outcomes.
Every program GDP runs is built to solve a specific problem — and to prove it’s working. These are not charity drives. These are long-term investments in human dignity, designed to outlast us.
Your gift in action
Our programs
East Africa’s first trauma-informed, self-sustaining campus for girls fleeing gender-based violence, forced marriage, and trafficking. Opened March 2025 on a 5-acre compound in Nyahururu — classrooms, dormitories, clinic, farm, and water systems all on site.
Three partner children’s homes and a specialized therapy center for children with special needs — providing safe housing, food, clothing, healthcare, education, and trained caregiving to Kenya’s most vulnerable children every single day.
Drilling wells, installing solar-powered pumps, and maintaining water infrastructure in drought-affected and underserved regions across Kenya — giving thousands reliable, safe daily access to clean water so children can go to school instead of to the well.
Trauma recovery, financial literacy, entrepreneurship training, career development conferences, and 24/7 crisis support for survivors of gender-based violence — plus a 100,000 sq ft multi-complex center under construction in Nairobi.
The Evelyn S. Weatherspoon Scholarship Fund supports Kenyan students from GDP’s children’s homes and Nairobi’s Mathare community into secondary school, vocational training, and university — breaking generational cycles of poverty one student at a time.
12 leadership centers across Kenya, week-long youth summits, mentorship programs, and a growing pipeline of next-generation Kenyan community leaders — serving a continent where more than 60% of the population is under 25 years old.
Responding to East Africa’s most urgent crises — emergency relief for widows, families in Nairobi’s informal settlements, and rapid disaster response when communities need it most. GDP has been answering this call for 35 years.
Multipurpose centers hosting clinics, vocational training, social services, and small-business incubation — helping communities develop self-sustaining livelihoods. Two new centers planned for Bamba and Eldoret.
Geographic reach
GDP operates active programs in 6+ regions — each site representing years of community relationships and long-term investment.
– A growing international presence
Organizational headquarters
Global Development Project
gdpkenya.org · Est. 1991 · 501(c)(3) verified
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🇺🇸Jacksonville, Florida, USA U.S. Headquarters · 2816 Fort Wilderness Trl, Jacksonville FL 32277US HQ
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🇰🇪Nairobi, Kenya International Headquarters · Operational leadership & program managementIntl. HQ
Global Hearts Without Borders Network
Sister organization · East Africa & growing
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🇺🇸Jacksonville, Florida, USA U.S. Headquarters · Shared base with Global Development ProjectUS HQ
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🇰🇪Nairobi, Kenya International Headquarters · Regional coordination across East AfricaIntl. HQ
Kenya
Global Development Project — Primary region · 10 active sites
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Nairobi Children’s homes, women’s empowerment center, scholarships, humanitarian response & widow feeding program 4 active programs
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Mombasa Women’s empowerment center, multiplex center with dormitories & community outreach
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Eldoret Community resource center & youth leadership 2 programs
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Nyahururu St. Rita Evergreen Girls School — East Africa’s first trauma-informed, self-sustaining campus for girls fleeing gender-based violence, forced marriage, and trafficking. 40+ girls in residence. 2,000+ on the waiting list. Girls’ Home
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Samburu Girls’ Home providing safe housing, education, and care for vulnerable girls in the Samburu region. Girls’ Home
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Thika Community outreach & resource center
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Kilifi Community outreach & resource center
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Bamba New community and resource center — currently in development ($254K project pipeline)
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Kajiado Youth leadership, community empowerment, educational empowerment center & school, and widow feeding program
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Musoli Community development, family support, women’s empowerment center, and new youth leadership program & retreat
Uganda
Global Hearts Without Borders Network
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Entebbe Active program site serving communities in and around Entebbe — a critical expansion of the GDP network into Uganda, operated through Global Hearts Without Borders Network. GHBN Program
South Sudan
Global Hearts Without Borders Network
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Juba Humanitarian outreach and community development in South Sudan’s capital — one of the most underserved regions in East Africa, and the frontier of what our network is becoming. GHBN Program
United States
GDP & GHBN — Shared U.S. base of operations
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Jacksonville, Florida U.S. Headquarters for both Global Development Project and Global Hearts Without Borders Network. Donor relations, fundraising, board operations & strategic partnerships — the engine behind everything happening on the ground in East Africa. Dual HQ
Stories of impact
Every statistic on this page represents a real person with a real name. Here are three of them.
Before GDP drilled the well, women and girls walked four miles each way for water that made their children sick. School attendance dropped. Children got ill. Today, 340 families have safe water at their doorstep — and girls go to school instead of to the well.
A young mother arrived at St. Rita Evergreen Girls School in 2025 with her infant, fleeing gender-based violence. Today, both she and her child receive trauma-informed care, education, and housing. Over 2,000 girls are still waiting for a spot like hers.
Read the full story →
Mercy grew up in one of Nairobi’s most challenging communities. The Evelyn S. Weatherspoon Scholarship Fund gave her the chance no one else offered. She is now in medical training — and planning to come back to serve Kenya’s underserved communities.
Read the full story →
“There are communities in this world that stopped hoping a long time ago. Not because they gave up — but because giving up was the only rational response to being forgotten. We exist for those people. GDP and Global Hearts Without Borders Network go into the hard places, the uncomfortable places, the places that don’t show up on anyone’s radar — and we stay. We plant roots. We build real things alongside real people who deserve more than a visit. ‘I didn’t think anyone was coming,’ one community member told us quietly. ‘And then you stayed.’ That’s not a program outcome. That’s a promise kept — and your generosity is what makes us keep it.”
“The hard places don’t make the news. The forgotten villages, the overlooked communities, the families that stopped expecting anyone to come — they exist in the quiet spaces where most organizations never go. We go anyway. GDP and Global Hearts Without Borders Network were never built for convenience. We were built for the corners of the world that need someone to show up and stay — not for a season, but for as long as it takes. Because hope isn’t a handout. It’s built, slowly, stubbornly, in the places everyone else passed by. Because of you, we don’t pass by.”
How we earn your trust
Transparency is not a policy at GDP — it is a practice built into every project from day one.
GDP publishes annual financial reports openly on this website. We hold the Candid Platinum Seal — top 1% of all US nonprofits for financial transparency. We also undergo voluntary third-party audits every year.
GDP tracks educational outcomes, health indicators, community participation, and long-term impact for every active program. Monthly project reports go to our Board and to donors who request them. You’ll always know what your gift funded.
Request a project report →
Every GDP project includes vocational training, income-generating activities, and local partnerships — so communities maintain services after our initial investment. We build to last, not to be needed forever. That’s the measure of true impact.
Learn about our approach →