Our Founders | Candice + Narendra De

In 2009, Candice visited Zambia for the first time. On that trip, she built footbridges to connect rural villages with hospitals, schools and grocery stores—and she also established deep personal connections with local community leaders who became lifelong friends. When we started dating in 2011, she often reminisced about this trip, how much she loved the Zambian culture and how she’d like to go back to help the people she met.

Fast forward to 2016, when we were planning our wedding. It quickly became clear that we didn’t want or need gifts, so we raised $3000 in donations from family and friends and spent our honeymoon building a goat farm in Zambia’s Gwembe Valley. On that trip, we hired Chileshe, Day by De’s current project manager, to help us visit different villages and connect with the community. Having him by our side clarified one important fact: if we really wanted to make a lasting impact, we would need local Zambians involved to ensure the project’s success.

Later that year, we officially filled out the 501(c)(3) paperwork to found a non-profit. To be clear, neither of us really knew what we were doing—in fact, we filled out the application wrong the first time! Yet somewhere between Candice’s 15+ years of volunteer service and our infrastructure-oriented careers as a civil engineer and hydrogeologist, we were able to slowly create a plan for rural farming projects that could sustainably aid impoverished Zambians.

Today, we are lucky to have a small board of other passionate, U.S.-based professionals who lend their talents and service to our mission. None of these board members take a salary, allowing us to funnel all donations towards paying our Zambia-based team and establishing new farm projects (with only a few overhead costs—like running this website!). 

We appreciate your taking a moment to get to know these wonderful individuals, as well as the sponsoring organizations who support our ongoing work.