If God uses people to spread His goodwill, certainly Mr. and Mrs. Mott are among them.

Hank and Margaret Mott are an American couple who have been sharing their wealth with vulnerable people in Kenya for about 20 years now.

In the early 2000s, the American couple joined a trip to Kenya organized by their Jesuit church in the U.S., but little did they know how much their lives were going to change after that encounter with Kenyan reality. In love with the people and the culture, at the end of the trip, they asked the missionaries in Kitale (Kenya) what they could do to support their cause, and the answer was simple: support girls’ education.

That was the beginning of a life centered on helping people in need, a life that seems to be continuing through generations.

Margaret started sponsoring the education of girls in Kitale in 2004, and they started visiting them every one or two years. Every time they came, they encountered more people who could be supported with their help, and the couple never gave a no for an answer.

Hank, an alumnus of a Jesuit school, learned about JRS Kenya some years back, and that’s when he decided to join his wife’s efforts and also support the causes he believed in through JRS Kenya. It has been about eight years since they started sending money regularly to JRS (and other Catholic organizations in the country). Thanks to them, we have sent children like Danny to school, paid medical bills for vulnerable refugees in Nairobi like Patience’s father, supported business initiatives of vulnerable families like Furaha’s, and changed the lives of dozens of families by bringing them hope and a smile.

And that has been thanks to Hank and Margaret’s generosity.

In January 2024, we at JRS and the people they support were delighted with their visit to Nairobi. Being over 70 years old, the hustle to travel all the way from the West Coast of the US to Kenya is not an easy trip. What makes it even more meaningful for us and the supported refugees having them around, only after two years from their last visit.

“What else can we do?” is the sentence I heard Hank and Margaret repeat the most. And it is always heartwarming to be with them when they visit the families they have been supporting for some years.

But the legacy of the Motts does not end with Margaret and Hank. Their children have inherited that spirit of giving, and they also support students, families, and medical initiatives all over the country. The Motts are a family changing the lives of so many people:God goes through them to bring peace and hope to vulnerable people in Kenya.

A praiseworthy couple and a praiseworthy family whom we keep in our prayers because of everything they have done for refugees and vulnerable individuals in Kenya.

We definitely need more people like them in this world. A heartfelt “Thank You” to them, and to all those who, to a greater or lesser extent, also put their grain of sand in the dessert of humanitarian aid!

Thank you, Margaret, and thank you, Hank, for spreading the love through your support and for changing the lives of so many people in our country.