Heart for Africa | Mission Finder

Raised in Ontario, Canada, Janine Maxwell founded ONYX Marketing Group in Toronto at age 24, and grew her business over a 16- year period to become one of Canada’s largest marketing firms. In 2005, she left it all behind to serve Africa’s children orphaned by starvation, poverty, abuse, and the AIDS pandemic.

Janine and her husband, Ian, are the Co-Founders and CEO/COO of Heart for Africa, which focuses on bringing HOPE to the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) in the areas of Hunger, Orphans, Poverty and Education.

Our History

In 2009 we purchased a 2,500-acre piece of land in Eswatini, Africa. It was African bush – no roads, electricity or water. Since then, the land has become a beacon of HOPE, developed to fight hunger, care for orphans, decrease poverty and provide education.

In March 2012, the first baby arrived at Project Canaan, where Heart for Africa homes for children and other programs are located. Since then, it has grown tremendously, adding more homes for children.

Today, 370+ children under the age of twelve call Project Canaan home. Heart for Africa is committed to caring for them until they complete their High School education.

Our Mission

Heart for Africa is a faith-based humanitarian organization that focuses on bringing HOPE to the Kingdom of Eswatini, Africa in the areas of Hunger, Orphans, Poverty and Education.

Our Values

– To bring glory to God in all we do.
– To be culturally sensitive in the country we serve.
– To be the hands and feet of Jesus in Africa.
– To treat each and every person with respect and love regardless of faith, color, or nationality.
– To work with excellence in everything we do.

What We Do

Our programs are designed to address these four key areas with solutions to fight hunger, care for orphans and vulnerable children, decrease poverty and provide education to children and adults through school and vocational training.

We fight hunger through our feeding program in partnership with 30 church community partners across the country. We are currently feeding over 4,500 children 3-7 days each week.

We have a home for orphans and vulnerable children, where 370+ children are currently in our care. We accept children under the age of 2 years old and are committed to them until adulthood.

We decrease poverty by providing employment to over 400 local Swazis from our surrounding community on our farm, at the children’s campus and in our vocational training centers (i.e. beadwork, carpentry, mechanics, etc), so that they are able to provide for their families.

We provide education for our children through Project Canaan Academy. We are building our school as our children grow and our oldest are in 6th Grade (as of 2023). We believe they will be the future leaders and education is the best way to empower them!

Our History

Our Mission

Our Values

What We Do

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