White House Staffer Raises Thousands for Malawi School

In October 2018, Melania Trump visited a handful of African nations.

Naturally, some members of the White House staff went with her, and one of them used her experience to do some good.

Actual Human Angel Carolina Hurley (who sometimes works as a specialty media director when not performing her heavenly duties) was so moved by the schoolchildren she encountered in Malawi, she spent her own personal time and energy to raise over $12,600 for them.

Hurley accompanied Trump on her four-country visit to Africa, which included a tour of several outdoor classrooms at the Malawi school. Due to the enrollment of more than 9,000 students, Hurley learned that the children frequently learned lessons outdoors, seated shoulder-to-shoulder on loose, red dirt. The school had only 77 teachers — a ratio of 118 children to 1 teacher — with up to 250 students in each classroom.

To be honest, the “Can we have class outside????” student within me was a little jealous at first.

“I saw these children who sit outside all day because there wasn’t enough room for them to learn inside,” Hurley told Fox News. “Once the rainy season starts, kids would stop coming to school.”

Hurley saw the need for a sheltered, indoor learning space that was big enough to accommodate the enormous classes, so she started a GoFundMe to help fund construction of such a space.

“Malawi made my heart stop from the minute I got there.  It was completely eye-opening to me to see such incredible children — over 9,000 of them — with absolutely nothing to their name except for a desire to learn.”

She continued, “I left knowing that if I could even make a dent in helping them learn, I’d be happy knowing I contributed to something bigger than myself. Little did I know just how generous complete strangers could be.”

Said complete strangers, with Hurley’s leadership, managed to raise the funds to build a new school building for these Malawian students to study in shelter and safety.

After my trip to Africa, a member of our advance team raised money on her own time to get a new classroom built for the Chipala Primary School in Lilongwe, Malawi. Thank you Carolina, for showing what it means to #BeBest! @CLH45 pic.twitter.com/zx9CreJGYv

— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) January 2, 2020

In response to the glowing praise from the FLOTUS (what I wouldn’t give to receive the same), Hurley shared some photos from her experience with these kids.

This is Chipala Primary School that warmed so many hearts 🇲🇼 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/0zsOZj8Cmc

— Carolina Hurley 45 Archived (@CLH45) January 2, 2020

I want to say so much about this because my heart is glowing. I want to talk about the generosity of spirit in so many more people than we often feel inclined to believe. I want to talk about the effectiveness of private charity in improving the lives of people who need an extra hand.

But after the job I’ve recently begun, at which I work with under-privileged children, these kids are all I want to talk about. I want to talk about their smiles, their thirst for knowledge, their potential to excel.

Getting to know my kiddos, I’ve learned that they don’t require a top-of-the-line, million dollar education to succeed. If a child has someone to teach them, support them, and believe in them, they’ll take even the most basic resources and be excellent with them.

Because of the teachers in Malawi, they have that guiding light; because of Carolina Hurley (and a donation of 1.4 million textbooks from the US), they now have the resources. That’s enough for them to change the world.