Leon Sullivan gets $1 million gift for African schools

Jet, March 24, 1997

Philadelphia Rev. Leon Sullivan's plan to build a thousand schools in Africa recently got a $1 million boost.

The gift from White financier-philanthropist George Soros funds Rev. Sullivan's recently organized International Foundation for Education and Self-Help. Sullivan plans to send a thousand teachers to Africa to improve the skills of the teachers now there. He says that 450 of "the master teachers" have already been assigned to posts in many of the countries.

Last month the minister, who formerly headed OIC (Opportunities Industrialization Centers) to train Black youth in the inner cities, shipped 300,000 books and other supplies to schools in Ethiopia to launch the Schools of Africa Campaign.

At his next American Summit scheduled for July 20-25 in Harare, Zimbabwe, this year, Rev. Sullivan will announce more plans to improve education for the children in Africa on a grade and broadening scale in every Sub-Sahara country on the continent.

"If you can't read, you can't lead,"--the minister preaches to the Africans as he puts major emphasis on education at all levels. He considers the "very young children" and the mothers as being "the main backbone" of the African continent.