About Us
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to heal, rescue, and lift our brothers and sisters in Africa.
OUR VISION
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.
OUR HISTORY
“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
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 sustainableinitiatives—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 that 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 that 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.
WHO WE SERVE
We bring into the lives of the most vulnerable the crucial self-reliance building blocks of health, literacy, clean water, schools, and access to financial resources. Our goal is to teach and train individuals most vulnerable to extreme poverty to become self-reliant so they can move themselves and their families out of poverty.
WHERE WE OPERATE
ENA funds projects in five Sub-Saharan African countries to address extreme poverty and help individuals and families become self-reliant.
Ghana Office: 23 full-time employees and 20 part-time facilitators and consultants.
Ethiopia Office: 10 full-time employees.
Sierra Leone Office: 11 full-time employees.
Namibia Office: 2 full-time employees