CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two Charlotte-area businesses are partnering with nonprofit organization Build On to help build a school in Nicaragua.
For Wynee Bermudez, a social media manager at Yellow Duck Marketing, it's a personal connection to get involved.
"I was born here but my family's Nicaraguan, and so I think it's nice to see the connection of someone coming to help you that looks like you, too," she said.
Bermudez said her education is invaluable, and now she's inspired to make sure kids can get one.
"Just being able to think about the fact that these kids who might not have been able to have an education, now because of us, will be able to go to school and be with their friends and actually learn things that would be beneficial for them in the future," she said.
Yellow Duck, along with Good Year Giving, started a GoFundMe page to help support the volunteers that will be traveling later this month.
Aled Hollingworth, Build On's development director, said their goal is to make concrete change through education.
"Our mission is to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service and education," he explained. "Globally, we build schools in eight different countries around the world, working with rural communities."
Hollingworth notes the schools will be able to serve the children along with their parents and even grandparents. He also noted Build On works in six different cities in the United States with underserved high school students. Build On helps them with service-learning and taking action in their own communities.
Build On's biggest challenge, as of late, has been dealing with COVID-19.
"It's been projected about 11 million more girls will not return to school post-COVID. So globally, that's huge," said Hollingworth, "considering that currently, there's about 258 million youth that are not in school that are illiterate."
To help make an impact, Build On welcomes partnerships with individuals, groups, and companies. Hollingworth says anyone can help make a difference with their time, talent, or treasure.
Contact Jane Monreal at jmonreal@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.