Restore International, now known as Love Does, is a nonprofit organization founded by Bob Goff in 2003. Their goal is to work for freedom and human rights, improve educational opportunities, and try to be helpful to those in need of a voice and a friend.
History
Restore International was founded in 2003 by Bob Goff after a trip to India where he witnessed extreme human rights violations. Restore India started with efforts to free those in bonded labor, human trafficking, or otherwise exploited. In 2006, they began working in Uganda in human rights and education. In March 2014 they launched a program in Somalia to improve educational opportunities, safety care for women and children, and feeding programs. In September 2014, Restore opened a school in Iraq as well as an orphanage in Nepal. In 2016, they rebranded to '"Love Does"' and continue to further their work in these countries.
Activities
The work of Love Does are divided into two major areas: education and human rights. Love Does activities include education, fighting human trafficking through investigations, surveillance, brothel raids, working with local law enforcement, and providing safety for women and children. Love Does works in India to prevent the sale and trafficking of underage children. It has helped stop forced prostitution in India by arresting over 80 criminals and placing the children in safe houses. In addition, Love Does also works in Northern Uganda, a country that Goff holds the position of Honorary Consul. Love Does work in Uganda is focused around educating and empowering children. Love Does founded a school, Restore Leadership Academy, in Gulu, Uganda in 2007. Restore Leadership Academy first began with 30 students and expanded to over 500 students with 30 teachers. Love Does has been noted by Nicholas Kristof in his book A Path Appears in regards to their work in Uganda Restore International. Love Does hosted two Love Does conferences in Austin, Texas and Tacoma, Washington where 100% of the proceeds went to efforts in Uganda and India.
Uganda
Love Does has been working in Uganda since 2006, primarily to promote human rights and education. They started by asking Ugandans what the biggest need was at the time. Their answer was human rights and education, so Love Does got busy trying to be helpful in those areas. The educational aspect is not the only need addressed as Love Does has a safe house in Kampala,Uganda that has over 25+ girls living there. Love Does also holds weekly classes for more than 70 traditional healers to teach them basic literacy and anti human trafficking. Lastly, Love Does supports a program that sends 35 graduates of Restore Leadership Academy on to University.
Restore Leadership Academy
In 2007, Love Does started a secondary school in Gulu, Uganda. Many of the students were previous child soldiers, rescued from lives of forced sex trafficking, orphans, or from backgrounds of extreme poverty. From a tiny beginning, the school thrived on the vision to give these kids hope, a home and a fighting chance at success. As of 2017, there are 500+ students and 30 staff members in primary, middle and high school and Restore Leadership Academy is one of the top schools in Northern Uganda for its academic performance and sports teams. Soon after opening, Love Does added more grade levels so that the levels spanned from Senior One to Senior Six, which is the U.S. equivalent of junior high and high school. They added dorms so that the children could live at the school and they also introduced a program of family cells, so that the students could thrive in a safe, caring and family-like environment with assigned mentors. They kept the cost of tuition to less than half of the normal rate, and put many students on scholarship so that they could continue to attend. In 2011, they were able to build a school campus on land that they had purchased for their students. A couple of years later, in March 2013, they opened a primary school in order to provide more opportunities for education at all ages. In the summer of 2017, they began building a new primary school campus across the street from Restore Leadership Academy, so that the primary school can continue to grow! Also in 2017, they wired the school buildings with electricity so the campus always has power! In addition to academics, they have focused on a holistic approach to student development by providing extracurricular actives and community building programs such a sport teams, boy and girl scouts, group studies, and music programs.
India
Throughout the world, 29 million people each year are enslaved. That is the highest number in the history of the world. India has been noted to have more than half of the world slave population. Love Does has been working in India since 2002 to investigate and perform surveillance to find children being enslaved in brothels or other forms of bonded labor. They work with police to do raids, rescue the children, and arrest the traffickers. The children are then taken to homes to be cared for and hopefully returned home to their families, depending on their situation. The perpetrators are prosecuted and hopefully prevented from enslaving more children.
Somalia
is a country torn by war and struggling to recover from years of famine, war, unrest, and violence. Unfortunately, the biggest victims are the women and children. It's estimated there are over a million displaced people in the country right now, and the vast majority of these people struggle to meet the basic needs of survival, let alone to pursue education and livelihoods. Love Does is working on improving educational opportunities for the youth, and safety and care for women and children. The MogadishuSafe House was opened in September 2014 for women and children who had been victims of gender based violence. The home is a place for them to come for safety, medical attention, counseling and therapy, and then job training skills to help build their lives back.
Iraq
Love Does has been working in Iraq since the summer of 2014, when ISIS took control of vast areas of Northern Iraq and displaced almost a million people. During this time they have zeroed in on the refugee crisis, providing emergency supplies and aid, and then focusing their efforts on a school for refugee children. The Love Does School is now home to almost 300 refugees. The school is made up of Yazidi kids from Sinjar Mountain, Shabak kids from Mosul, and Arab kids from the Anbar province. All of their students are able to attend classes 5 days a week, and they bus all children living in IDP camps to the school. The Love Does Village is in progress and will consist of 20 homes for Syrian Refugee families. These families have been living in makeshift homes made up of tarps and shells of buildings. Love Does knows how important it is to have a safe place to live and grow families, and they are honored to be able to build them these homes. In the fall of 2017, they will begin building the Love Does Hospital to serve the refugee community. The hospital will be located within walking distance of the village and the school, and will be able to provide services to hundreds of refugees.
Nepal
Love Does wanted to open a home for young, orphaned girls to experience what it's like to be welcomed into a family and loved like one as well. In September 2014, they opened the Love Does Nepal Orphanage, which is now home to six incredible little girls. The girls are cared for by an amazing couple who live in the home. The girls all attend a private school nearby the home, so that they can receive an excellent education. In 2015 Love Does went on relief trips to Nepal after the earthquake that struck in April. After seeing the need there, they decided to open an after school program for kids whose homes were destroyed by the earthquake. It's called the Love Does School and they have more than 40 amazing kids attending. They come to the center after they get out of school and get a meal, tutoring, help with homework, and a safe place to spend time.
Child Sponsorship
Love Does pairs students with friends in the States or around the world who want to help out financially and be a friend to the kids for encouragement and support. Sponsorship enables Love Does to continue operating the schools in Uganda and Somalia by subsidizing the expenses each month, and it also allows them to provide scholarships, reduce tuition, and other benefits to the children. Love Does is dedicated to restore hope, invest in the future leaders, and change a few lives for the better. The cost of the sponsorship "engage" program is $1 USD per day which provides over 700 children with a home, meals, and an education.
