response tree icon4Seeds of Hope’s mission is to reverse the downward spiral of poverty by empowering community members with hope and holistic solutions.

  • TRAINING people to improve their communities through holistic community development.
  • EQUIPPING people with tools and practical skills to solve problems within their own communities.
  • TRANSFORMING impoverished communities by bringing knowledge that will free them from water-borne diseases and improve their health and quality-of-life
  • PARTNERING with churches, organizations, and individuals from around the world to bring lasting change.

Seeds of Hope’s International Director, Kirk Schauer, first visited Zambia in 2003 with a group of Vineyard pastors from California. On a balmy June day in 2003 he met a young boy in the streets of a slum in Ndola, Zambia. Kirk asked him where his family collects drinking water. The boy threw a rusty paint can attached to a rope into a nearby ditch (pictured below), and pulled the can with its murky contents back up. Kirk thought he intended to show him the water, but instead he began to drink it. Kirk was completely shocked—he had never seen anyone drink such filthy water. He was struck by how widespread the need for something as basic as safe water was, and how a practical response could help meet that need.

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