Chris Gates: Janada Batchelor Foundation for Children

Brunswick welcomed Chris Gates, the founder and executive director of the Janada Batchelor Foundation for Children, to its Upper School campus to speak with students on Thursday.

 

Gates founded JBFC — which operates an orphanage for girls and primary and secondary schools for both girls and boys, in Kitongo, Tanzania — when he was still an undergraduate at New York University.

 

Since moving to Tanzania after graduating in 2009, Gates has grown JBFC from an organization with just 10 girls in its orphanage and 20 acres of property to one that has 48 girls in the orphanage, 300 children in its recently built primary and secondary schools, and 70 acres of farmable land right on Lake Victoria.

 

This past June, Brunswick students Jamie MacFarlane ’16, Dayton Kingery ’16, Jack Muccia ’16, and Ryan Hanrahan ’16 travelled to Tanzania to work with Gates’ foundation. 

 

Over the span of 10 days, the group painted buildings, cooked meals, worked on JBFC’s growing farm, and, most important, interacted with the children.

 

“Those experiences are something each of us will never forget,” MacFarlane said in his introductory remarks. “And they are what drive us in the Brunswick JBFC Club to continue to support Mr. Gates’ foundation.”