“On behalf of the men and women whose faces you will never see but whose lives are better today, whose families are safer, and who have access to clean water, education, self-support assistance, and healthcare services because of your generosity, we thank you for your vital and continued support. You are our heroes!”
–Lynette Gay, ENA Chairwoman

ENA’s mission is to heal, rescue, and lift our brothers and sisters in Africa. Our purpose is to provide resources and training to vulnerable populations, enabling them to become self-reliant and substantially improve their lives. We accomplish our mission by developing greater capacity in the individuals and communities we serve. We focus on the fundamental building blocks that lead to individual self-reliance, including clean water, sanitation, health, education, micro-credit, and other income-generating activities that strengthen families and build communities.

In the year 2000, Bob and Lynette Gay took their family to Kenya on a journey that would forever change their lives. Designed as a humanitarian trip to help others in need, they discovered a trip that blessed their children. They found young and old—burdened with poverty, disease, deprivation, and almost insurmountable challenges. Bob and Lynette knew then they had to do something to help those forgotten individuals—and they went to work. After careful analysis and planning, they organized a medical expedition to Ethiopia’s Rift Valley. Teaching stations were established, and Lynette, along with 30 other volunteers, went to work with Ethiopian doctors, training 21 local health workers on medical practices that would significantly improve the health of the rural population: boiling water, hygiene and sanitation, oral rehydration following diarrhea and de-worming. To their astonishment, the team treated over 2,000 patients that week. The trip was an exhausting, exhilarating, challenging, and beautiful experience. It set the stage for more trips.

Year-by-year, step-by-step, this effort, which today is now known as Engage Now Africa (ENA), grew in capacity and scope. We learned to address local challenges with long-term sustainable initiatives—developed, implemented, and maintained by local communities. We are grateful to all the inspiring people who helped create the foundation upon which ENA stands. We honor all those who genuinely gave to be a part of this miracle—volunteers who endured heat, sickness, and sleepless nights, our corporate partners who have contributed equipment and medicines, our generous donors who sustain our programs, our outstanding, talented, hardworking staff on the ground, and so many others, too many to mention. In the end, it is the African people we love to serve.

Today, our early years’ medical excursions have been replaced with the construction of rural health posts, modern medical clinics, and pharmacies, making health care accessible to those truly in need. We have built 69 schools with a capacity to teach over 1,453 million young students every day. We have over 11,000 adults learning to read and write English in our nationally-recognized adult literacy program. We provide opportunities for scholarships and vocational training. ENA also provides business training, mentoring, and financial resources to entrepreneurs to help start and grow small to medium-sized businesses.

Our theory of change is based on a multi-faceted approach. We design projects and programs focused on addressing the needs of individuals and families vulnerable to poverty, aiming to empower recipients to become self-reliant.  We mobilize local assets in collaboration with global partners, government ministers, and tribal leaders to align projects with community needs.

We invest in our employees’ leadership capabilities to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver impactful interventions to recipients. We are highly committed to program efficiency, transparency, and accountability, as manifested by a below-average program/administrative cost ratio.