Ndoto: For Africa’s Future is a wholistic, Christ-centered community development organization that works in the Obunga slum in Kisumu, Kenya. We were founded in 2009 to imitate Jesus as he, in the words of Isaiah 61, has come “to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion – to give them beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, raise up the former devastations; and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.”
Our Vision
Our vision is to see forgotten slum communities transformed from the inside out. Our mission is to educate, disciple, and develop at-risk families to make their dreams a reality, glorify God, and use their gifts to transform their community. We provide sponsorship-based education to students of all ages in Kenya between preschool and undergraduate university. We mentor and disciple community members through the Ndoto Community Church. We start businesses to create jobs, meet community needs, and generate ministry income.
Financial Statements
We here at Ndoto are committed to transparency. We keep almost nothing about our operations or philosophy secret and will answer your questions. Here you can see our legal and financial reports as well as our informational Annual Reports that we send to our supporters.
Resources
- When Helping Hurts, by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett. If you only read one book, read this one. The authors question the strategies we typically use for the poor and propose new ways to serve them.
- Mistaking Africa, by Curtis Keim. This is an African studies book, more academic, that is extremely insightful about how the Western world has historically, and continues, to misunderstand the continent of Africa.
- Poor Economics, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. This book helped the authors win Nobel Prizes in Economics. They brilliantly look at how the global poor think about money and rethink how we can help lift them out of poverty.
- African Friends and Money Matters, by David Maranz. This is a very accessible book that breaks down the unique and unexpected ways that African people tend to think about community and finances.
- Understanding Folk Religion, by Paul Hiebert and Robert Daniel Shaw. This is an academic book that reshaped the entire paradigm of understanding both Christianity and how people in the majority world view religion and spirituality.
- Cross-Cultural Servanthood, by Duane Elmer. This is a very accessible book for Christians to think about how they serve outside of their home culture.
- Overrated, by Eugene Cho. This thoughtful book by an American Christian leader asks the question, “Are we more in love with the idea of changing the world than actually changing the world?” It’s an easy but hard-hitting read.
- God of the Empty Handed, by Jayakumar Christian. This was a groundbreaking study in 1999 of what poverty means today and how we need to redefine power from the perspective of the Kingdom of God.
- Ministering Cross-Culturally, by Marvin Keene Mayers and Sherwood Lingenfelter. This is a quick read that has been a standard for international missionaries for decades.
- Walking With The Poor, by Bryant Myers. If you read and like When Helping Hurts, this is the book that it draws its academic inspiration from. Myers is a foundational leader in the Christian development world and his concepts underpin much of Ndoto’s work.
- Live58: The Film. Live58 is a Christian ministry helping to mobilize, empower, and engage people to serve communities in need. This movie is a feature-length film on the theme of Isaiah 58, with stories from 8 countries around the world.
- The Line: Poverty In America. This is an impactful 30-minute documentary on what deep poverty looks like in the USA.
