It is with great joy, humility and anticipation that I have accepted the Board of Directors’ offer to become the next Executive Director of The 1010 Project. Throughout my five year tenure serving on our Board, I often described myself as a “Learning Board Member.” Now, I am eager to transition into my new role as a “Learning Executive Director.”

I am thrilled to be learning from and serving with a dynamic and incredibly talented team, including: Tim Brauhn, Director of Operations, Josephine Chavaseki, Director of the Global Entrepreneur Academy in Nairobi, incredible board members, interns, volunteers, and social entrepreneurs throughout Kenya and the United States.

I am also deeply grateful to each of you – our volunteers, investors, donors, E-Race Poverty team members, followers of our tweets and blogs – for the role you have played in making The 1010 Project what it is today. I stand amazed at how God has orchestrated every person, piece and part to sustain and grow the story of The 1010 Project.

Two prominent messages in my life lately have been that every person is precious and every day is a gift and we need to make the most of it. All of us involved with The 1010 Project demonstrate that we value the dignity of each person by empowering them to build self-sustainable social businesses. We know that we need to take action today because we never know what tomorrow holds.

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As we enter this next chapter, I am eager to hear your story and empower you to capitalize on your unique passions and skills. By building strategic partnerships, we can foster self-sustainability and work synergistically to pursue our vision of breaking the cycle of poverty and sharing abundant life.

I am humbled and honored to be a part of it all…and inspired to write the next chapter of the story with each of you.

Abundant blessings,

Melissa Schaap
Executive Director

The story of The 1010 Project is about breaking the cycle of poverty through business and community development. It’s about cultivating relationships with and between people who need resources and our donors/investors who have access to resources. It’s about coming alongside innovative Kenyans who run orphanages, schools, microfinance organizations, churches, women’s empowerment groups, and HIV/AIDS support groups. It’s about income generation and self-sustainability. Our story is about advocacy and community based learning – going to visit our friends and learning from and with them. It’s about Kenyans teaching Kenyans basic business skills through The Global Entrepreneur Academy (GEA).

Most importantly, The 1010 Project is about abundant life. (Hence our name from John 10:10. You can read more about this here.