U of M Student Raises Thousands to Build School in Malawi

Another good thing that was achieved through the power and reach of social media.

Simon Kim is an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Michigan. About four months ago, he posted a video on TikTok to tell people about his goal to build a "sustainable" school in Malawi. He wanted to do something positive on social media. He ended all of his videos with the catchphrase "Keep it wholesome."

“The information we take in in our day-to-day life really affects how we feel and our emotions. So I was like, I might as well leave a positive impact on someone," Kim told Fox 2 Detroit about his TikTok video.

His tagline caught on, and he started the Keep It Wholesome to help fund the building of the school. He has 750K followers on TikTok and 42K followers on YouTube. His reach is part of the reason that he was able to raise the $30,000 for the school.

And it worked - the money was raised through GoFundMe and donated, in bulk, at the end of the campaign to BuildOn.

Kim posted the following update on the GoFundMe page:

EVERYONE!! Thank you so much for supporting this amazing journey! As of september 9th, 2020 (yesterday) the school build has started in Malawi! The school will be build in a village coined Mphasi - I will continue to keep you all updated as we continue along the journey of the school build! Big thank you to everyone involved and courtney lanza (our buildon coordinator). Love you guys so much, we are seriously changing the world! Keep it wholesome