Back in 2017, I had the chance to take part in a trip to South Africa that included visits to local schools, community organizations and health clinics. I traveled with my good friend, Joel Andersen, and one of the goals of our trip was to scout ways we could make a lasting impact on the ground, particularly through education.

We’d been inspired in part by our encounter with a young girl we had met the previous summer in Indonesia. On a hike up a volcano in Bali, in early morning darkness, we met “Bella,” who we learned hiked to the top of the mountain every day to sell drinks out of her school backpack to tourists like us. Some mornings she was successful, on other mornings she came back empty handed. Either way, she was up and down the mountain — several miles and more than 2,000 vertical feet of climbing — every day before school began at 8 AM. Without the funds she earned in those grueling, early morning hours, she and her family would not have been able to afford to send her to school.

We wanted to go back to help with a school project in Indonesia, but after a lot of research, Joel learned of compelling, and more accessible opportunities to assist other communities living in deep poverty. That led us to South Africa. During our visit, we had a chance to tour the Hananani Primary School in the rural and remote community of Dixie. Among their most pressing issues was a need for more space to accommodate all the children living in the community. Joel, who is the CEO of Andersen Construction in Portland, OR, knew he had the expertise and the team to help. He promised to return.

In 2019, the Andersen Construction Foundation and Andersen Construction sent a team of employees and volunteers back to Hananani to build two, new classrooms out of converted shipping containers and helped improve other aspects of the campus. This is the first full year of use and so far, everything seems to be going incredibly well. I’m proud to be a supporter of the project and excited to see vision become reality. Joel is a doer — I knew when he said he’d go back, that he would.

To read more about the project and see a video of the school build, click here. There’s also info on how to support the effort in Hananani and ongoing Andersen Construction Foundation projects in Africa, including a return trip this year to build a pre-school with a local non-profit organization.

Joel has made serving others a part of the ethos of his company. It’s inspiring to see his follow-through and exciting to see the results of this commitment. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what’s next and lending a hand.