House with Comfort and Elegance(11)

Ellen Small responded with an enthusiastic yes when her friend Ann Cooper asked if she would help her start a faith-based preschool in Fiji's rural Vuni Kura village. That was after a mission trip there in 2007, when Ann saw the need. Both teachers with years of kindergarten experience (Ellen has taught art to elementary schoolchildren for 19 years), they "put together the basic necessities to start a school in a village with no electricity, no running water, but with one incredible asset--a woman, Anna, who was willing to take on the job of 'kinde teacher' for her village's children," says Ellen.

"My friend and I pooled our teaching and art supplies, age-appropriate books, puzzles, and other educational materials, along with toothbrushes and toothpaste. [Dental care was a major need.] We packed these into four giant suitcases and headed to Vuni Kura." The team transformed the village's winter harvest shed into a preschool (shown above). They painted ABCs and a mural on the walls--and set up a toothbrushing station outside.

In April 2008, they returned, but this time to help children in the impoverished village of Nawi. Ellen and Ann each had a teenage daughter in tow, and both of the 17-year-olds caught their mom's passion for helping. Fiji Kinde Project (fijikindeproject.com) is now a nonprofit organization.