Nyanya Project

Mary Martin Niepold, a grandmother herself, started the Nyanya Project after visiting Africa as a volunteer in 2007. Niepold was compelled to do something –- anything -– to help the people she met, visited and worked with. Read more on ONE.org.

Mary Martin Niepold was recently featured on the Mom Bloggers for Social Good web site in Sitting Down With Mary Martin Niepold, the Founder of the Nyanya Project.

TNP Founder Mary Martin Niepold was one of 18 speakers at the first-ever TED-x Conference at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. After showing a film clip made by Agence France Presse about our preschool in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, she spoke about her personal journey in founding The Nyanya Project and the amazing power of grandmothers whose only response to any challenge is love. She also talked about how the preschool was the idea of the grandmothers, themselves. The audience was moved, many spoke about being brought to tears. For Mary Martin, bringing attention to the plight of these African grandmothers continues to be her passion.

One of her key messages was a quote from Albert Einstein:
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle.

The new year started with a gift of goats for our Rwandan grandmothers. Each of the 15 grandmothers TNP had trained last year were given two goats and tin siding to make enclosures for the goats.

The grandmothers live high in the Jabana Hills about 10 miles from the
Rwandan capital of Kigali. With the goats, they will be able to have
milk for their families and breed goats for additional income.

The Nyanya Project is happy to enter the digital age – finally – and only because Mom Blogger Jennifer James is now helping us step into the future.

Jennifer and The Nyanya Project Founder met last fall at a TNP fundraiser at Camino Bakery in downtown Winston-Salem. Jennifer had been to Kenya last summer, introduced herself and asked how she could
help. The rest is history. Jennifer is now a vital link for us on Facebook and other social media.

She is also a powerhouse connector with an enormous heart. As
founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good she works with national and international non-profits to connect them with hundreds of mom bloggers who work to spread the word about the work they do to help others through social media and blogging.