Look who went to Africa! The AGHF team was there this fall in full force!

We are so excited that our founder Dr Grace & co-founder Denis, along with Tim & Maureen our Board Chair and co-chair were able to visit Nairobi this year!!

This is an amazing chance to meet the girls on AGHF scholarships, see them at their schools and see them thriving! From bright smiles to big dreams, these young scholars are ready to change the world with the power of education. It’s inspiring, humbling, and a joy to see firsthand the impact we’re making together!

Continue reading for a daily account from our co-chair, MAUREEN GOODWIN

DAY 1 in AFRICA

Thoughts on Kenya…

This refugee community?? Some of the MOST GENEROUS people you will ever meet! A recap of Graces life—her father was a missionary in the democratic Republic of Congo to the Muslim community, who lived deep in the bush. The civil war broke out and a beloved church member alerted her family in the middle of the night that they were on a hit list, so they literally jumped out of bed and ran. For the next six years, they were refugees in Burundi, Rwanda, Congo Brazzevile, and finally landed in a refugee community in Kenya. After the generosity of family members and a missionary family from Norway, Grace finished high school and was accepted into university. Finally making it to America on a refugee status and continuing on to complete her doctoral degree. From living with only the clothes on her back on the floors of refugee camps to living in a beautiful home with four healthy children and a loving husband in Cumming, Georgia—Grace did it!

And then she gave it back. Her first paycheck she received as a translator for the federal court—She sent it to her parents who then paid the tuition for another girl still in Kenya. Her parents who were not only still in Kenya, but probably had 10 to 15 other people living in their home at the time. Church members, refugees, neighbors, sick relatives. Francine, Grace’s sister, who also made it to America became a nurse and got her first paycheck—she sent it right back home, too.

And now? Not only are there 232 girls in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo who are completing their education because of Grace and AGHF Supporters but there is now an entire refugee community who continues to rally behind each other. Need a place to live? We got you. Can’t afford tuition? We’ll make sure you’re covered. Thirsty? Have our last cup of juice.

Surely This is what Jesus meant when he said, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭25‬:‭35‬-‭36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This refugee community? Easily they could be despondent and lack hope, hoard every penny they have, and live a lifetime of sadness. But no. And not only have they found hope and life in Jesus, but they live as though each door they walk through is an opportunity to turn around and hold the door open for everyone behind them to come through as well. Not complaining once, even if it took a million hours at the airport to wait for their luggage.

DAY 2 in AFRICA

Visited two boarding schools in Nairobi where we got to meet about 45 of our AGHF girls on scholarship!

A tour of their schools plus hearing their stories which did this to me:

Oprah Winfrey said something which perfectly encapsulates these AGHF girls…

“When you become successful, you have to be as generous with others as others were with you. Your legacy is every life you have touched. And when you get, give; when you learn, teach. That is how you build a legacy—by holding the door open for those who come after you.”

Grace first held the door open for the girls who came after her.

Then my friend Joyce did it for me.

Joyce is a teenager who lives at the boarding school whose tuition is paid by the generous donors of AGHF. She grew up in the same Mulenge village in Congo that Grace lived in and suffered in the same war. She fled Congo and went to a refugee camp in Tanzania with her family. But in the middle of the night while sleeping in a tent with her siblings and parents, she felt the heat of a fire and went outside with her younger brother and older sister. Her father went back into the tent to help her mom and the rest of her siblings escape when the tent caught on fire, collapsing and killing her parents and other siblings.

Devastating. Trauma. Heartbreak. And yet, she survived! And here at her school among her friends who are like sisters, with the AGHF mentors who love her, and teachers who care about her future, she is thriving.

And in February 2021 when my dad passed away and I too was orphaned, Joyce sent me a video. She told me how much she cared for me and was praying for me and that she loved me. It touched my heart in a place so deep and profound that only someone who has experienced the loss of both parents can truly understand. And today I met her in real life.

Grace held the door open for Joyce to walk through into a healthy and happy life beyond loss. And then Joyce held the door open for me to walk through into that same healthy and happy life beyond loss.

Be a door holder, friends.

DAY 3 in AFRICA

Visiting the girls’ schools and homes!

Todays story is brought to you by A Reminder That God Provides for the Widows and Orphans

We visited more schools where our AGHF girls attended and let me tell you, the preciousness of my husband hugging all these Kenyan babies and putting his “goggles” on them not only melted my heart but I fell in love with him even more! The hugs and cheers and high fives of these precious babies were the best! You would think they lived in 3 story houses with 3 1/2 baths complete with a cushy bed and a full refrigerator! But no. Their homes are much different. And yet still so so happy!

4 years ago, we first met Grace and were introduced to African Girl’s Hope Foundation thanks to our parents Fred and Jill, who invited us to her gala. Not only was that a first step that changed OUR lives, but it was also a first step that changed a young girl’s life—Juditte. Our parents signed up to sponsor Juditte’s education and began praying for her every day. In 2020, Juditte had just fled to Kenya from Congo as a refugee after her father had been killed by the rebels. Juditte’s mother was caring for five young children on her own, in a new country, grieving the loss of her husband and family and friends she left. But at least she could rest in the knowledge that Juditte could go to school and gain the education that would pave a path out of poverty.

Her family lived in a small one-room place which eventually flooded. “Uncle JC”, one of our staff here, heard about it and rallied the community to not only help them move out of that shack, but everyone pitched in the little they had to help her rent a two-room apartment in a safe building. Here, the rent is $75 a month and to pay for that, plus food for her children, Judittte’s mother now sells fabric for wraps and clothing. Unfortunately, she will often have to travel hours and hours away to sell her wares, always trying to find a market that is not already saturated with hundreds of vendors on the streets. This takes her away from her children for weeks at a time, until she can sell everything and make enough to start all over the next month.

But she never has to worry about Juditte’s education because our parents have faithfully covered that for her. They have also faithfully covered her in prayer, so much that her mother’s faith in God could never waiver. God provided for her when their home flooded—an even better home. When rent was hard to cover, friends paid for it. When there was just rice for dinner, God sent the AGHF team with a bag of food and candy for the kids. Even before this trip to Kenya, our parents gave us a gift to give to Juditte, in case we saw her. There are 133 AGHF girls in Kenya. We were only going to visit two of their homes. And Juditte’s was one of them (without our trip planners even knowing this!) So God continued to speak to her mother, “It’s ok. I see you. And you’re going to make it.”

Tears.

DAY 4 in AFRICA

We handed out the girls’ book bags, uniform shoes, school supplies, and feminine products for the next school term, plus got to hear stories from the mothers and grandmothers of these girls! Most of them are widows, all of them refugees.

Things the Africans love—

1.) PICTURES—lots and lots of pictures. We’ve got selfies, we’ve got a photographer who takes the pictures for the AGHF website, we’ve got the pictures of us taking pictures with someone else. Exactly like American teenage girls. Since that is the world we live in with our three girls, taking 38495829,000 pictures is normal.

2.) COLORFUL CLOTHING—these mamas and grandmamas came READY TO SLAY with their most beautiful wraps and clothing and headdresses even though we are on the equator of the earth and Tim and I sweat if the sun even looks our way, these women were NOT taking off their colorful shawls. Best dressed goes to African Mamas.

3.) AWARDS—everyone gets an award! An award for being the best Goodwin Investment Advisory in Kenya! An award for sponsoring the girls! An award for coming to the celebration! The girls get awards for hard work in school! If you ever feel unaccomplished in the work that you do, just come to Kenya and they will make you feel like Oprah Winfrey.

4.) DREAMING BIG—these girls have every excuse to not excel in school or learn English or try to make it to university. AND YET they dream big dreams. They want to be doctors, work in technology, become evangelists, teach other refugees, and make life better for all the other girls who don’t have this opportunity. If you ever think your dream job is out of reach, just save the video of Clementine and watch it over and over until you are ready to get out in the world and kick some butt and do something big with your life.

5.) also GOOD Ethiopian coffee—now I wonder if I can ever have regular coffee again.

DAY 5 & 6 in AFRICA

Sunday was church - the real African kind!

The singing! The dancing! The Hours and Hours! The preaching by all sorts of preachers! (And the heat. ) A fun place to eat and vision casting with the AGHF team!

-SAFARI!!

Not only did we visit Nairobi National Park which was 28,000 acres of wild animals and a verrrry bumpy 4 wheel drive across the beautiful bush, but we saw REAL LIFE HIPPOS, RHINOS, OSTRICHES, BABOONS, GIRAFFES, ANTELOPES AND OTHER DEER ANIMALS WITH HORNS, ZEBRAS, A SERVAL (LIKE A SMALL LEOPARD), BABY ELEPHANTS IN AN ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE AND FINALLY A REAL LIVE LIONESS THAT WALKED ACROSS THE ROAD IN FRONT OF US! The phrase, “I CANNOT BELIEVE WE SAW THAT!” Was uttered in our vehicle a million times today. It. Was. Dreamy.

We took the safari with two of the staff in Africa, one of whom is named “Uncle” JC. We all say it is short for Jesus Christ because he is one of the closest people to the actual Jesus I have ever met. All of our AGHF girls call him their uncle, an especially endearing term since most of their fathers and uncles were killed in the Congolese War. He is also a refugee and he is the actual best. When we saw the lion trotting across the savannah towards our cars, I thought, “Well, this is the time Uncle JC is going to fight a lion,” and that is because Uncle JC used to be a real life Cowboy before he was a coordinator for AGHF.

Back in the Congo, before the war, JC was a For Real Cowboy, herding cattle that belonged to his family and community. He would be gone for days and days at a time, looking after the cattle while they grazed all over the Congo. Sleeping on the ground, eating a thing called fufu, and walking 47 hundred miles since there are no horse in the Congo. In my mind, I assumed there were lions everywhere in that jungle and that Uncle JC probably had to fight hundreds of them to protect his cattle. The most un-assuming, skinny, kind-faced man who visits the homes of the widows and cares for the orphans, and who was also a cowboy and fought lions.

So while I was prepared to video Uncle JC jump out of our vehicle with a Massai Warrior Stick, ready to kill a lion before our very eyes, he informed us that this was the first time he’d ever seen a lion. And in fact, the only thing he had to fight to protect his cattle was the rebel soldiers who not only wanted to kill his cattle, but also the people in his village. Today I learned that this sweet and wonderful and selfless man who is the Uncle to 232 girls, both in Kenya, as well as the girls still in his war-torn home village in Congo, this man fought actual rebel soldiers to keep his people and cows safe. So basically, also like Jesus when he got sick of the money changers and whipped them out of the temple.

Today, we experienced the true strength of Africa. The animals that are unlike any other on Earth, but also the resiliency of the human spirit—the capacity to endure the hardest circumstances, fighting for your family, fleeing for your life, making your way to a new country, and within all that, his heart remained so so good. Full of Jesus and full of generosity for these women and children who are grateful to have a kind Uncle who would be willing to fight a lion for them if he had to. So today, Uncle JC—YOU are the true Nguvu ya Simba--the strength of the lion.

DAY 7 in AFRICA

Visited Day Star University and Bridge College

to discuss partnerships between our high school and graduated girls and furthering their education. BONUS CONTENT! Bridge College has an unbelievable technology certification that will revolutionize the way these girls have access to jobs and even more education! FUN FACT! Grace, the founder, who went on to graduate high school, then university, finally earning her Doctorate in Human and Social Services with an emphasis in Global Human Services and Behavioral Sciences (I mean), did not even touch a computer or learn English until she graduated from high school. SO giving these high school girls in our program a boost in technology? Further faster.

DAY 8 in AFRICA

Final Day in Africa!

Meeting with the local staff to discuss how to get BETTER before BIGGER!

Exciting! So many things to understand better now! Such a gift to be able to come and see and hear firsthand what it’s like!

Things that rocked my brain:

1.) We are supporting 97 girls who are still in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country and even the village where Grace, her family, and the majority of the AGHF refugee girls in Kenya are from. It is a wildly war-torn and isolated region. No well for the village to use, no electricity, a generator that works to charge the few phones they have, but only when gasoline is available. So remote, that when one of the men came over to Kenya, he remarked on the tall buildings that he saw in Nairobi and said, “Where did they stand to build this?” As in, the only way to build anything taller than you can reach is to stand on a stool or a log or a rock. So what stool is 30 feet high?!?! When a few phones were supplied to this remote region, one would think they were excited about getting in touch with their family who have left the village, but they said they were most excited about the flashlight on the phone so they could check on their cattle at night. Ideology is the most difficult hurdle to overcome when it comes to education—it is a common practice to marry off your 13 or 14 year old girl. A marriageable girl means more cattle. To try and inspire these families to allow their girls to go to school and graduate before they get married is to rewrite hundreds of years of tradition. SO—that educational system BETTERMENT is a long and slow process that is dependent on the safety of the region. Every time the fighting comes back to their village, the clock starts over for them. We have to wait to deliver supplies or build a school or send a team of AGHF graduate girls back to inspire their sisters still there. First prayer: peace in Congo.

2.) I had seen dirt floor houses before—mission trips in Mexico and Brazil and Bulgaria. But the next poverty level in my mind was a mobile home with holes in the floor, which I have also visited in America. What rocked my brain is that there is still a huuugggeee margin of poverty that exists between a dirt floor and a crappy trailer. We visited some of these homes. Small, one or two room concrete apartments. Some with wooden doors, some with curtain doors. None with running water. Electricity was hit or miss, depending on the weather, time of day, how many wires were dangling in front of the building, and if the wind had just blown. To imagine that our AGHF girls come home to live in these apartments after having visited their beautiful boarding schools they live at during the school year—schools with three meals a day, a safe campus, cozy beds in their dormitory, the time to study, friends to laugh with—to see that dichotomy hurt my heart. We realized these girls needed the peace of mind that their families were safe and fed back home while they were away at school. Next prayer: take care of those widows.

3.) Resiliency of the refugees. When we were traveling home, we saw so many refugee families at the airport, waiting for their flight to a new country with a new language, apart from the rest of their friends and family they left behind in their war-torn countries. Many of them will never see the homes they left again. And yet, these people are determined to make a better life for themselves and their families. They enroll in English classes, find new jobs and skills, and live in poverty so their kids can go to school, but they still have hope for a better future. So, refugees, I raise my glass to you! Cheers to one of the strongest in spirit population I’ve ever met. This prayer: for the refugees

A Mission of Hope: Visiting Our Girls in Africa