When people ask me how I got started in Kenya, my answer is always, "Peer pressure." It's true. I had no desire to ever set foot in any country in Africa, because I really don't like heat, dust, or bugs. However, I had friends who kept pestering me to go, and after a few experiences that indicated it was the right direction for me, I relented and booked the trip.

I write about it in my memoir, My Maasai Name is Nemparnat.

I really had no intention of going more than once, but on my second day in Kenya, I had an experience that let me know that I could really help, and had maybe been prepared for it my entire life.

That was in March 2015, and when I returned to the U.S. I started thinking about what skills I had that could make life better for the families that we visited. I had taken a square foot gardening class, so that's where I started. First, I went back for a scouting trip to see what was possible. Then, I asked people if they wanted to go with me to help. 100 Humanitarians International was born.

The first few expeditions were all about figuring out what would work or not work. We eventually built garden boxes, but abandoned the concept when we figured out we were cutting down trees in a land where deforestation is an issue, and termites really loved those boxes.

In 2018, one of our Community Directors sent me a picture of a Garden Tower, and asked if we could try them instead. So, we did. We built them with around 30 families, and they were simple, scalable, and sustainable.

In 2019, we took the Garden Tower to The USANA Foundation and showed them the system we had created to help families learn to grow their own food. After a pilot program, we had the stats.

The Garden Towers would feed a family of five 3 to 5 meals a week of fresh vegetables.

After that, we went all in and it became our core program, funded by The USANA Foundation, and our annual events.

Today, we focus on four pillars:

Sustainable Food

Clean Water

Education

Health

We have developed programs and tools for each pillar, and depending on the time of year and the skills of a particular expedition team, we implement them.

Our team runs expeditions to Kenya 6 times each year, moving our mission a little bit further. In between, we have teams led by Community Directors who help us keep projects going.

We are 100% funded by public and corporate contributions.