About
Our Mission
Hope Sparked is a purpose driven, not-for-profit organization providing the opportunity for education to children in impoverished urban areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
We provide school supplies, tutoring, and tuition fees for children in Kinshasa’s urban slums through a program led by local community leaders. Our goal is to connect donors who have a desire to help with students in Kinshasa who need their support through local leaders that can make a difference in their own community. We focus on informal urban settlements where children and their families see the potential for success all around them but struggle to escape the cycle of poverty that makes basic subsistence a daily struggle. Learn more at the links below.
Get the details about What We Do.
Understand why and how we started this organization at Our Story.
Meet our founders, staff, and board of directors at Who We Are.
Look at Our Goals to see how we hope to grow.
Find out How You Can Help.
Connect with a student through our Sponsorship Program.
Our Vision – Education Where It’s Needed Most
There are many great organizations working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to reduce poverty and expand education. Unfortunately, none of them have any programs operating within the district of Kingabwa and the many informal settlements like Mabulu throughout Kinshasa. Hope Sparked is trying to reach these communities that have no other hope, the areas passed over and forgotten because the need seems overwhelming and unmanageable. Charitable organizations have to make difficult decisions about how to effectively use their funds, and urban slums often don’t seem like the place to get the most value for each donated dollar. A lack of formal economy jobs, high urban prices, poor governance, corruption, lack of infrastructure, and an abundance of debilitating disease make any development efforts extremely difficult. We have no illusions about the difficulty of bringing hope to these challenged areas. We expect setbacks and difficulties. We expect that our efforts at times may not be understood and the fruits of our efforts make take years to realize.
However, we also believe that none of these obstacles mean that people in these areas are any less worthy of our efforts. They are in great need, and we have an opportunity to help. Hope Sparked is an organization that believes you can make the most difference by focusing where there is the most need. We also believe that education is the key to creating opportunity and alleviating poverty. With an education, these children will have hope for a better future and the means to make it a reality. They will find ways to overcome struggles in their own lives and will drive development in their own communities. Hope Sparked is not trying to deliver solutions from a distance, but hopes to enable future generations to make a difference close to home and give you a chance to provide that opportunity.