In August 2012, I was awarded a Fulbright grant to travel to Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa. One critical education issue is that the government has opened its education sector to the donor community. Outside donors identify and define the educational needs of the country and often impose solutions with minimum stakeholder input; consequently, communities tend to play almost no role in schools. Against this background, we conducted a school improvement project. After a teacher at Kwithu, a community-based organization in Luwinga serving orphans and vulnerable children, administered an English diagnostic test to a random group of 40 seventh and eighth graders (boys and girls) and discovered that they could hardly read or write, we initiated a participatory action research project involving the school stakeholders, including head teachers, teachers, students, parents, clergy, and small business owners, to identify causes for the low academic achievement of children in Luwinga. This case provides an account of the participatory action research method used for the project and sheds light on the process of mobilization, the intergroup dynamics, the challenges of participation, the researcher's cultural limitations, and the political context within which the Luwinga schools operate. [This content is provided in the format of an e-book.]