One Child at a Time – Mission

Frank and Jane Tilley pose with 17-year-old Josephine.
What began with a presentation at a church in Mississauga, Ont., turned into a passion for a pair of Presbyterians.

“I’m just back from Africa and all fired up to motivate Canadians to see what’s happening in a Kenyan orphanage,” says Frank Tilley, executive director of the Mully Children’s Family Charity Foundation, a Christian humanitarian organization supporting 1,700 children.

The Tilleys, members of First, Collingwood, Ont., first heard about the charity in 2001 when they attended a talk by millionaire philanthropist and founder Dr. Charles Mulli.

Mulli was abandoned at the age of six. In Nairobi, he worked as a servant and saved his money to purchase a car that he used as a taxi. Eventuall Mulli became a millionaire with a fleet of buses, properties and petroleum distribution rights. In 1986, he had a life-changing experience after his new Mercedes was stolen by a gang of street kids. Mulli fretted about this loss for three years. Then he heard God calling him to forgive and “surrender.” When Mulli remembered his own experiences as a street kid, his anger turned to compassion and he said, “Lord, now I am ready.” Mulli sold his businesses and used his wealth to build an orphanage. Since then the Mulli family have dedicated themselves to rehabilitating abused and homeless children.

After the talk, Frank Tilley told Mulli that he had given up on Africa because of the corruption and tribalism.

“Charles replied: ‘God hasn’t given up. If I can take one child from the street and turn out a decent citizen, I’m doing God’s work,'” recalls Tilley, who owns Tilley Leather of Canada.

During the summer of 2001, Frank and Jane Tilley and their daughter Sarah went to see Mulli’s facility, which is located two hours east of Nairobi. That year, there were 400 children. Right there and then, the Tilleys sponsored Josephine, who is now 17 and finishing high school.

The Tilleys were so impressed with Mulli’s work and the children that they became involved in fundraising.

In 2006, they took 14 South Georgian Bay Rotarians to the orphanage to help build a visitors’ residence. They also donated sewing machines so girls who finished their schooling could set up small tailoring businesses.

And in 2009, thanks to Canadian donors, a choir of 20 Mully children were given a bus that enabled them to travel across Canada singing and fundraising. Their inaugural concert was at First, Collingwood. The choir raised $300,000.

According to Frank, the foundation’s job is to empower, not direct, the rescue of homeless children. Staff and volunteers are always mindful of Mulli’s motto of hope: “One at a time.”

Mulli has grown his charity to six facilities, including an agricultural operation. This initiative provides employment for about 500 women, making it the biggest employer in a subsistence region where unemployment is 40 to 60 per cent. The foundation also operates three non-residential schools, offering food, education and medication to village children living in conditions so deplorable Frank can barely describe them without a lump in his throat. Commonly, there is a grandmother, in a mud hut, looking after an extended family.

“It’s mid-blowing. If you think of the macro-situation, Africa is hopeless, but if, like Charles, you think of micro-saving, one child at a time, there’s hope,” Frank says. “It’s an African solution to an African problem.”