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Indianapolis-based nonprofit Christel House International this week announced plans to open schools and provide support for needy youths to two additional countries: Nepal and Colombia.
The group, which operates schools and supports young people through its holistic “18-year education model,” said that with its expansions in Nepal and Colombia, it intends to serve 2,300 more students by 2044.
Christel House operates schools in five countries on three continents, including four charter schools in Indianapolis.
The expansion builds on previously announced growth in South Africa, India and Mexico, doubling its reach from 7,000 to more than 14,000 students annually, according to Christel House. The group also operates in Jamaica.
Christel House International, an educational not-for-profit founded in 1998 by the late businesswoman and philanthropist Christel DeHaan, has this year made its first major global expansion of services since she died in 2020.
The schools provide academics, health care, nutrition, life skills, and college and career coaching over 18 years of a student’s life. Christel House graduates are three times more likely than their peers to secure formal employment, and 97% are either employed, pursuing higher education, or both, the group said.
“We went through a pretty elaborate process to identify the countries that we wanted to focus on,” said David Harris, CEO of Christel House International.
In Nepal, Christel House will be led by Surya Karki, an experienced education leader in the region. “This mission is deeply personal—it began in my own village, where quality education once felt out of reach,” Karki said in written remarks.
Harris said Karki has helped launch more than 80 schools in Nepal.
The group still has yet to identify a local leader for the expansion in Colombia, but Harris said Christel House found a great fit in working with the family foundation Fundación Santo Domingo.
“We were extremely well aligned,” Harris said. “They share our commitment to providing a whole range of wraparound services (for the students) and to do so for a long period of time.”
He said the Santo Domingo foundation will invest in the school or schools and also provide expertise.
Christel House said Work in Nepal and Colombia begins in October with schools opening by April 2028.
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