Our History
Building Health and Hope in Kenya
Team Agape-Kenya started in 2009 in Sumner, WA
In 2008, the executive director of a small non-profit mission organization in Ongata Rongai, Kenya toured the U.S. in search of partnerships to support development projects in areas of need including hygiene, health, education, and child rights advocacy. In response, a team of eight teachers and students from Sumner, WA traveled the following summer to Kenya. Upon return, the team started a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to advocacy and supporting the development projects in Kenya. Their chosen name, Team Agape-Kenya, references love in action, and Rotary Club of Sumner quickly became an influential supporter of many development initiatives.
Laying Foundations, Saving Lives
Since 2009, Team Agape-Kenya has carried out a wide range of health and education initiatives that have transformed communities in Southern Kenya. The work began with a simple but urgent call: supporting children in a local orphanage. Meeting the needs of vulnerable children opened the door to broader community engagement, eventually expanding into projects that provided shallow water wells, latrine facilities, education facilities and programs for children with disabilities, clean water retention systems, and individualized health programs—initiatives that have improved the health and quality of life for thousands of families.
Building on this foundation, Team Agape-Kenya launched the Magadi Mobile Health Clinic in 2016. For five years, this initiative brought primary care and preventive education directly into rural communities, overcoming the greatest barrier to healthcare: access. The mobile teams reached villages that had little to no medical infrastructure, ultimately serving more than 20,000 patient encounters each year. This work provided life-saving treatment, essential health education, and hope to families across the region.
Today, these years of experience and momentum have led to the establishment of a permanent community health clinic, serving a population base of roughly 8,000 people. While mobile outreach continues to play a role, the central focus is now on providing consistent, reliable care from a brick-and-mortar facility. This clinic represents a long-term commitment to sustaining health and well-being in an area that has historically been underserved.
In Memory of Mama Kelly
(1959-2023)
From the very beginning, Kelly (known as Mama Kelly to the children in Kenya) poured her heart into Team Agape-Kenya. She had a gift for seeing a need and finding a way to meet it. Each year, she energetically fundraised for school books, clothing, sanitary items, and toys. She enlisted the help of local organizations to donate tools, medical supplies, backpacks, and even t-shirts for a special needs school parade she helped organize through the streets of Rongai, Kenya.
An elementary teacher of 30+ years, she believed in creating spaces where children could thrive. With the help of friends and family, she had a workshop built for students with special needs where they could learn trades like beadwork, hair braiding, sewing, and crafts. She stocked it with supplies and donated it in her own mother’s name, Joyce Olson. She had a football field constructed for a youth rescue center so the kids had level ground to play on. She helped organize the building of multiple latrines so special needs students could safely use the restroom. She painted everything from school benches to workshop walls to playgrounds to dormitories to help brighten the children's lives.
Kelly’s giving spirit touched every corner of the community. She made sure the mamas, office staff, drivers, day laborers, and pastors involved with Team Agape all received gifts to honor the love and care they poured into their work. She worked with her fellow teachers, church, bible study groups, and the Sumner Rotary Club to raise funds and resources—sending bibles, supporting clean water projects, and helping provide a mobile medical jeep and hospital supplies to vastly underserved areas of Kenya.
But perhaps what people remember most was how present she was. Kelly visited Kenya eight times, always bringing teams of volunteers. No matter what project was at hand—painting walls, building desks, or transporting supplies—she threw herself into the work. She insisted on helping the kitchen staff prepare meals for the children, she jumped at the opportunity to bathe the kids and walk them to school, and she constantly asked questions of everyone she met, from the driver to the cook to the social worker, eager to learn and understand their lives.
She had a playful spirit that matched her hard work. She taught the kids silly dances, made them laugh, and became a favorite among the staff and mamas. Many were surprised at all she could do. She was an “old white woman,” as some would say with admiration, who could out-paint, out-carry, and out-work many of them.
Kelly's deep heart and giving spirit left a mark not just on Team Agape-Kenya, but on every person who met her. She was one of a kind, and her legacy continues to inspire the work the organization is doing today.
