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“Be the change you want to see,” says Dylan de Bruin of his goal to inspire and empower people to see what’s possible and act on it. de Bruin embodies those words in his Orphans of Teso (Uganda) program, which he founded with his wife, Jen, in 2011. Since then, the program has provided hundreds of children in war-torn Uganda with food, medical care, education and occupational skills. But the impact is so much greater.
de Bruin is broker/owner of Century 21 Signature Real Estate in Ankeny, Iowa. Through his leadership and partnership with the Colorado-based nonprofit, Children’s HopeChest, Orphans of Teso established three “CarePoint” locations (Bukedea, Ogoloi and Ongongoja) in northern Uganda to address root causes of poverty and enable long-term sustainability.
“Finding the right organizational partner was critical to our success,” says de Bruin, who traveled to Africa to look for an opportunity to realize his vision.
Wanting to be a catalyst for lasting change, de Bruin’s research led him to Children’s HopeChest, whose model starts with physical and emotional support and then empowers children and communities for long-term success. “From the beginning, Dylan focused on the endgame of transforming lives,” says Wil Crooks, senior vice president of community-to-community engagement for Children’s HopeChest. “He is a strategic driver and a high-level thinker who equips and empowers people,” adds Crooks. “We are a better organization because of him.”
Enabling Hope and Dignity
The CarePoint programs, supported by annual fundraising campaigns and $45 per-month, per-child sponsorships (200 sponsors for each CarePoint), offer life-skill programs including farming, baking, livestock rearing, tailoring, carpentry and others. Projects are selected based on their ability to empower individuals to generate income and sustain the community.
“I entered Bukedea CarePoint as a child with many challenges. Today I am a confident young lady with a profession in building and concrete, helping people in my community construct permanent houses. I earn money that helps me take care of myself and my child.”
─Khanifa, CarePoint graduate
Roughly 90% of students attend university or trade school, compared to 20% for those outside the program. Many start small businesses and become community leaders. Good Neighbor Award grant funds support students' transition into advanced education or business.
“If you ask people what poverty looks like, most will say a lack of material possessions,” says de Bruin. “Ask the poor, and you’ll find it’s about a lack of dignity and hope. Given the opportunity to fail or succeed, and then succeeding, the dignity and hope rise, and you start to see a forward momentum in the community,” he adds.
“The greatest gift I received was the confidence to believe I could succeed. Today I am standing on my own, and I hope to become the same source of encouragement to the young people I teach.”
─Umar Okodel, CarePoint graduate with a bachelor’s degree in education
Since the launch of the first CarePoint, de Bruin’s work has resulted in sponsorships totaling $2.42 million and over 4,500 volunteer hours from others, in addition to his own 350 hours. Many of these hours are on the ground in Uganda with the hundreds of sponsors who join de Bruin and his family on their annual visit to the CarePoints, where sponsors get a hands-on experience and connect face-to-face with their sponsored children.
Changing the Lives of Sponsors
Beyond the CarePoints’ value to the communities, they have an equally powerful impact on sponsors. Jamie Wingert learned of the program from a broker in de Bruin’s firm who is a sponsor. She and her teenage daughter joined a group traveling to Uganda to see it first-hand. She became a sponsor and, a year later, launched her own CarePoint in a neighboring village.
“Getting involved has a lifelong impact on your worldview,” Wingert says. “We go to build relationships and hope, but I learn more about my faith and humanity than what they learn from me,” she adds. Many of Wingert’s CarePoint sponsors are parents of teenagers who learned about the program from friends. “Most of the teens return each year,” she says. “Among the parents who don’t go, I’ve heard many say, ‘I don’t know what happened there, but my kid has changed.’”
Phil Sporrer, who became a sponsor in 2014, agrees that there is something different about this type of giving. “When you give, you get so much more back,” he says. “You can have fun accumulating, but the joy comes from giving it away. And that’s the secret of happiness.”
The first Uganda CarePoint (Ogoloi) will graduate in 2027, having met the criteria for sustainability. Recently, the students of all three Orphans of Teso Carepoints came together and voted on a new name, Amina na Teso or Love of Teso. “We went from need to accomplishment,” says de Bruin. “That is a beautiful, beautiful transition.”
Dylan de Bruin of Century 21 Signature Real Estate in Ankeny, Iowa, has committed more than 4,500+ volunteer hours and served more than 1,000 families through Children’s HopeChest, Orphans of Teso.
