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Rumeet Toor with Kenyan kids in front of the entrance to the teachers college.

View larger image A photo of the back of The Toor Centre for Teacher Education.  View larger image JobsInEducation president Rumeet Toor with a student in Ecuador.

As the world comes together with telethons and concerts to help Haitians, many have never been more aware of the work it takes to provide aid to the impoverished.

Yet, there are those among us who have made it their life’s work to help others in need.

In the past four years, 26-year-old Rumeet Toor has helped build three schools in three developing countries, provided school uniforms to orphans and is now set to launch her biggest project to date -- a teachers college in rural Kenya.

The Toor Centre for Teacher Education – named after the Mississauga native by the community it’s meant to improve – opens its doors in the Nzeveni area in May to serve an initial population of about 100,000 people.

In 2008, Toor’s accomplishments led her to being named one of Canada’s 100 most powerful women by the Women's Executive Network at the ripe age of 25. Yet, she continues to be modest when she refers to her work, using “we” instead of “I”, ensuring the spotlight remains on her cause.

“I’m starting to ask questions now. What else is needed, how else can we make a difference?” Toor says after her primary school projects in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Ecuador.

“Working with an NGO on the ground, I was learning, I experienced it and then I wanted to do something on my own.”

Toor started with an inspiration in 2005 after successfully running her company JobsInEducation.com – an online job site -- for one year, while pursuing a Bachelors degree in industrial relations and sociology at the University of Toronto.

“At that time, I thought yes, I run this organization but what do I have to show for it,” she says of when she came up with the idea of building a school to educate others.

“We’re going to donate a percentage of revenue profits towards building the school. Clients really liked this idea, because it aligned with their values and ideas in education… I was sending updates through the website.”

And once the ball got rolling, one project turned into another, and building schools became part of Toor’s business model. Now she’s donating personally. She has worked with Non-Governmental Organizations such as Free the Children, Creation of Hope and Me to We.

Executive director of Me to We leadership, Renee Hodgkinson met Toor in Kenya and connected her to the Ecuador project in 2008. She says individuals like Toor have both heart and mind to compliment the development work they do overseas.

“Rumeet has proven to be an incredible mentor and an inspirational woman and she’s going to inspire a lot of women in the field of education and development,” Hodgkinson says.

During Toor’s research for her Masters program, while building a school in Ecuador, she realized that putting schools in third-world countries didn’t necessarily equate to access for children.

“I got to do interviews with the indigenous community and that was the turning point when I realized that access does not always equal access,” she says.

“Although putting that primary school there is a powerful first step, it’s not the only step that was needed. Coming back I decided that next year we weren’t going to build a school, but work towards something that would help alleviate the other barriers.”

In April, Toor completed a uniform initiative, where she helped provide clothing to 53 primary school-aged orphans in Kikima, Kenya. This move led her to meeting former teacher and Kenyan social worker Ruth Kyatha.

Kyatha has become Toor’s eyes and ears on the ground in Kenya and helped secure an abandoned building donated by the community to help build the teachers college.

“The community is so excited about this college and it is seen as a way to bring a much needed service close to the people,” Kyatha says.

“Most young people travel far to train as teachers. So in many ways this college will save parents money and provide an opportunity for others who would not otherwise consider going to college to do so, because of the proximity.”

Kyatha says the area had a teachers college in the early 1970s, but it was discontinued to start a girls high school. She believes there are many people in the community who are interested in attending the college and the first class will be over-crowded.

Toor says one of the big things that stood out to her in the primary schools that she built was that the teachers were not trained.

“You can give them uniforms, textbooks and all of that, but that doesn’t mean that they’re receiving quality education,” she says.

Toor says she hopes to improve access to higher education and increase the value placed on teaching and education.

What started out in as a five-year project in August will now be completed in less than 10 months. Renovations are well underway in the 2,000 square feet building, with three additional buildings and surrounding land being generously donated by the community to the college.

A class of up to 35 trainees is expected to enroll in May and Toor believes the possibilities are endless.

“I want it to be the community’s. We’ve received their commitment, and it’s not mine, it’s theirs, it will run itself so they don’t depend on anyone else.”

Coming from an immigrant family, Toor says the value of an education had been instilled in her and her siblings from a young age.

“They came here so we would have access to education,” she says.

Earlier this month, Toor returned to Canada after seeing the college’s progression and says it was a life-changing experience.

“I went there with a professional intention, but it gave me so much more back personally. Yes I may have given this donation, but what I’m getting back are life lessons about happiness.”

To follow the progress of The Toor Centre for Teacher Education or for more information, visit their website.