HOW WE
WORK
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
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-an African Proverb
Why partnership?
We believe that the most effective means of comprehensive change is through partnership with nationals who have a passion to get it done. Partnership takes into account the cultural context of the work, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in each culture represented, and joins hearts and hands in a shared vision with mutual accountability. Africa Connect focuses on development of project sustainability, and project ownership, training nationals and accessing resources from the Kenyan community as well as our own.
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Through partnership we are able to equip the ones who best know the culture, the language, and the people. This practice produces positive and enduring outcomes for investments made, translating into changed lives.
It's working.
Africa Connect works at the grass-roots level, in Kenya as well as America. We seek out that one child, that struggling mom or grandmom who is willing to do what it takes to rise up. As they are restored and empowered, they become an example for their neighbors to follow.
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Decades of humanitarian handouts from the Western world has created a mindset of dependence that paralyzes people's potential to succeed. After years of patiently offering instruction, encouragement, and opportunities to become self-sufficient, we are seeing results.
It's official.
In Africa, names are significant. In 2014, Two Trans-Nzoia County Government representatives appeared at the annual preschool graduation event to announce that the Kenyan government had witnessed the positive effect of the church and preschool's investment in the local community, and was honoring those efforts by changing the name of the neighborhood. Rather than call it "Matecha", meaning "a place where nothing can grow", it is now legally named "Graceway".
It's growing.
The model: the local church incorporates a free preschool, identifies needy families and reaches into their hearts and homes, in order to empower and transform their own community.
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The vision: to reproduce this model, using experienced national staff to train leaders in other poor communities and create a local adaptation relevant to their local situation.
The result: needy children go to school, families are encouraged and empowered, villages are inspired, and the local church strengthened as they reach out to the poor in their locality.
Africa Connect's mission is to help create opportunities for a transformational exchange, personally and globally.
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We work with Africans as partners, using African solutions that work for Africans, and accountability structures that work for donors.
We believe relationship is the vehicle for sustainable holistic change. Therefore, we prioritize spending time in the African community, developing relationships and mobilizing local talents and resources to meet our goals.
We work to empower the poor to live in the dignity for which they were created - mentally, physically, socially, economically, and spiritually.
We train nationals, not only to better perform mission related tasks, but to improve their lives and their contribution to society.
We want our donors to know how their money is spent, and be connected with the lives they are helping to change.