In the summer of 2009, after graduating from the University of Georgia, Amy Washington traveled to Africa for the first time. She volunteered at a children’s and baby’s home in Uganda for the summer. While volunteering that summer, Amy began to sense God’s call to do more for the needs of the people she saw in Uganda.
In the fall of 2010, Amy began to strongly feel God’s call to help the expectant teenage mothers with crisis pregnancies. Because of her previous work with orphaned babies and children, Amy knew first hand the great need that these mothers and babies have for food, protection, guidance, and most of all Jesus Christ.
There are many expectant teenage girls in Uganda desperate for help. For many mothers and women in Uganda, childbirth often means death. Amy saw many malnourished & dying babies during her time in Uganda and heard over and over again, “the mother died during childbirth.” This began to wear on Amy’s heart, as it broke her heart each time for the lives of women who never lived to meet and raise their precious children.
Amy then knew that God was calling her to love, help, and minister to expectant mothers and their babies.
In the summer of 2011, Amy founded Kupendwa Ministries, a non-profit organization. Kupendwa Ministries exists to share Jesus Christ and His love with mothers and babies in need, but also with each and every person God brings through the doors of this ministry.
Since beginning Kupendwa in 2011, Kupendwa has been blessed to support so many Ugandans with full-time and part-time jobs. By hiring and employing Ugandans, we enable them to be the hands and feet of this ministry as they minister to, support, and help their own people, neighbors, families, and friends.
The word “Kupendwa” means “to be loved” in Swahili. We want to be a ministry that people can come to and find that they will be loved. Loved by Jesus and loved through us, His servants. We want our home to be a place where the love of Jesus is known first and foremost.
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples – if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35