OUR
STORY
A passion for children
1986
After spending three months in India, where Clark met Mother Teresa and coached slum children, he was inspired to a future of helping children in poverty. I shared this passion and, together, we made a commitment to dedicate our lives to service.
The work begins
1993
We began working with at risk children and families in Kern County, California. In partnership with Teen Challenge and local churches, we launched "Kids Clubs", community outreach, and drug awareness programs.
The organization is formed
1999
Along with our two small children, we moved to the Himalayas of North India to pursue our passion for children in need. While on a trek to the highest village in the world, Clark was surprised by the community's request to take home an abandoned boy who had been sold by his parents. We spent the next several years developing a family-based approach to care for orphaned, abandoned, and abused children.
The approach is expanded
2007
After eight years in India, we moved to Kathmandu, Nepal and heard about the thousands of young Nepali girls taken from their villages and enslaved in Indian brothels. Exposure to the horrors of trafficking motivated us to broaden our approach beyond aftercare to include prevention and intervention efforts. Compelled by the value that each girl is as precious to God as our own daughter, we launched the Daughter Project to start community strengthening and girls' empowerment programs, intervention shelters to restore victims of trafficking with their families, and outreach to young ladies working in the brothels including counselling and training in positive employment.
Multiplying our best practices
2014
The impressive outcomes of the Daughter Project motivated us to multiply our efforts in new areas. We launched the Direct Good platform to empower local community heroes that shared our victim-centered values. Our goal was to provide them with the funding and tools required to protect children and preserve families while giving them the freedom to imagine and govern their projects according to their own context.
Training and advocacy
2020
We launched St. James Research Centre (SJRC) in Scotland to provide best practice training and resources to practitioners in anti-modern slavery intervention implementation, community strengthening, and non-profit management and governance.