Ten years ago, Juan Diego Catholic High School was nothing more than a 56-acre plot of sun-browned grass and a yearning — a philanthropist's dream to change lives through education.

Now, there's another field of grass an ocean away, another education dream and a couple hundred new philanthropists. This time, though, the do-gooders hail, not so coincidentally, from the ranks of Juan Diego's student body, just as the school's founder would have dreamed.

To celebrate Juan Diego's anniversary and show appreciation for their own $58 million facility, made possible largely through charitable donations, the school's students, teachers and parents have teamed up with the nonprofit Solace International to build a women's vocational school in Kisumu, Kenya.

"When somebody gives you something, the way to express your gratitude is to turn around and do something for someone else," said the private school's principal, Galey Colosimo.

The Kenyan school won't be fancy. The $50,000 price tag, which students intend to raise by putting on a charity dinner, seems a pittance in comparison to the money that went into building Juan Diego's halls.

"It doesn't have a cafeteria with fingerprint technology or a television studio like Juan Diego," said Banze Odera, project manager for Solace International, who traveled from his native Kenya to speak with Juan Diego students about his plans for the women's school. Other than those high-tech differences, he joked, "it will be exactly the same."

Even so, Sofia Franklin, 17, guesses that the would-be African students are likely to appreciate their facilities as much — or maybe even more — than she and her classmates at Juan Diego enjoy their private-school education in Draper.

"Going to Juan Diego, we're all really lucky," said Franklin, who, as part of the school's human-rights club, is helping to propel fundraising efforts. "These people weren't born into such privilege."

The place where the vocational school will be built is "one of the worst slums in Kenya," said Simon Okelo, who supervises the fieldwork for Solace International from his home in Africa.

"Each family has over eight kids," said Okelo, who grew up an orphan in the area. "HIV is a huge problem. Most of the children are orphaned by the disease."

The women's vocational school is the next step in a 4-year-old project in Kisumu. Solace International's goals are to provide schooling for orphanage children, give them vocational training, and, when they are grown, put them to work building micro-businesses that bring home funds to support the complex.

"A lot of people want to send donated items, like clothing, to Kenya," said Solace International executive director Nate York. "But, if you do that, you're actually undercutting the livelihoods of the poor people there. What we do is work with communities to figure out how to help them help themselves."

The school that Juan Diego is sponsoring will train women in nursing assistance, tailoring and fish farming. Women will also learn how to run restaurants and hospitality businesses.

"Education changes these people mentally," Okelo said. "They see the light at the end of the tunnel."

For more information about the women's vocational-school project, visit www.solaceinternational.org.

e-mail: estuart@desnews.com