Sisterhood Week at MU is going to have a wider impact this year.

The Panhellenic Association announced Tuesday it raised $20,000 to fund a school to support the education of women and girls around the world.

PHA committed to raising $35,000 more to create the school, which the association hopes to accomplish by January, said Jory Mick, PHA vice president of public relations.

The commitment to build a school is part of PHA’s involvement with the 3-year-old organization the Circle of Sisterhood. The organization was created for the purpose of uniting sorority women for the wider purpose of educating women across the world, according to its website.

“The Circle of Sisterhood Foundation recognizes that sorority women have a privilege to receive an education,” Mick said. “Circle of Sisterhood is founded on the basis of service to others and empowering women, which is what all PHA sororities value.”

The location of the future school will be determined by the organization buildOn, which assesses which country needs the school the most, Mick said. The location will not be known until it is closer to being built.

Last fall, PHA adopted the Circle of Sisterhood as its official philanthropy something that has never been done at MU before, PHA President Paige Tenkhoff said in an email.

Supporting the organization was added into PHA’s bylaws this semester, Mick said.

“Our values align perfectly,” Mick said. “(The Circle of Sisterhood is) an organization created by sorority women for sorority women.”

PHA educated members of all PHA sororities by showing the documentary, “Half the Sky,” which sparked the creation of the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation in the first place, Mick said.

After a semester of showing the documentary and educating its members on the official philanthropy, PHA progressed to the next step: funding a school.

Mick said PHA is excited to expand education for women.

“This focuses on empowering women who are not valued in their countries and do not have a voice,” Mick said.

Tenkhoff said supporting women’s education and eradicating oppression are necessary goals for PHA sororities to support.

“As sorority women whose organizations were founded in oppression, we have an obligation to do something about gender inequality worldwide,” Tenkhoff said.

The announcement Tuesday and the Circle of Sisterhood united members of all sororities, Mick said.

“This was the first opportunity for everyone to focus on a common goal and for all the individual chapters to come together as one community,” Mick said.