This past September, Admirals Landing resident, Ned Campbell, climbed Mt. Kenya to help the villagers of Kager, (pronounced, Ka-GEHR) Kenya. His goal was to raise $16,335 which equals one dollar for every foot of the mountain. 100% of funds raised will go toward the building construction costs of the Kager Medical Clinic expansion for the 4,000 villagers.
“I enjoy the adventure of travel, I love different cultures and, I feel called to find a way to help the poor of the world,” says Campbell, who grew up oversees. His father’s job took him to Japan for his junior high school years and to London, England for his high school career.
“We’re not going to Kager and doing things for the villagers, but rather helping them learn to become more independent for the long term,” says Campbell, the founder of the Jubilee Village Project, a Christian based organization whose motto reads, “Changing the World, One Village at a Time.” The Jubilee Village Project (JVP) is partnering with the people of Kager village in western Kenya to create sustainable community transformation. Campbell projects, “By the end of 2015, our goal is to leave this village and go on to serve another village.”
JVP is made up of volunteer teams from Indiana who travel to Kenya two to four times per year and collaborate with volunteer villagers in Kenya. The Project focuses in on eight different sectors including food & farming, water & sanitation, housing & shelter, health & nutrition, energy & environment, transportation, education, and economic development.
How Jubilee Village Project Began
After traveling and serving on a variety of church mission trips to different places for fifteen years, Campbell felt a calling and finally realized, “I knew it was time for me to stop and invest my life in a single village for a longer time.” Campbell will never forget the day he received a letter from a pastor in Kager, outlining their medical needs such as an ambulatory vehicle for transporting patients in emergency situations when they need to get to the nearest hospital (45 min. away) other than by means of a bicycle. This letter sparked Campbell’s heart in a new direction. In October 2008, Campbell started JVP (www.jubileevillage.org) and he and his team brought electricity to the medical clinic in Kager. This dramatically changed the healthcare for the village such as allowing full vaccines to be stored in refrigeration.
This year, Campbell combined the needs of Kager with his love for hiking and the outdoors. Since he met a group last year who had climbed the highest peak in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro, he became motivated and decided it would be wiser to ease into mountain climbing by climbing the second highest peak, Mt. Kenya, while helping to fundraise for the people of Kager in a “Climb To End Poverty.” On September 15th, after two months of training, 28 hours of travel to Kenya, and 3 days of climbing, Campbell made it to the summit of Mt. Kenya (16, 335ft.)
With the funds raised for Campbell’s “Climb to End Poverty,” JVP plans to expand the current clinic to provide these components:
- Open a laboratory (on-site) in order to provide better and more accurate diagnosis so that patients do not have to travel 45 minutes to get to the nearest hospital
- Add an area for delivering babies in a clean, sterile environment as opposed to mothers delivering babies in huts. The goal is to have a labor, delivery, and post-delivery area within clinic
- Provide an ambulatory vehicle that will save many lives in emergency situations when transporting patients to the nearest hospital
In addition, JVP is helping to start and complete a High School for the village. Currently there are 90 students within a school made up of 9th and 10th graders. By the year 2013, the goal is to hold juniors and seniors as well.
Working full-time as a business executive with Zotec Partners in Carmel, Campbell volunteers nights and weekends to the work of JVP. He is a graduate of Ball State University and attends and serves at East 91st Street Christian Church. He has merged his knowledge of business, healthcare, and volunteering to embrace his calling to help inspire others and bring awareness to the needs of underprivileged people.
Campbell lives in Admirals Landing (for the past 17 yrs.) with his wife, Melissa. Together they have three daughters who attend: Indiana University, Lawrence Central, and Heritage Christian respectively.
To follow Ned’s blog of his Mt. Kenya Climb: http://climbtoendpoverty.blogspot.com/
Contact Ned at ned.jubilee@gmail.com if you would like to sponsor him in his “Climb to End Poverty.”
