50%. This is very good for a school like Jacaranda and for Malawi.
The school has developed well academically.

The school provides after school classes such as Arts, Music, Drama, Sports and even French. These are all taught by volunteers. A development I welcome at the school.

In 2007 Jacaranda school had only 11 books in its library. Today there are over 3,000 books.
The Jacaranda school now has toilets with running water. Something we did not have three years ago, when 230 students were using four pit latrines.
These were built with the help of The Shanghai American School.

Today we have introduced a self sustainable program at the school. We started a chicken farm of 200 broilers and 200 layers. The broilers we sell for profit and the layers we feed the eggs to the children and the excess is sold.
There is a vegetable farm too, where the children learn agriculture (a subject on the Malawian school curriculum). They plant crops such as maize, beans, soya, spinach, cabbages, tomatoes, carrots, irish potatoes, sweet potatoes and cassava. When ready, the children are given the harvest to take home and the excess is sold. A shop has been created on the school premises.

All the proceeds of sales go back into maintaining the school.
First steps to self sustainability. A way of teaching the children to be future farmers and business men and women.

We cannot rely on people helping us all the time. Growing up as a child, I was taught to work hard for our goals. Not to expect others to come rescue us all the time. I was taught that, through education we can have a better future.
This is why I do what I do for the children. I had parents to pay my fees for my education. In this case these children have none. But moreover I had family to teach me how important it is to work hard if I wanted to be successful".

There is a registered nurse at the school who keeps a record on each and every child's health. Unfortunately many young children in the lower classes 5-14 year olds are born HIV positive. Here the school provides for most of their health needs, such as nutrition and transport to and from the hospital to receive ARVs.
Students come from ten villages surrounding my village, the Chigumula area.
This school is not just about children attending school. It is about providing nutrition and medical care so that the children stay in school and at the same time, help their guardians.
This year a nurses clinic is being built on the premises. A major addition.

Nearly all the workforce at the school are people from the community who were unemployed. Most of the guardians are sick, many are HIV and are unable to work. This school stretches into their home care, providing them with an allowance each month, which enables them to take care of their children.
Jacaranda School on the whole is serving and making a difference in the surrounding communities.
This may be one of the only schools in Malawi that provides not only education to Orphans, but a nutrition and a health program to both the students and their guardians.

I have become a spokesperson for the orphans of Malawi since my CNN Heroes recognition.

I decided to move from my full time job where I worked as a nanny for 10 years with my last family, to working full time on the foundation. I still does part time nannying from time to time especially in the evenings when not traveling.

I speak about how community service is important, and how with a very little start, one can change people's lives.

I have been conducting workshops and speaking in schools across the U.S, raising awareness about what the orphans are facing not only in Africa, but all over the world. My story is about how one person can stand up, believe, take action and make a difference.

I continue to reach out to organizations, and to the public, to help me fund my mission. I do not have any one organization that gives me a regular ongoing fund. I raise the funds by reaching out to people and asking for donations. I have seen how one can make even bigger positive changes when one has the funds, commitment and dedication. Jacaranda School for Orphans is a true example.

What I do is nothing different. The students are the future of our country. They need to be given a chance. It is not their fault that they are Orphans.

We teach AIDS Awareness classes at the school. And I feel through education we are giving them a chance to a better and brighter future. But even more we are teaching them methods of being self sustainable. It is important that they learn and put this into practice.

Marie Da Silva.