A brief on marie da silva and Jacaranda School for Orphans in Malawi
Marie da Silva is the founder of the Jacaranda School for Orphans in Malawi. She worked as a nanny in the USA for 19 years. During this time she lost many friends and family members to Aids.
In 2002, she founded the Jacaranda School for Orphans in her childhood home in her village. Each month she sent a third of her salary which she earned working as a nanny in the USA back home to pay the teachers’ salaries, buy school supplies and basic needs so that then 50 children could stay in school.
By 2007, there were more than 180 children in her house. Learning in the bedrooms, living room, garage, and she turned the kitchen and pantry into staff rooms.
In 2008 Marie was awarded the CNN Hero Award for her work in Malawi. And in 2010 she returned back to Malawi work fully on her mission.
Today Marie has developed her school where’s she has built new structures and there is a total of 524 children in preschool, primary and secondary school.
Jacaranda School is a free school from preschool, primary, secondary all the way to providing university scholarships to graduating students. Graduates receive scholarships which enables them to study in leadership academies in various African Universities as well as here in Malawi where Jacaranda students are attending top universities and medical schools. Jacaranda has sent over 150 students to colleges in Malawi.
This July 2026, Olivia Kamphale graduated from Africa University in Zimbabwe, with a master’s degree in public policy and governance. She is our first student with a master’s degree.
And Katie Kaonga who started school at 6 years old is now at Boston University studying a double program of master’s degree in clinical social work and theology.
Olivia’s master’s degree graduation at Africa University in Zimbabwe
Apart from academics, students take part in various programs such as self-sustainability in agriculture and have their own forest for environmental learning purposes.
After school programs include the Arts such as visual arts, music, dance, theatre, spoken word, chess, debate, learning to play various music instruments and weekly sports activities such as table tennis.
Jacaranda’s production of ‘The Lion King’. Our students performed, sang, played instruments and also created and made all the masks and costumes.
Volunteering is one of our priorities at Jacaranda school where students take part in voluntary community services. One of them being sewing reusable sanitary pads at the school which are used by the girls but moreover donated to other schools and to women in prisons.
Another volunteering program is for the past 5 years, every Sunday, students help cook and distribute food to homeless and street kids as well as to guardians of the sick in hospitals.
Girls’ education is key at Jacaranda and today there are more girls than boys staying in school and completing school.
Included in their programs are girls’ empowerment classes and weekly group discussions which include a women’s community group that meet with our female students from the lower classes to the secondary students.
In 2018, as outreach for the community, Jacaranda School with the help of the US Ambassador’s Self Help Grant, built the free Jacaranda Community Pediatrics Physiotherapy Clinic. In 2026, we added a new wing which now serves more than 76 special needs children, providing treatments to infants and young children who have conditions that limit their physical abilities.
Opening ceremony of the Jacaranda Community Pediatrics Physiotherapy Clinic new wing, in June 2026.
Marie also created a vocational school in her village where there is tailoring and fashion design, hairdressing and cosmetology, carpentry and joinery, arts and crafts, cane chair making. And these courses are open to the community.
Included at the vocational school is the Jacaranda entrepreneurship/micro-credit program where women in the community take lessons on how to manage a successful business, whilst taking part in other skills training that is offered.
This school is registered by Teveta (Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority). The women sit for the exams and when they graduate, they are given a micro-credit loan to start their businesses. Through this program, women have been able to easily take care and manage their households.
Women learning Carpentry and Joinery at the Jacaranda Jan Kulczyk vocational school.
Marie’s hubsand and Jacaranda executive director created Luc’s Libraries where we donate primary school libraries in public schools. Up to date we have donated 37 libraries now reaching over 80,000 children in public schools in Malawi.
Luc’s Library at Thunga Primary School in Thyolo.
Throughout the years Marie has built and renovated houses for the students in the villages and has constructed public durable pit latrines for the sake of healthy sanitation.
Today the Jacaranda School alumni are working in hospitals, schools, banks, hotels, as clinical officers, nurses, teachers, and IT technicians and community workers in international NGOs.
Some have come back to work for the Jacaranda organization in HR, construction, as teachers and community workers.
The Jacaranda Foundation provides employment to over 160 employees, including teachers, ground staff in all the created projects and campuses thus contributing to the employment of people in the communities and country.
The progress and achievements which came from a tiny school for orphans in the family house has been incredible. From a nanny’s salary to transforming children lives including empowering women in the communities and with all the outreach programs, Jacaranda is making a difference in many people’s lives and in the country.
This impact has allowed Marie to understand her surrounding communities and their needs.
Turned her into a leader and she is now witnessing the next young leaders which are her students.
Jacaranda School for Orphans continues to be a school of excellence in academics and excellence in the arts, cultural programs and programs that will benefit the students, whilst approaching this mission with faith, holistically and organically.
In her own words: “I believe that if you give the children the tools, they can achieve and become anyone they choose to be. Through this they can become the future leaders, hoping that they too, will think of making positive change and a difference in their communities and other people’s lives. As for me, I found my purpose in life by losing myself in the service of others.”
Some short clips on our work at Jacaranda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3smh_ZJZ4yk
https://www.youtube.com/user/jacarandaf
https://web.facebook.com/jacarandafoundation
Contact:
Email: marie@jacarandafoundation.org / luc@jacarandafoundation.org