About
Kenny’s story
Our community’s interest in providing clean water and health care for war-torn areas of Uganda began with one boy, Kenneth Mwanje. In 2004, Physician Assistant Nadine Hart brought Kenny to Billings, Montana, for medical care at St. Vincent Healthcare. He suffered from sickle cell disease, which had deteriorated his hips, making every step painful. His life was wracked by pain, hospital visits, poverty, abuse and neglect, robbing him of a steady education and leaving him as an outcast.
Kenny received long-term treatment from a team of medical professionals at St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings. Illiterate, he was educated and helped by many people in the Billings community and completed a Masters in Information Technology from Denver University.
Hope 2 One Life was formed by those in our community who have been touched by Kenny’s story.
“One day while on a hospital bed hopeless, my older brother Ronnie came to me with an angel named Nadine Hart, who happened to be on a medical mission trip to Uganda. It was from then that she took me up as a son. Like a ray of hope, in 2004, she coordinated my successful total hip replacements, education and more…”
-Kenneth Mwanje
Our guiding principles
Philosophy of Ministry
Compassion for the people we serve, our faith, and our mission drives us to empower widows, orphans, and families in Uganda. Our goal is community restoration from war and poverty, self-independence, and sustainability while valuing each life with dignity and all persons as children of God.
Mission
We are a faith-based, non-profit organization that provides hope, clean water, health care and educational resources for impoverished people.
Values
Each life is valued. All persons are respected as human beings. Non-discriminatory care and resources are available to impoverished persons, regardless of their sex, religion, tribe or color.
Vision
Through personal contact and professional connection, Hope 2 One Life supports water and sanitation projects, medical clinics, healthcare and education for people in need.
Goals
Women and family empowerment toward self-independence and a sustainable future. Christ-centered community development.
Our partner on the ground
In partnership with Ugandan friends we have known since 2006, Hope 2 One Life helped found the Ugandan nonprofit, Agape Community Foundation for Development (ACFD), which supports and maintains the Agape Training Center and Farm, near Gulu. ACFD was established to improve, teach, empower, develop and sustain war-torn communities in the Acholi sub-region of Northern Uganda.
Hope 2 One Life has helped sponsor 2 founding members of ACFD, Denis Odong and Bosco Tolit. Together, these amazing men have provided instrumental leadership in mentoring village community groups. Success is being achieved, lives are improving, there is Hope and Faith!
Read More about the Agape Community Foundation for Development
Boots on the Ground
We have had the pleasure to work with members of the Agape Community Foundation for Development since the beginning of Hope 2 One Life. This amazing team is responsible for much of the execution of our partner projects and reports on progress.
The Agape Training Center and Demonstration Farm is situated on five acres in Awere-Omoro district and provides onsite training and demonstration farming.
Terence Acaye, Director of ACFD and Agape Training Center and Farm Director
We are blessed to know and work with Terence since 2006 when visiting and partnering with the Kitgum Infant Orphan Care Center in Northern Uganda. As the founder of KIOCC, he was instrumental in rescuing, caring for, and saving many infants and children orphaned through the atrocities of the LRA war. Later, he became the financial accountant for the Emmanuel Clinic – one of our first programs. Terence suffered polio as a child, yet he persevered and was educated as a nutritionist. He has worked for several agencies, including UNICEF, GOAL and USAID. His dedication and heart to serve and love others are what helps make ACFD a success. His vision to help his people with post-war recovery is tireless and insurmountable. This led him to offer the transition of his KIOCC organization to CFD and include our partner villages wno he was leading in Village Health Teams and Farming God’s way trainings. This led to ACFD with the land acquisition in his village. He is gifted in developing community unity groups, training village health teams and overseeing all ACFD activities. Terence and his wife, Grace, have 7 children (one has sickle cell disease) and they continue to assist numerous other children.
Denis Odong, Founding Member/Director ACFD Secretary and Village Outreach Coordinator
We met Denis as a young teenager, shortly after he and his mother fled the LRA war. Since 2008, he had a particular interest in helping assess and develop water projects with our hydrologist, Tom. He was sponsored as a student by Hope 2 One Life board members through secondary school and university, he graduated in Development Studies. Denis is incredibly adept in learning new concepts and adapting new ideas for sustainability in farming and animal husbandry, as well as business. He is trained in farming God’s way and mentors all of our partner villages for many years. He is in the Farming God’s Way in field mentor program. He helped implement and oversee the fisheries project, as well as all water projects and water quality testing. Denis leads and mentors micro business development. He has been instrumental in the COVID health and food relief initiatives and all projects alongside Terence. Denis and his wife, Sarah, have 3 young children.
Bosco Tolit, Founding member/director ACFD Treasurer
Bosco has also been mentored by Hope 2 One Life since 2008 and supported in his education. He is trained in Farming God’s Way, Village Health Training, Micro Business. He volunteers and assists the village mentorship, ACFD activities, mission teams and trainings. Bosco and his wife have 2 children.
Our History
In 2003, Nadine Hart, a physician assistant from Billings, Montana made a health care pilgrimage to Uganda and found a people without shelter, clean water or access to health care, struggling in unimaginable poverty to overcome the aftermath of illness and war.
“In Uganda, I learned a lot about faith, strength and perseverance, and heartache as well,” Hart said humbly.
Their cry, “Look around you at the sick children… we are all suffering. Just remember, we are human beings too…” – Awal Internally displaced persons Camp 2007
“It was hard to leave and I could never forget or stop praying for the people I met.”
She returned home to Montana and over the next several years began mobilizing a diverse, dedicated team willing to share their gifts, love, and talents with the people of Uganda. We are nurses, hydrologists, teachers, pastors, doctors, PA’s, engineers, agronomists, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, managers, associates, students and volunteers from all walks of life with the common desire to help people in need. In 2006, Nadine and Dr. Marty Lucas led a team from their church to Uganda and realized that the medical care for that short time was not enough. People were very sick, drinking muddy water from a pond, praying for tin pots to boil the disease-ridden water.
Together, we work to deliver the needed aid and support to the people of Northern Uganda so that they can restore their culture and livelihood. Together, we share faith, love, and peace. Together, we deliver the gift of hope.
Hope where it’s needed most
Much of the devastation in Uganda stems from the legacy of a long running war between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). For over 20 years, the LRA has terrorized the people of Northern Uganda. A Christian extremist and terrorist organization which operated in northern Uganda, the LRA engaged in an armed rebellion in one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts. The group has been accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, child-sex slavery, and recruitment of child soldiers.
In 1996, the Ugandan government began relocating the people of northern Uganda to government-run camps to protect them from the LRA. It is estimated that 1.8 million Ugandans were displaced during the war. The camps were plagued by disease, poverty and violence. An entire generation of Acholi people were born and raised in the squalor of these camps, resulting in the total destruction of their culture.
As safer conditions prevailed in the mid 2000s, displaced Ugandans began returning to their ancestral villages and the process of rebuilding their lives. The effects of the war are still prevalent today. Many suffer from a lack of clean drinking water, healthcare, hygiene and income. Hope 2 One Life brings hope, training and resources to Ugandans on their arduous road to recovery.
Board Members
Chairman and President
Elizabeth “Liz” Dutton
Field Office Coordinator, DPR Construction – Milbrae, CA
Treasurer
Verna Cunningham
Retired School Registrar – Berthoud, CO
Secretary
Susan Hart
Director Regulatory and Quality Affairs at Hemex Health, Inc. – Portland, OR
Founder and Vice President
Nadine Hart
Retired Physician Assistant- Billings MT
Vice President
Tom Osborne
Professional Hydrologist, HydroSolutions, Inc. – Billings, MT
Vice President
Stephanie Bond
Montana Region Practice Administrator, Intermountain Health – Billings, MT
Vice President
Baylie McDade
Freelance Copywriter & Montana State University Billings Graduate – Escanaba, MI
Vice President
Kristi Conroy
First Interstate Bank – Billings, MT
Financial Accountability
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supported by donors, we are committed to financial accountability. We maintain the highest levels of integrity and transparency in our financial practices. Our financial records are reviewed annually by an independent accounting firm and oversight is provided by our Board of Directors.