MISSION STATEMENT

We are totally APOLITICAL - Our interest is not in government, but ONLY in helping needy children.

We exist to bring joy to the lives of children
by meeting their basic needs.

HOW DID THIS PROJECT GET STARTED?

Tom and Judy Duke, from Durango, were on a trip to Fiji in May of 2000, when they missed their plane. The next day, while checking out of their motel, they met Tecla Mugomba and her daughter Delsey, from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Delsey had come to America for a cornea transplant, after falling on a glass table and having her eye penetrated by a glass shard.

After a very moving conversation, Tecla gave the Dukes a brochure and invited them to come to Victoria Falls, which they did in May, 2001. After that, their friendship grew and deepened by e-mail and phone conversations. Wallace Mugomba, the son of Tecla and Phanuel, received a scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia. The Dukes invited Wallace to spend time with them in Durango, and they became close with him as well.

One day in 2002, during a phone conversation, Tecla mentioned that she had sold a ton of sugar and made $10 US. Judy suggested that Tecla send crafts, Judy would sell them, and return the money to Zimbabwe. After several years of doing this and helping Tecla’s family, including her niece and nephew orphaned by AIDS, Tecla decided as a Christian she should “pay if forward”. She decided to help the vulnerable and defenseless orphans of a shantytown called Chinotimba. So they started with about ten orphans and the number has grown to 35.

When Judy and her son Jim Duke visited Victoria Falls in February of 2007, they decided to add the starving children of the village school to their beneficiaries. Tecla had been borrowing fields and a friend’s ox. She then plowed the fields, planted maize, harvested it, had it ground, and delivered it to the school where children were fainting from hunger. Moms and teachers cook a huge vat at lunchtime to make a porridge. Tecla had been providing peanut butter, oil, and sugar to add more nutrition. For many children this is their only meal.

To feed 300 children for one month costs $300 US.