Cyndi Loza

A group of Chicago Public High School students is preparing to head to Mali, where they will build a school for the northwest African country’s children. Six students will leave Tuesday to begin construction on a school for the local Malian youth of Bablena, a village a few hours from the country’s capital. The 21/2-week project will be supervised by the national youth development program Building with Books (BwB), which has constructed more than 200 schools in countries such as Nicaragua, Malawi, Nepal and Mali.

“It’s really cool, because my mom and grandma have been to Africa, but I’ve never been,” said 15-year-old South Sider Jazmine Harris, a Jones College Prep high school student going on the trip.

Carrie Pena, a development director for BwB, said the group reached an agreement with Mali’s Ministry of Education and local villagers that the students will begin building the school — but villagers will finish it. The Ministry of Education is also obligated to supply the teachers, provide school supplies and ensure at least 50 percent of the school’s students are girls.

Low-income students

“There’s a saying in Mali: ‘You educate a man, you educate that man; but if you educate a woman, you educate that entire family,’ ” said Pena.

History teacher Velasco Salvador Jr. will be one of the BwB advisers who is “geeked” — his word for excited — to be traveling with students to another country. He said while most of the Chicago-area students in the program come from low-income families, they will have the opportunity to meet children who are less fortunate.

“I’m hoping that when they get back they can teach the other students what it’s like out there and open some eyes and some minds,” said Salvador, a teacher at Bowen Environmental Studies Team High School, 2710 E. 89th St.

Harris said she hopes to become more open-minded on the trip, even when it comes to exotic food.

“I’m the type of kid that if it doesn’t look good — I don’t eat it,” said Harris.

To learn more, visit www.buildingwithbooks.org.