From well-intentioned ruins to educational infrastructure: maaaru rethinks school education support

Throughout the world, there are ruins of good intentions.

A school built by wealthy people pooling their money, bringing cameras, and even making television shows is now overgrown with grass as a ruin that no one uses.

In Africa, in Southeast Asia, in South Asia. Countless.

This is not a story of failure. It is a story of good intentions. And it is a story about how good intentions can be fixated on "building" and forget to "continue."

I want to get involved as a stakeholder in the complex field of supporting school education environments in developing countries.

The Trap of Accomplishment in "Building a School"

Before starting the project called "maaaru," I asked myself this question many times.

Why are the same mistakes repeated all over the world? Why do well-intentioned donors spend vast sums of money, carefully building schools, only for them to become abandoned ruins a few years later?

The answer was simple.

It's because making a show of it had become the objective.

For a supporter, the moment a school is completed is "achievement." Cameras roll, children's smiles are captured, and tears are shed. That scene is consumed as the "ultimate form of support." However, the mundane and endless tasks that begin the very next day—maintenance, teacher employment, material replenishment, meal arrangements—do not attract cameras. There is no emotional impact. Troubles, of course, occur frequently, and the supporter's enthusiasm steadily declines.

Support is infrastructure, not an event.

However, many people prefer to pay for events rather than infrastructure.

Education support starting from ruins: a paradox

What maaaru did first was not build a school.

The task was to find the abandoned school building.

"Ruins of Good Intentions" around the world—revitalizing schools that have already been built and abandoned. That's where maaaru started. This isn't about efficient resource utilization. There's a more fundamental philosophy behind it.

Starting from ruins is not about "building good will," but about asking if you have the "will to continue."

We will use the existing school buildings. We will leverage the existing local network. We will support the existing teachers. There's no flashiness. There's no initial excitement about the starting point. However, because of that, we can focus solely on "continuing."
I would like to propose a new form of school education support.

Currently, maaaru has a network of over 30 countries and more than 250 schools worldwide. This number not only represents schools built from scratch but also includes a wide range of projects such as adding toilets, donating playground equipment, and renovating ceilings and floors.

Thoughts on the number "300 million"

According to UNICEF data, there are currently 300 million school-aged children worldwide who are not attending school. This is the number of children who require educational support.

Faced with this number, I always have two emotions at the same time.

One is impatience. For 300 million people, what are 250 schools? The numbers are far too insufficient. The speed is insufficient.

Another is certainty. The weight of the fact that 250 schools are still "continuing" today. This year, students will graduate from there, and new students will enroll next year. It would be the greatest joy if children who encounter maaaru would automatically enroll each year and someday develop an interest in Japan or peace.

How to "Design" Good Intentions

Good intentions are necessary for support. However, good intentions alone are not enough. Good intentions are "emotions," while infrastructure is "design." Emotions do not last, but design does.

What maaaru does is translate good intentions into design.

Into emotion, into a system. Temporary interest, into sustained engagement. Individual goodwill, into the power of a network.

This is a story about educational support, but it is also a question about the essence of human goodwill.

When you want to help someone, do you make that feeling an "event" or "infrastructure"?

That choice will determine what comes after the support.

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