RPCVs with Extended Service

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Young Heroes: Steve Kallaugher and Jacqueline Eisenberg-Nelson

– Young Heroes Impact –

Young Heroes

First conceived of by RPCV Steve Kallaugher in 2005 and proposed to Eswatini’s (formerly Swaziland’s) National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDs (NERCHA), Young Heroes was the first organization in Eswatini to directly address the needs of AIDs orphans and vulnerable children on a national basis. It remains the only organization to do so. The non-profit has successfully created a comprehensive set of financial, medical and educational services for those children and their caregivers. Young Heroes has reached over 15,000 children, adolescents, young adults and caregivers with its programs.

• In 2020, Young Heroes became the first Swazi organization named as a prime USAID grant recipient — a $4 million grant for a three-year program beginning in 2021.
• In 2021, Young Heroes transition to direct USAID funding to provide comprehensive HIV prevention for vulnerable children and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).
• Eswatini’s Young Heroes has been recognized by the United Nations as a best practice model for supporting orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), focusing on health, education, and economic empowerment. The organization, which began as an initiative against HIV/AIDS, has been recommended to UNICEF’s Global Orphan Alliance as a model for other countries and is known for its direct support through life-support grants, health care, and vocational training.
• In 2024, Young Heroes reached 36,172 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and 45,766 adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).
• In 2025, Young Heroes lost a large portion of its funding when the U.S. eliminated its USAID-funded programs around the world.

https://youngheroes.org.sz

Donations can be made to:

Young Heroes Foundation

415 Deerfield Circle
Fort Collins, CO 80524
USA

Current Director:

Jacqueline Eisenberg-Nelson, PCV Swaziland, 2004-2006

Steve Kallaugher

• Peace Corps Volunteer, Health Extension Programs, Swaziland, 2004-2005
• Founder, Young Heroes, Swaziland, 2006
• Employed by NERCHA, Swaziland, 2006-2008
• Established and managed the Young Heroes Foundation, 2008-2020

After working as the Associate Creative Director at the Wall Street Journal for many years, Steve Kallaugher decided to retire and join the Peace Corps. Steve was placed in a small, rural community in Swaziland, which has the highest rate of AIDS on earth. He soon realized how much could be done to improve the quality of life there, especially for children who had been orphaned by AIDS. Steve first served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Kingdom through 2005.  He then branched out on his own in partnership with the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA) to form Young Heroes, a non-profit organization that provides food, shelter, clothing, school tuition and job skills training to youth affected by AIDS. Since 2006, Young Heroes has impacted thousands of Swazi orphans and other AIDS-affected youth with the means to survive as well as tools to ensure a better future. When Steve repatriated back to the U.S. in 2008, he formed the Young Heroes Foundation, the U.S.-based non-profit fund-raising arm of Young Heroes.  He served as director of the Young Heroes Foundation until 2020.

Jacqueline Eisenberg-Nelson

• Peace Corps Volunteer, Health Extension Programs, Swaziland, 2004-2006
• Possible Dreams International
• The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative
• United Nations Population Fund
• Seeking Common Ground
• Director of the Young Heroes Foundation, 2020 – Present

Jacquelyn Eisenberg-Nelson has more than 20 years of experience leading global health, youth development, HIV/AIDS, conflict resolution, and sustainable community development initiatives in Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Her work has included leadership positions within Young Heroes Foundation, Possible Dreams International, the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, United Nations Population Fund and Seeking Common Ground. After serving in the Peace Corps in Eswatini, Jacquelyn returned to Colorado to pursue her Master of Social Work degree with a focus on community development and global health. Her Peace Corps experience was transformative, and she credits her 22+ year connection in Eswatini to the bomake (mothers) in her training and host families. She returns to Eswatini each year for both work and time with her Eswatini family.

When Steve Kallaugher stepped down as head of the Young Heroes Foundation in 2020, Jacqueline Eisenberg-Nelson took over as the organization’s new director and has managed the Foundation from her home in Colorado ever since.

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Pasture Valley Children’s Home: Gail & Mike Messick

Pasture Valley Children’s Mission

Pasture Valley Farm and Children’s Home is a farm situated close to Nhlangano, Shiselweni Region, in the South of the Kingdom of Eswatini. Our farm consists of a dairy, a plant micropropagation laboratory, a plant nursery and a children’s home for orphaned and vulnerable children plus an education centre, a home-school, pre-school and a girl’s care centre. The farm is home not only to Peter and Michelle McCubbin and their family (farm owner) but to around 60 orphaned & vulnerable children on the Pasture Valley Farm site. The children previously living on the Ekuthuleni Mission site have now moved to the main farm site.

Pasture Valley Children’s Home endeavored to be as sustainable as possible. We have installed solar geysers for hot water and solar panels for electricity. Our water is pumped by a solar pump. We produce biogas and have our own electric vehicle to get around on the site powered by the sun. Our children get fresh milk daily from the dairy farm, as well as fresh vegetables from our garden. Each home has a fruit orchard with a variety of oranges, mulberries, pomegranates, apples and bananas. We also keep chickens on the farm, which provide fresh eggs for the homes.

Pasture Valley is also the base for the office and shop of the Bambanani Project which provides employment and empowerment for volunteer home-based carers working amongst women and men affected by HIV/AIDS in the Shiselweni Region of The Kingdom of Eswatini. We are also home to a Solar Training and Renewable Energy & Entreprenenurship Centre.

https://pasturevalley.com

Donations can be made to:

Pasture Valley Children’s Mission

P.O. Box 1665
Rolla, Missouri  65402

Gail and Mike Messick

• PCVs in Eswatini, 2010-2014
• Peace Corps Response Volunteer, South Africa, 2015 (Mike)
• PCVs in the Eastern Caribbean,1976-78

The story of Gail & Mike Messick story is a simple one.  They arrived in the Kingdom in June of 2010 and were assigned to the Pasture Valley Children’s Home, near Nhlangano. It consisted of twenty AIDs orphans in a private, Christian children’s home started by a couple–she was Swazi, he was South African. This privately run orphanage is on a working rural farm. The primary purpose of the initial owners was to hire the “unhireable”, those with HIV, to give them the dignity of a job. In 2006 they took in the first orphan and the orphanage was created.

Gail & Mike were the first volunteers Pasture Valley had, and they jumped right in. They extended twice. In addition, in 2015 Mike served with Peace Corps Response Team in South Africa while Gail returned to the USA. Starting in 2016, the couple decided to split their time between Ohio and Swaziland and spend 2-4 months yearly at Pasture Valley, working once more as volunteers. They already knew all the kids. Children that were 3 when they arrived are now turning 19/20. The children’s home has grown to over 50 children and they need the help.  Gail & Mike were are happy to be back. They  cover all their our own costs.

In 2014, after much discussion, Mike was allowed to establish a 501(c)3 in the US to permit individuals to make tax deductible contributions. Pasture Valley is staffed by four volunteers, and thus is run on a relatively modest budget.

Gail & Mike started a school on the Pasture Valley grounds in 2022 with buildings, teachers, a head teacher, curriculum, and the essentials. In January of 2022, they started up STREEC, a college training underserved Swazi youth in the solar technology profession. This college was fully accredited by Eswatini in January of 2025.

Gail’s primary jobs are teaching preschool, tutoring afterschool, holiday programs, cooking meals for visitors, and working with home healthcare providers with income generating projects. Mike’s primary jobs are administration, tutoring afterschool, sorting donations, supporting mission teams, and hosting visitors.

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Vusumnotfo: Katherine Gau

Vusumnotfo

Vusumnotfo is a Swazi not-for-profit organization whose formation was authorized by leaders from 17 communities in northern Eswatini following the 1991-92 drought. These leaders identified “dependency” as the underlying factor limiting sustainable development at the community level. They attributed the deep roots of “dependency” to interwoven issues specific to Eswatini and the region. To reverse “dependency” in ways relevant to their communities, they formed Vusumnotfo. Accordingly, the organization’s strategy reflects Eswatini’s many proverbs that the betterment of the future is through the child – “Umntfwana ngumliba loya embili.”

The goal of Vusumnotfo is to focus on strengthening skills at the family and community level to tackle four inter-related problems restricting child development and learning outcomes in rural Eswatini:

1. Insufficient understanding of how children develop and learn, including factors that influence this.
2. Limited financial management practices.
3. Poor nutrition practices.
4. Inadequate community and management infrastructure and management practice — focusing oin community preschools; water & sanitation systems; hygiene & conservation practices.

Because “giving things” can inadvertently further dependency, the methods used are :

1. training,
2. structured technical and material support, and
3. mentoring.

Vusumnotfo’s motto is “Do what you can with what you have now.”

Overtime, building human capacity results in communities that are able and willing to improve the environmental, social and economic challenges of their generation. By so doing “parenting” contributes to the wellbeing of this generation, and nurtures the next generation; hence – Parenting for a Sustainable Future.

https://vusumnotfo.org

Donations can be made to:

Vusumnotfo

P.O. Box 229
Piggs Peak H108
Eswatini (Southern Africa)

 

Current Director:

Katherine Gau, PCV Swaziland, 1983-1987

Katherine Gau

• Peace Corps Volunteer, Swaziland, 1983-1987
• Coordinator, National Beekeeping Project, Swaziland, 1988-1992
• Director, Vusumnotfo, Swaziland, Mid-1990s-Present
• Affiliated with Global Giving, Eswatini, Present

Katherine Gau began her work in Swaziland in September of 1983 when she worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the field of education at Vuvulane High School teaching O-level agriculture.  She extended her assignment with the Peace Corps through the Ministry of Agriculture, moving from Vuvulane to a government training center in northwestern Eswatini.  Securing funding with the Near East Foundation led to formalizing a project agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture to set up the national beekeeping program for Eswatini.  Over the next fine years, agricultural extension staff were trained in beekeeping and equipment was procured. The project also obtained funding for two Swazis to obtain professional beekeeping qualifications at the University of Ohio. As a result, beekeeping is well established in Eswatini today, with many homesteads practicing beekeeping and a number of NGOs and government entities actively promoting it.

In response to the 1991-92 drought, the Swaziland National Disaster Task Force coordinated the distribution of international food aid through various NGOs.  The Near East Foundation (NEF), which was funding the national beekeeping project under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), was assigned “Zone 1” that eventually became the Vusumnotfo area of operation.

Following food distribution, homesteads were provided with resources to plant a half  hector of maize with the provision that they would return a bag of maize at the end of the growing season.   In June 1993, 92% of the homesteads in the area overseen by NEF returned the maize, which was subsequently sold leaving a profit of SZL 75,775.

Instead of dividing these funds for projects within each of their communities, the traditional leaders decided to work together to tackle “dependency.” In December 1995, they agreed upon a constitution to govern the use of these funds.  Following a lengthy internal process, which included substantial capacity building, this constitution was eventually redrafted and again authorized by the traditional leaders in September of 1999.

Kathy indirectly supported this process, eventually being appointed Vusumnotfo’s director following its inception.  This process has involved putting into operation the mandate to “reverse dependency” — by developing the day-to-day implementation strategy, ensuring statutory requirements, securing staff and the never-ending fundraising requirements.

Vusumnotfo now has a reliable team of five staff members, effective and efficient programming, solid social capital at the community level, and a proven track record at national level.  Kathy’s focus is now on ensuring well-documented programming, continued staff training and a database to support an integrated monitoring and evaluation framework.

SHE Power: Tammy Sully Colvin

SHE Power

She Power is on mission to build powerful minds, powerful bodies and powerful futures in young women.  The organization aims to educate young women to become more confident and self-sufficient with skill-building workshops, club meetings, social/emotional support groups (using Treehouse curriculum) and income-generating opportunities year-round.

SHE Power Eswatini serves an at-risk, female population in the northwest Manzini region of the country.  In Eswatini, 41.2% of females are not in education, employment or training and as a result 65.3% of females experience severe food insecurity.  She Power Eswatini aims to combat food insecurity by training up young women with income-generating skills, providing opportunities to start a micro-business, earn an income and build a supportive community.  As a result, She Power Eswatini expects to decrease unemployment, increase income and ultimately decrease food insecurity among women, children and families.

She Power Eswatini acquired a U.S. fiscal sponsor in 2024 to enable She Power to operate as a non-profit under The Cause. This partnership has created additional funding opportunities increasing their reach into the community. As of 2026, the art department of Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA (local international school) has partnered with She Power Eswatini to bring a higher level of art instruction and international networking opportunities to the young women of She Power.

 Donations can be made to:     

https://thecause.org/partners/shepower_treehouse/

Tammy Sully Colvin

• PCV in Eswatini 2017-2019
• Founder of SHE Power Eswatini organization 2019
• Established and managed SHE Power Eswatini (in-person) 2017-2019
• Director of Operations SHE Power (remote/in-person) 2019- present 

After 15 years working as a sales tax accountant in companies such as Apple Computer, Dell Financial Services and Avfuel Corporation, Tammy desired to pursue a second career in social work. She graduated in 2020 from the University of Michigan with her master’s degree in social work, specializing in Children, Youth and Families. The university offered a master’s international program where Tammy was able to complete two years in the Peace Corps alongside her master’s degree.

Tammy arrived in Eswatini and was placed in a small rural community in the Manzini region where she realized that women often lacked the skills to earn an income in the rural space enabling them to provide better for their families and so she formed She Power Eswatini; a non-profit aiming to educate young women to become more confident and self-sufficient with skill-building workshops, club meetings, social/emotional support groups and income-generating opportunities year-round.

Fisher Talent Group: Rob Fisher

Fisher Talent Group

Fisher Talent Group (FTG) is a football scouting nonprofit organization with an associated progressive education program.  The organization includes a promotional talent database featuring marginalized African youth football (soccer) players aged 10 to 18, boys and girls.  FTG scouts rural Africa (and its cities) and discover talent in the community. It does not hold tryouts, identification events, or anything similar to identify talent. It is a scouting operation. Its database focuses on the difference between helping and changing, and FTG believes kids should be able to use their skills to advance their lives.  It aims to have a paid scouting operation in every African country (leading to jobs, economic and youth empowerment, and scouting education) and have thousands of youth players across Africa seen by that many eyes across professional football. It will eventually launch an Elite Scouting Education and Data Analysis program for talented youth and adults. FTG is creating a radical transformation of the opportunity gap, economic and youth empowerment, gender equality, social mobility, and progressive education. 

Consider supporting this mission, subscribing to the FTG newsletter, or following the group on social media.

Donations can be made via:   

https://www.fishertalent.com