A CNS story about a school for AIDS orphans in Kenya:

In 2002, Oganda and his friends formed their own nongovernmental organization, Hands of Love Society, and began paying school fees for orphans. However, schools increased fees as soon as they discovered an organization was paying for the student. Staff also subtly discriminated against the AIDS orphans, Oganda said.

The friends decided to open their own school to fights AIDS by injecting hope into Kibera, forming young people with a Christian identity who believe in the future, said Oganda.

"The environment itself is very challenging," he said. "In this environment people — they think they don’t have a future. They’re just there, waiting for what they get today or tomorrow. … We give them hope. We want to create a future for them. It’s to tell them that, sure, you have also been brought up in that (poverty), but you have a key. When you are educated you will be able to come out of this," he said.

Meanwhile Dionisio Kiambi, the principal, has no trouble keeping or attracting teachers, despite low wages and tough conditions. The teachers scramble through the alleyways of Kibera between the two little groupings of classrooms on the hillside; the classrooms do not have enough books, no real laboratory, no computers, just chalk dust and beat-up desks. But the teachers find a set of values and standards which give them a chance at success.

"Most of our teachers are Catholic. We are talking about a Catholic education," said Kiambi, an original member of the Christian Life Community.

The school also forms young Christians. In June, 20 students finished the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and were baptized.

A story from Norman, Oklahoma about an Indian priest who had ministered there for a few years, then returned to India with a purpose:

Burdened with a sense of responsibility and love for the people of his native country, India, Father Alphonse Gollapalli envisioned a way to meet both the needs of the community and ease his heart.
An idea was born, and plans were made to open a school, a boarding house for up to 30 boys.
Tucking away his income earned during a three-year stay in Oklahoma as the associate pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and a parish in Woodward, Gollapalli worked steadily toward his dream, which was fulfilled in June 2005.
Nestled in between mountains on five acres, the Nitya Sahaya Matha Parish in Tripurantakam is now home to more than 40 children, all of whom hail from desperate poverty, Gollapalli said.
“The families send their children here because they realize, if they can get an education, they can do something with their lives,” he said.