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Steve Peifer and his wife, Nancy, went to Kenya with a mission group nine years after their first child died in infancy. They hoped in their hearts that the experience would somehow reveal some path that could help heal their grief.
That path changed their entire lives, and today it’s changing the lives of 11,000 children.
One day while visiting a local school, Steve noticed that the children were all lying on the dirt floor. When he asked the teacher why the children were lying down, she said, “Today is Thursday. Most of them have not eaten since Monday. If they sit up straight, they will faint.”
Steve knew at that moment that he couldn’t go back to his old life. He had to find a way to feed these kids. And he set out to do much more than that — in his words, to “break the back of poverty in Kenya in 15 years.”
One little boy came up to me and in a very small voice, said ‘I never gave up hope.’ … Part of me would like to go home, but that little boy’s voice keeps coming back to me. – Steve Peifer
Sound impossible? What the Peifers have accomplished since that moment will make you think again. The Peifers moved to Kenya just before Christmas 1999. By 2007 they were feeding 11,000 kids in 27 schools in Kenya — in a socio-political environment that makes it dangerous just to drive to pick up the food. They’ve slashed the school dropout rate in half, and their story and achievements earned them a CNN Heroes nomination last year.
The Peifers are now working to increase the number of kids they feed to 25,000 — and to build theft-proof, weatherproof solar-powered school computer labs in some of the most isolated areas of Kenya. For a shot at a life without poverty, their Kenya kids need first-world skills.
Read Steve Peifer's blog and learn how you can help support his program.
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