Jacaranda School & Community Programs
The Jacaranda Mullen Preschool
With generous support from John and Ann Mullen and Michael and Barbara Tarnoff, the Jacaranda Foundation opened the Jacaranda Mullen Preschool in 2022. This early childhood education center serves the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community and gives them the tools to thrive in their early years and succeed in primary and secondary school and beyond. Using a holistic approach that integrates cognitive, emotional, and social development, the school provides our youngest students with a strong educational foundation. Our preschool currently serves over 100 children. When the children graduate, they then enter the Jacaranda Primary School.
The Jacaranda Primary and Secondary School
The Jacaranda Primary and Secondary School currently educates 404 children. Our students come from families who lack the funds required by government schools to purchase school supplies, books, and uniforms for the children. By providing these necessities, we have made it possible for thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children to attend school. We inspire these children to recognize and value their own potential and motivate them to dream big and work hard to achieve their dreams. And with 100% pass rate on the 2024, 2025 and 2026 end of primary school national exams (Primary School Leaving Certificate) and mid of high school (Junior Certificate of Education) and 95% to 100% pass rate on the end of secondary school national exams (Malawi School Certificate of Education), our educational outcomes far exceed the surrounding schools - and position Jacaranda School as one of the best schools in Malawi.
College Scholarships Program
The Jacaranda Foundation offers university scholarships to selected Jacaranda School graduate students. Currently, 35 Jacaranda scholars attend universities and colleges in Malawi, and 15 are studying in universities outside of Malawi with the help of the MasterCard Foundation scholarship program.
The Jacaranda Jan Kulczyk Vocational School
With early seed funding from the So Family, and further development funding by the Kulczyk Foundation, the Jacaranda Foundation is operating the Jacaranda Jan Kulczyk Vocational School. The school gives women in our villages communities the entrepreneurship training and the technical and vocational skills that they need to get jobs, start businesses and succeed in life. Located on a satellite campus, the Jacaranda Jan Kulczyk Vocational School facilities include classrooms, workshops in tailoring and fashion design, hairdressing and cosmetology, carpentry and joinery, painting and decoration, as well as cane chair making and a multimedia production center including a sound studio, editing room and photo and video studio.
The Jacaranda Physiotherapy Community Clinic -The Jacaranda Physiotherapy Community Clinic is a community based pediatric physiotherapy center that provides care for children with disabilities. Our takes a holistic approach to treating each child’s disability and engages family throughout the treatment program. We provide free quality care to more than seventy five special needs children on a weekly basis.
Nutrition Program
Ensuring nutritious meals for our orphaned and vulnerable students has become one of our most important jobs. Our program is made possible by our long-term partnership with Mary’s Meals. Jacaranda’s students are served a nutrient fortified hot porridge cooked at our main campus on a daily basis. This has resulted in a dramatic improvement in the health and educational outcomes of our students.
Visual and Performing Arts
The arts serve as a backbone to the Jacaranda School. Every day, children participate in our co-curriculum of performing and visual art classes, a program made possible thanks to our partnership with Raising Malawi. These classes enable students to express themselves and build their self-confidence. Many of our students have experienced the trauma of family deaths and the arts provide a healthy emotional outlet. Our students have become highly accomplished artists, performing at major festivals both in Malawi and internationally, and gaining admission to prestigious arts colleges.
Environment protection Program
The Jacaranda School teaches environmental stewardship and operates a number of environment protection programs. We teach sustainable agriculture to give our students sustainable farming skills and address food security issues. We also run a reforestation program, an environmental conservation program, a permaculture program and wildlife clubs. We operate an education farm with goats, sheep, donkeys, chicken, turkeys, guinea fowls. And we have planted and developed the Jacaranda Educational Forest, made of indigenous trees.
Women’s Entrepreneurship Program
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Program was developed to ensure that the guardians of children attending the Jacaranda School and the Jacaranda Physiotherapy Clinic have a means of generating income and escaping the vicious cycle of poverty. The program coaches attended the Street Business School entrepreneurship training program in Uganda with the support of the Segal Family Foundation. This program gives young women the skills to find jobs or start their own businesses and the ability to earn an income and uplift their families. Together with entrepreneurship classes, the students also learn technical skills at our vocational school, in tailoring, cosmetology or carpentry. So far, over 150 women have graduated from these programs.
Luc’s Libraries
In alignment with Malawi national literacy goals, the Jacaranda Foundation is helping to foster a culture of reading in the country. Luc’s Libraries, developed by Jacaranda Foundation Executive Director Luc Deschamps, builds, stocks and monitors libraries in public primary schools, as well as community libraries - throughout the Blantyre region. In just a few years, the program has opened 37 libraries so far, reaching 80,000 children.
Each library project involves transforming a vacant space into a library: renovating, painting and decorating the space and adding shelves, chairs, tables. The majority of the books are donated by Jacaranda Foundation supporters in America and the UK, and they are sorted according to children’s reading levels. In conjunction with the opening of each new library, Jacaranda conducts a tree planting exercise.
The libraries also serve as platforms for Jacaranda School graduate students volunteer program - who help children learn how to read and write - give remedial classes - and develop co-curriculum activities in tree planting, girls empowerment, as well as art, music, chess.
Sounds of Malawi Acoustic Sessions
In an effort to encourage the youth in Malawi to develop their artistic skills and the artists of the country to continue valuing and keeping alive their national heritage of traditional music and dance, Jacaranda Foundation has developed the weekly music series called ‘Sounds of Malawi Acoustic Sessions’, hosted at the newly established Alliance Française de Blantyre (formerly Jacaranda Cultural Center and Maison de la France). The program is giving the youth and the artists the chance to showcase their talents and access international platforms. For instance, singer Keturah and band The Kasambwe Brothers traveled to the US and recorded albums at Hen House Studios in Los Angeles, CA - and performed at MASS MoCA Museum in North Adams, MA. In August 2026, the first Sounds of Malawi Music Festival was held in the township of Ndirande in Blantyre - and the children of the Jacaranda African Ensemble and the Jacaranda Cultural Troupe performed.