History

Bumping down the pothole­-riddled Kenyan road, our team arrived at a resettlement village.

Jikaze was destitute­ 145 weather­worn tents that sat 100 feet off the dusty highway. The village was home to the survivors of tribal warfare. In the conflict, 600,000 were left homeless and over 1,500 killed. The survivors lost everything­ family, homes, and jobs. They were displaced and despairing.

We wanted to provide education for the community, a key tool to break the long term cycle of generational poverty. Previously, we had built up the facilities at a school in the Kibera slum and another in Mombasa. With the average family living on $0.30 per day, we knew we could serve Jikaze by providing education for their youth.

Within minutes, 1,000 Kenyan survivors gathered around us and ushered us to a circle of plastic chairs where the community leaders awaited. The needs were obvious, and we yearned to help. Christine, speaking on behalf of the community, responded to our goal of establishing a boarding school for the children: “You are right that our children need education, but, more than education, we need food and jobs. Our children sell themselves to truckers who give them money for food in exchange for sexual pleasures.” Christine’s pleaded, “We are desperate for work.”

This kind of poverty can’t be felt through a statistic, and a need this great begged a response. With the permission of the community leaders, we sprang into action. Uhuru Child, now renamed Freedom Global, began a holistic approach to bring independence and hope to the village. The community needed emergency food relief, but as crises were resolved, we moved toward job development solutions. We partnered with Global Connections to replace tattered tents with community -built mud homes, joined hands with the Polish Embassy to provide water to the community, and brought in an organization to grant micro­finance loans.

We learned that of the 1,000 people, 29 were farmers prior to the post-election violence. With the community’s blessing we purchased one greenhouse and employed nine adults to grow and sell produce­. It was our first social business. The produce flourished, first one greenhouse, then three, five and seven. One acre of land became five, ten, then thirty. Before long, we were not only giving employment in one community, but we were hiring more staff to help with the processing of the produce, selling to the top three distributors in Kenya, and renting land in various parts of the country to test corn and wheat growth. The model for Freedom Global began to take shape. 

The goal was to create businesses that would both give employment and invest profits into an all girls boarding school, Uhuru Academy. The school was started in 2013. Investing in lives through business and education naturally opened the doors for us to share Christ love with our students and staff through our discipleship programs. We know the Lord is just getting started with this mission.