STORY OF START

It was at a camp in August 2018, that I had an experience with about 200 kids that I decided that I wanted to do more for the youth of Zimbabwe.

I was so moved on the final night when I began to speak to the youth at this camp. It was a church camp. We had spent 5 days at the Masiye camp. On the final evening before we left to go back home and I asked the question, "who wants to go home?" When I asked this question, I was pretty much stunned when absolutely no one in the room, including myself, wanted to return home. It was not the answer to the question that most touched me but the look of sadness that settled in the room. It was the reality of going back to life as usual, the hopelessness that the majority of these kids faced back home.
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Bruce J, Simeon, Lisa, Calum, Bruce

I was taken aback and the sadness began to settle in my heart. I began to ponder the reason they didn't want to go home and suddenly realized, they had a week filled with fun and people giving them hope. They actually had something to do for 5 days! Most of them were going back home to loneliness, abuse, poverty, and hopelessness. 

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The Wakanda's

I realized when I returned home that I wanted to do something to make a difference and that is when I was reminded of a dream I had written down over 5 years ago to help at risk kids!  Then the journey to launch this non-profit began.

Lisa Johnson
Executive Director

I met Ricardo when he was 14 years old!  He was so excited as we shared the vision of LDJ, This was actually the recording we were taking when were sharing the vision. He didn't even know we were recording. He said it was an answer to a prayer he had been praying. You can hear Ricardo getting emotional as he shared. It was quite an emotional moment for us both. I couldn't hold back the tears.