History Timeline
2001
Dr. Phil Renicks and Dr. Alan McIlhenny correspond and discover a shared vision for the education of marginalised children.
April 2002
Dr. Renicks organises a Children-at-Risk Task Force in Johannesburg with Alan as facilitator.
April 2002
September 2002
Alan resigns from Tearfund and joins ACSI to develop the “Children-at-Risk” project.
2003
Alan and Phil develop a plan, meet like-minded people, drink lots of coffee, identify curriculum writers, and raise funds.
2003
2004
Writing and field-testing new curriculum with street children in Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa produce results: the curriculum is inadequate, so it’s discarded and the process starts over again. (Still drinking lots of coffee.)
August 2005
The first project is launched with new curriculum at The Kings Court Christian School in the Limpopo province.
August 2005
2006
Vivian Subramoney becomes Director of the team in South Africa; new projects are started in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Eastern Cape, and Limpopo provinces.
2007
The ACSI Children-at-Risk Project develops a partnership with TWR (formerly Trans World Radio) and Kerus Global Education to serve children in Swaziland through local tutorial groups supported by radio broadcasts.
2007
2008
The possibility of expanding into Uganda, the Philippines, and Botswana is explored.
July 2010
TWR and ACSI establish Open Schools Worldwide as an independent mission to carry on the work.
July 2010
2010-2018
Open Schools serves children in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Zambia—in addition to the ongoing projects in South Africa. Open Schools explores helping Beyond Borders, a ministry of TeachBeyond serving refugee children on the Greek island of Lesbos.
2019
Open Schools joins the TeachBeyond family.
2019