LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Yakoob Badat understands the power of education.

Not only is he currently a Lakewood High School house principal, but the Malawi native, who came stateside in 1992 at the age of 13, is behind the international nonprofit Nanze. His goal is to create a better future for children in his homeland, where residents in what is considered one of the poorest countries in the world survive on $1.25 a day.

By the end of the year, the organization will be finished building a pre-K to eighth-grade primary school in the village of Chikwasa. While the project started in 2016, Badat hadn’t seen the existing grades pre-K to fifth-grade school in person until this summer, where he spent the last month.

“Just to be there and see the families and kids and just talk to them, it’s just so rewarding,” said Fairview Park resident Badat, 40. “It’s just so exciting to know all of the hard work put in on the ground and the donations that were received from here, Sweden, Canada and the rest of the world.

“People really impacted their lives for the better. It’s just overpowering. It was very emotional to see the whole primary school that’s going to have more than 700 kids and 15 to 16 teachers.”

Early on, the organization started a nursery school to provide students with meals and the basic foundation for literacy. That was followed by phase I construction featuring three primary classrooms, four sanitation facilities and two teacher houses serving grades 1 through 3, as well as the recently completed phase 2, which added two classrooms and one teacher house.

By the end of this year, Nanze expects to complete phase 3 with an additional classroom, as well as teacher houses and sanitation facilities.

Overall, Nanze boasts the simple mission to improve living conditions and empower students in the Sub-Saharan African country by focusing on livelihood, education and water/sanitation.

The nonprofit is also making other inroads in the Chikwasa community.

“In Malawi, when it comes to female education, a lot of times young girls don’t go to school when they’re on their periods because of embarrassment and lack of sanitary pads,” Badat said. “One of the goals this year for Nanze was to buy sewing machines and teach the locals how to make onsite reusable sanitation pads.

“Another objective was to give out what’s called Shoes that Grow. These are shoes that grow as a child grows. So they can wear the shoe from, say, age 5 to 10. You just adjust it every year.”

Nanze also recently constructed roof solar panels providing electricity to classrooms and teacher housing, as well as dug water wells to provide safe drinking water at the school.

“Since 2013, we’ve been able to raise about $80,000 through small donations by word of mouth,” Badat said. "We also have two fundraisers a year. We’re a small organization, but what makes us unique is every dollar raised goes directly to the projects.

“There aren’t administrative costs and paid staff. In fact, I pay for my own travel expenses whenever visiting Malawi.”

Considering that school is about to start up again, Badat will have quite a story to tell Lakewood students and staff about how he spent his summer vacation.

“My message will be we’re all connected, we’re all global citizens,” Badat said. “I hope the Lakewood High School students and my neighbors understand that their world is bigger than our ZIP code.

“We need to empower our own communities and others, because I think that’s why we were put on this earth. Maybe I’m different because I’m from Malawi, but I always look to improve other people’s lives because in turn you’re rewarded.”

Read more news from the Sun Post Herald.