Kristof's Story

Last year’s Expand Campaign enabled our team to reach new areas of Eastern Congo, a village called Kingi and another called Mugunga. This is Kristof, and he is from Mugunga. At four years old, Kristof is teeming with spunk and energy – and he is overcoming the odds. His mother works as a prostitute, and he’s never known his father. 

Living in a community with minimal resources, his mother struggled to feed and provide for her family. Over time, she sent him away, along with his younger brother, to go and live with his grandmother. 

A few years later, things only continued to get worse. Struggling with the added responsibility of caring for her grandchildren, Kristof’s grandmother turned to alcohol as a means of coping. 

Meanwhile, our team had recently purchased land a few minutes away from their house. In the early stages of working in a new community, even before building a school, our team meets with dozens of households in the new village. When our team first met Kristof’s family, even though it broke our hearts to hear their story, we immediately fell in love with Kristof. Since our first meeting, he’s been all hugs with endless chatter. 

As the new school term fast approached, our team urged Kristof’s grandmother to send the boys to school. “While it may be hard at first,” they told her, “getting an education will open up more opportunities for your grandchildren in the future.” When September arrived, the boys’ grandmother finally agreed. And on registration day, she was there with both boys!

Thank you for your support and sustained giving! Through our Expand Campaign, we have been able to reach kids like Kristof. This April, consider making a monthly or one-time gift through the Expand Campaign to help provide quality education to other kids like Kristof. 

Where does your money go? Through the support of our monthly giving community, we’re able to provide teachers with materials and resources, on-site coaching, back-end administrative support, and we’re even able to subsidize teacher salaries to help educators focus solely on delivering quality education to at-risk students.

Without you, life could look a lot different for beautiful families like Kristof’s.