LYNNFIELD — Good Hope, Inc. has some big plans for 2023, locally and all the way in Kenya. Executive director of the non-profit Charles Rukwaro said an “exciting” year was ahead of them.
Good Hope is a non-profit organization based in Lynnfield that has programs ranging from clinics and food pantries to homeless care and prison work.
“Good Hope, Inc., exists to bring health and growth opportunities to individuals and families through the provision of food, medical care, education, clean drinking water, inmate and refugee support in communities locally and around the world,” said its website, goodhopeinc.org.
One of its initiatives is food distribution. In 2022, it served about 18,000 people from multiple towns in Eastern Massachusetts. In 2023, it will be expanding efforts to Boston.
“We are starting a feeding program in Boston. One of the guys who does feeding program homeless shelter support … spoke with a homeless place on Massachusetts Avenue — I don’t even know how he found it — and then they made a connection, and now we’re supplying hot meals to them,” Rukwaro said.
Good Hope feeds seniors, migrants, people who are in between jobs and people who simply can’t afford groceries, he said. On Thursday morning, Good Hope served around 250 families at its food pantry.
For 2023, Good Hope has teamed up with Olympic runner Eliud Kipchoge to bring water to Kenya through running.
“We have just launched at Kenya run 2023,” Rukwaro said. “The goal for that is for people from here to go and run in a Nairobi marathon with runner champions of the world.”
The money raised by runners will go toward building wells in schools across Kenya.
“[Kipchoge] has a foundation called Eliud Foundation … now we partnered, and the goal is we start by digging a well in his school, which I visited, and then after that we begin digging wells in schools in Kenya,” Rukwaro said.
The race is on April 9, and individuals need to raise $2,000 to run, plus pay for their own travel expenses. More information about the Kenya run can be found on the Good Hope website.
Also in Kenya, Good Hope is launching a feeding program in public schools, he said. Rukwaro will be traveling to Kenya in just a few weeks to work on all of the new initiatives in the country.
Some annual initiatives that Good Hope will continue in 2023 are its 5K and Thanksgiving events. This year’s 5K date has not been announced, but all money raised will go toward building wells in Africa.
“We run to benefit those less fortunate to have clean and drinkable water. Safe water is scarce. Every day in rural communities in Africa, statistics show that about 24% of the 1.37 billion people in Africa suffer with inaccessible clean and safe water for drinking, household use, and agriculture. And this has resulted in countless deaths and diseases, especially in children,” the website said.
Good Hope has hosted the race every year, except 2020.
When Rukwaro first started Good Hope back in 2017, he never imagined it would grow into what it has become. But he had little access to food when growing up in Africa and wanted to make a change for people there and here.
“I lived knowing the need for food. [Food] had always been at the back of my mind because we’ve never had more than enough,” Rukwaro said. “So when I came over here, and I started looking at how much resources we have here and how much supplies we have, there is no reason anyone should stay without food.”
