One Village Group was started because we saw a huge need in the mission field:
Missionary after missionary and ministry after ministry needed help figuring out how to adjust to the online world. And they were being pulled away from their main task: sharing more Jesus with more people.
A naive start with The Upendo Academy
In 2021 we started working with a school in Kenya to raise funds for some new buildings. We thought fundraising would be easy... 😂
The Upendo Academy wanted to raise $27,000 to replace their outhouses with toilets, add a computer lab, and purchase playground equipment. Naively, we thought that this $27,000 would be a baby step on the way to raising even more funds for building a future girls' dormitory (some of the girls were getting attacked on the long commute to school).
We had great goals! ...But we didn't accomplish all of them.
And we made several mistakes along the way.
But we did help get some bathrooms built!
And we helped get a computer lab up and running!
We also helped Upendo purchase over 200 egg-laying chickens 🐔🐣
What we learned
While we had failed in many ways, we learned some important lessons, mainly: fundraising was hard, and it needed to be done differently.
Today's world of fundraising involves much more than getting online, creating a couple of social media posts, and waiting for people with money to show up.
Understanding the new tools available, surviving on social media & having access to technical specialists are all becoming foundational needs for many in today’s ministry world.
So we take what we learn at One Village Group and we make it available to Christian workers worldwide, so they can share their stories online and get the support they need to accomplish the mission.
Visit the One Village website here to learn more.
