The most exemplary demonstration of ONEXONE's work with education can be found in the Millennium Villages we fund in Mayange, Rwanda (40 km from Kigali, population 20,000) and Toya, Mali (30 km from Timbuktu, population 5,000), established under the leadership of our partner Millennium Promise.

While their academic school programs are excellent, the Millennium Villages serve to show that education isn't just bound to the classroom. Rather, education is the backbone of the fundamental structural development of these communities, and is carried out each day both in infrastructure and in action. Here, education is a way of life…

These villages prove that education is a building block of self-sustainability. Help in the form of a handout creates dependency and short-lived results. But in contrast, the educational approach of providing teaching and training creates an ultimately self-sustainable community that can stand on its own and continue to thrive and flourish by providing teaching tools for comprehensive health care, crop diversification, school meal program, electricity grids, water and road networks, and business development opportunities.

Through a holistic and community-managed approach, the Millennium Villages support integrated and targeted investments through education and technical training in agriculture, academics, health, water and sanitation, infrastructure and business development to empower the poorest and most remote communities to lift themselves out of extreme poverty and become fully self-sustainable. This work is premised on the belief that, for the first time in history, our generation has the opportunity to end extreme poverty, hunger, and disease. Be a part of the solution.

ONEXONE is also working with education in Kenya on a separate initiative; this year we broke ground on ONEXONE's Secondary School in Kenya, helping young girls to go beyond an elementary education and providing them with the access to education they need to change their lives. To all involved, this was so much more than the start of construction; it is the start of a better future.

The Secondary School will host between 25 to 50 students in its first year of operation once construction is completed in late 2009, and this number will continue to grow each year as a new grade is added to the high school.

Girls here in this region of Kenya have now already begun to dream of a better life for themselves and their families, and they believing education is the key to making it a reality. Please support ONEXONE's education initiatives, allowing more girls like these to realize: Hope Belongs to Everyone.

ONEXONE's Secondary School in Kenya is built in partnership with Free the Children, a hardworking in-country team, and with the cooperation of all community members in the 10 surrounding communities involved. Working in close partnership with all the communities has been key to making the project sustainable and ensuring the parents commitment to education.