Serena Williams Works With Organization to Help Build Schools in Africa and Jamaica

Writer: Madison Hayden

You may know Serena Williams as the former world No. 1 and winner of 39 Grand Slam titles. Off the court, Serena is doing big things also. Through her non-profit, the Serena Williams Fund, new schools are being built in Jamaica and in various countries across Africa.

While other celebrities simply write a check, Serena can be seen with a hard hat and a hammer working alongside reggae artist Sean Paul (think ‘Get Busy’ and ‘Baby Boy’) and Jamaican track stars Warren Weir and Yohan Blake. 

Most recently, Serena partnered with Helping Hands Jamaica to build the Salt Marsh Primary School in Trelawny Parish. Previous secondary schools were created in partnership with Build Africa in Uganda and Kenya. Her charity’s mission is to help “individuals or communities affected by senseless violence, and ensure equal access to education.”

The new schools have an added bonus within the community. They impose a 40-60 ratio of girls to boys to support gender equality in access to education. 

The school’s gender ratio rules work toward addressing a major problem around the world, particularly in developing countries where girls and women often face social norms that hinder their access to education such as child marriage, household chores (fetching water), and missing school because of menstruating. 

Offering girls access to education is one way of giving them much more power -- of enabling them control over the kinds of lives they wish to lead. When women have an equal chance at education it decreases infant and maternal mortality, reduces child marriage, decreases malnutrition, and allows for better wages and jobs for women, among others. 

Serena is a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador and has also worked with other non-profits such as Beyond the Boroughs Scholarship Fund, The Equal Justice Initiative, and The Caliber Foundation. 

Sources: Urbanintellectuals.com, Newschain.uk