The Compound Interest of Eighteen Years
Eighteen years of handing the work over.
In 2008, a pastor from a village in Kenya walked into a room in Canada and told Roland and Theresa that half the children in his community were dying. That conversation became a mission trip. That trip became a farm. That farm became a school. That school has sent its first students on to university.
The numbers on this page are not a marketing exercise. They are what happens when a community is given clean water, stable food, and a safe place to learn, and then given ownership of all three.
You Feed Them does not run the schools. We did not hire the farm manager. We do not preach at the churches. The people who live in Yogo, Seje, and Mwalwigi do all of that. Our job has always been to show up, partner, and help the community take the first step. Their job is to take every step after.
That’s why, eighteen years in, the work is compounding instead of collapsing.
By the numbers, today
Years of partnership, since 2008
Villages in East Africa
Schools, run by their communities
Acres of community farm at Yogo
The Timeline
Eighteen years, one step at a time
The beginning
Pastor Silas meets Roland and Theresa in Canada. Fifty percent of children in his village of Yogo are dying from water-borne disease, malnutrition, AIDS, and lack of medicine. A mission team visits Yogo. Land is purchased for a community farm. You Feed Them is born.
First harvest
The garden at Yogo, planted on depleted soil described as ‘hard as a driveway,’ yields its first harvest. Yogo Glory Centre Academy opens with a kindergarten and pre-kindergarten class.
The church gets a building
The congregation that began worshiping under a tree outgrows it. A new church building goes up.
Clean water in Yogo
After previous drilling attempts in the region had failed, a hydrological study was done. The drill hit clean, drinkable water on the first attempt.
Farm expands, first tractor
Yogo farm grows to twelve acres. A walking tractor is purchased during that year’s mission trip. The Yogo Community Based Organization hires its own farm manager.
School reaches Grade 5
Yogo Glory Centre Academy expands to classes 1-5.
Tanzania chapter begins
The work expands into Mwalwigi, Tanzania, where the need is greatest. A YFT team visits Mwalwigi for the first time to meet the community and assess.
Seje joins the network
Seje Glory Centre Academy opens, partnered with Stittsville Community Bible Church in Ontario, Canada.
Albino children protection
After an attack on albino children near one of the villages, YFT mobilizes support for the albino children housed year-round at a nearby school for their protection.
The model comes home
You Feed Them applies for US 501(c)(3) charitable status under the religious and education categories. Roland’s property in New York is set to become the first US community garden, mirroring the Kenya community-based-organization process: establish the entity, run the education, transfer ownership. A regenerative-beef donor partnership and local food-bank outreach are taking shape alongside it.
Two schools, three villages. And growing at home.
Yogo and Seje Glory Centre Academies are running, the farms feed the students, and alumni have gone on to university in fields like nursing and teaching. The same model is now taking root in the United States and Canada.
Then and Now
What eighteen years of partnership looks like
Women and children walked hours each day to gather water that had to be boiled before use. The first village well had been dug by hand and was contaminated.
The model that worked in Yogo, hydrological survey, drilling, drip-line irrigation, drought-tolerant crops, is now being applied in Mwalwigi. The community there is the next chapter.
The first cohort of Yogo students, who started in pre-K with mud walls and depleted soil, are now in university.
The next eighteen years start with this year.
Partner with us and fund the work that compounds.