This is Azu Rock, the backdrop for the city of Abuja, which is Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory.

This is the airport in Abuja. The site of Cornelia Connelly School of the Holy Child in Giri is convenient to the Airport (approximately 350 meters away). The secondary school for girls will include three years of Junior Secondary School (JSS) and three years of Senior Secondary School (SSS), equating to grades 7 through 12 in the United States. The school is located just off the junction of Airport Road at Kaduna-Lokoja Road.

Sr. Tina Chikezie, Kathy Gibbons, and the two men who helped us locate the property.

This is the site of the Cornelia Connelly School of the Holy Child, a secondary school for girls, in the village of Giri, on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria.

The Society of the Holy Child Jesus (SHCJ) has purchased over 61 acres on which they hope to build a model secondary school for girls. Currently, in Nigeria, only 28% of girls are enrolled in secondary school.

Small farms producing millet, maize, rice, cassava, guinea corn and vegetables dot the property. The campus plan includes a small farm and orchard.

Seeing the land, it's easy to envision a thriving campus where young Nigerian women receive a holistic education that equips them to contribute to African society as mature, disciplined young women. Sisters of the Holy Child have been teaching at the secondary and training college level in Nigeria for over 73 years.

Sr. Lena Nwaenyi, left, and Sr. Tina Chikezie, right, checking out the land.

Help us build. A UNICEF report issued in 2001 on the Benefits of Girls' Education projected that for each year a girl is in school, her wages as an adult rise by approximately 15%. Help boost Nigeria's economy.

The terrain is gently sloping. Vegetation includes shrubs, trees and thick grasses.

The campus design includes the Chapel at the core, or center, of the campus with four activity zones emanating out. The four zones include Public (Chapel and Sports), Semi-Public (Administrative Offices, Classrooms, Multipurpose Hall and Clinic), Private (Guest House, Convent, Rectory, Staff Quarters, and Student Hostels) and Service (Maintenance Building, Generator House, Kitchen, Dining Hall, Students' Toilets, Fuel Dumps, Orchard Farm and Fish Pond) areas.

To the left of this road is where the Primary Health Centre and Vocational Centre will be built. The village is Jikwoyi, an area that has mushroomed as Abuja has been developed.

Many people relocated to Abuja seeking jobs and a better life and ended up settling in Jikwoyi. Over 20,000 people live in the village of two hundred thousand square metres.

The need for good medical care, AIDS counseling and skills training cannot be overemphasized.

Sr. Cecilia Nya, Province Leader, and Sylvanus, our driver, in Abuja.