(FORTUNE Small Business) – Zola Mapela was 8 years old when her father lost his job as a laborer and could no longer afford South Africa's public school fees. For two years, her only learning took place at the public library. So when the Christel House Learning Center opened in Cape Town in January 2002, Zola's father made sure his daughter got one of the coveted spots--all fully funded--at the elite school. Now Zola is a seventh-grader on the honor roll.

None of this would have been possible without Christel House founder Christel DeHaan, 62. In 1974, DeHaan, a native of Germany, launched a U.S. company called Resort Condominiums International that allowed condo owners to split their properties with other investors. It was one of the first businesses of its kind, and it helped create the time-share concept, now a $7.5 billion segment of the real estate industry. DeHaan sold the company in 1996 for $820 million and since then has devoted herself to philanthropy.

During a 1998 trip to an orphanage in Mexico for adolescent boys, DeHaan witnessed the deplorable conditions in which they lived. "They asked for money to buy food and clothing, but I wanted to do something beyond that," says DeHaan. After consulting with educational leaders, health experts, and other specialists in children's welfare, she opened the first Christel House in Mexico in 1998. Today nearly 2,000 children study at four such schools overseas, in India, Mexico, South Africa, and Venezuela (along with one in the U.S., in DeHaan's current hometown of Indianapolis).

The students receive a top-quality education, meals during the school day, and health services such as immunizations and checkups. But unlike most charitable programs that focus on children's education, Christel House follows its students from elementary school until they have graduated and are working. In Mexico and Venezuela, classes are taught in Spanish, but students at those schools get drilled in English, and all DeHaan programs require computer training.

For years, charities solicited DeHaan for donations. Now she finds herself asking others to support her cause. The organization's 2005 operating budget is $13.3 million. DeHaan personally finances $8.3 million, with the rest coming from grants and private donations.

For Zola, Christel House is the springboard to fulfilling her dreams. "I hope to become a choreographer, a graphic designer, and the first woman president of South Africa," she says.