Who are we and what is our mission?
The Youth Outreach Foundation (YOF) is a group of passionate youth from the Church of St. Mary and St. John the Beloved, located in the city of Pickering, Ontario. It was implemented by youth for youth. Our goal is to have a positive, lasting impact on those we serve, specifically the youth in struggling areas overseas. Our organization was established in 2012 upon the return of a group of students who went on a missionary trip of a lifetime to Kenya. We witnessed and assisted the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of children in hospitals, a city prison, 2 orphanages, and families in 5 surrounding villages. Touched by the service in Kenya and feeling the need to meet and help more of our brothers and sisters abroad, we expanded our scope and travelled to South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Namibia three times, Uganda, and Zimbabwe and are presently planning to travel to Malawi for the first time. Out of the joy of giving back to our fellow youth and spreading a message of love and charity, the organization has flourished and has become more and more involved in international relief and missionary work.
Our motivation for these missions stems from the relationship we have built with Christ. We have seen the impact that our faith has had on our personal lives, and we want to be able to share this joy and love with others. Our small groups understand the importance of spending time and showing love to even one other youth member who is struggling to live out his young years due to familial responsibility and poverty that is essentially out of their hands.
We enter each and every mission with the sole goal of sharing love, joy and peace by only our actions and time. However, through multiple initiatives over the past 13 years since starting our organization, we have been able to raise over $100,000 overall for each and every country we have visited. Our organization has helped in the acquisition of numerous medical supplies in the Coptic Mission Hospital, as well as scholarship aid for Raha Kids, a local orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. We have been fortunate to assist in the construction and funding of a new school in an impoverished village on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. We were able to physically help in the construction, help and renovation of a gate, sign and new orphanage space for the Coptic Center, in Accra, Ghana and are pleased to know that as of 2017, this orphanage has been completed and opened its doors to children all over the city. In addition to fundraising for a well to be built in an All-Girls School and Convent in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, many more initiatives have been held through the grace of God and with the help of people just like you, all over the world.
How can YOU help?
YOF goes into every country with the goal of giving all that our hearts can, as the people and youth there fill our hearts with an inexpressible joy. We want to raise $10,000 in order to give back to those who have touched our lives throughout YOF’s journey in Africa. This goal will be able to provide us with the ability to purchase supplies for relief and aid, and sustainable means of living for Lilongwe and the surrounding regions in Malawi. By helping a child or a family in Malawi, we are essentially helping our brothers and sisters and giving them a chance to experience different facets of their lives that many of us take for granted. These children and families are all capable of doing great things; they just need support, a helping hand and a loving heart, and we hope that we can provide the means to do so.