McHenry County Blog

Oprah Winfrey's 150-girl $46 million South African boarding school in South Africa is in the news again.

One of the dorm matrons apparently molested girls under her care.

It reminded me of Chicagoland charity Rise International, which builds schools in Angola for $12,500 each.

105 school have been built so far.

After the schools are constructed, the Angola Ministry of Education provides the teachers.

It's an amazing private-public partnership.

New readers who are open to being inspired might want to read,

“Illinois Financing African Schools: $12,500 to $40 Million”

Our family supports the effort.

Perhaps yours will decide to do so, too.

Pretty hard to make your charitable giving go farther than this.

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The picture on top is of a redesigned school at Kavimbi in Benguela.

Since it is so much larger than the previous ones, my guess is that it costs more than the $12,500 it cost to build the ones on the left.

It looks like they have gone from mud to concrete block. The photo on the bottom right is of a concrete block school being built at Chilonda in Bie. Obviously it will last longer than the mud brick schools.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Angola, Oprah, Rise International, Souith Africa

Oprah’s second is also in South Africa and not as exclusive as the $40 million girls’ school that got all of the publicity in January.

Still, the thousand pupil Seven Fountains Primary School is not as primitive as the 125 $12,500 schools being built with the cooperation of Angolans.

One of the parents compared it with the “nice” schools the whites are making for their kids.

Compare Oprah’s new Angel Network-funded public school, complete with computer rooms and heaters to keep children warm in the winter with the bare bones schools being constructed through the assistance of RISE International, operated out of Wilmette, Illinois.

You can see how the schools in Angola are put together from the architectural drawings.

And, this is really a bootstrap effort.

All the work is done by local community members.

You can see one under construction out of mud bricks.

Imagine the relationships the Angolans make by working together on what may be the first public project in their area.

After the school is finished, it is equipped by RISE International.

Teachers for the schools are supplied by the Angolan Ministry of Education.

Illinois high schools, such as New Trier and West Chicago, have conducted major efforts to assist children in this civil ravaged country to start anew.

Some New Trier students even visited the school they helped raise money to finance.

Labels: Angel Network, Angola, Oprah, RISE Internatinonal, Seven Fountains Primary School