Building a school: the kids of Mhangeni were new to the village and one another. But they came together with determination, smarts, and strength to build their own school as if they had known one another for years.

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Imagine that the nearest school were 10 miles from your home. Perhaps your room or dad would drive you there, or a school bus could take you.

But what if your parents did not have a car or there wasn't even a road from your house to the school? What would you do? Just stay at home and forget about your studies?

The children in the new village of Mhangeni in southern Zimbabwe, Africa, were faced with a somewhat similar challenge. Mhangeni was created by villagers who moved from different parts of Zimbabwe. When they arrived, it was summer and there was no school. All the families were busy building their huts. "Nobody thought about the school," said Matsa, one of the village elders. "We realized very late that there was no nearby school for the kids."

The villagers, along with the children, panicked. The parents held an emergency meeting but couldn't come up with a solution.

Nobody in the village had a car. And between Mhangeni and the nearest school was a game preserve with wild animals--too dangerous for the children to travel through.

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Then someone came up with an idea. Near the village stood an old, abandoned farm warehouse. It could be cleaned, renovated, and turned into classrooms.

The parents repaired the leaking roof. Using scrap wood, they divided the warehouse into three classrooms. Still, there was much more work to do. The walls were dirty and needed to be scrubbed. The grasses and bushes outside needed to be cleared. And pits left by miners needed to be filled. But the parents had run out of time. The rains were coming, and the village elders had to go to work in the fields. Most of the families survive by growing and selling maize (corn).

The children of Mhangeni decided to finish the warehouse themselves. They brought tools--slashers, to cut the grass, and spades and wheelbarrows.

They needed to get busy. Summer had ended and other schools had already opened. The younger kids slashed the grasses. Those a little older cleared the bushes. And those without tools filled the pits with sand.

Things improved when two male teachers who worked for the country's Department of Education arrived to help out--first with the construction and then with the teaching. Two Swedish visitors were also touched by the children's determination. They donated textbooks, pens, and pencils.

After 10 days of hard work, the new school was ready. For the kids it was catch-up time. They were behind in their studies.

But even more challenges were waiting for them. There were too many students and too few rooms. The three classrooms couldn't hold them all. Some of the boys and girls had to study outside. During science lessons, plastic bottles had to serve as beakers. Four kids had to sit at benches designed for two. And as many as four students had to share one book.

Despite these problems, the children in Mhangeni village are happy to be in school--their school.

They know their school might not be the most modern in the district, but they are proud of it. Their dream of having a school near their home has come true.