Yei Campus

Est. 2001

Harvesters Reaching the Nations was formed in 2001 in response to the tremendous needs of orphans in South Sudan. Hearing of the plight of these children, an ordinary woman from Wisconsin prayed a simple prayer, “Lord, what can I do?” The Lord’s response? “Sell all you have and give it to the poor.” Acting in faith, Lillian Klepp and her husband Dennis sold everything and moved to South Sudan to open Harvesters Orphanage and Christian School.

Harvesters’ Yei campus consists of 90 acres of land donated by the South Sudan government in 2001. By 2002, we cared for 50 orphans and held school and church under the mango trees. Two years later we had 100 orphans and expanded our dormitories to accommodate the growth. In 2005 a clinic, His Merciful Hand, was added to care for the basic health needs of the children. By 2006 we began to raise funds to build a church for those on our campus and for locals within the community to attend. Prior to that we held church services in our pyatt (dining hall). In 2008, we were teaching more than 370 students at our Primary School and began talks of building a hospital to better meet the needs of vulnerable women and children in the community. In 2012 we were able to open His House of Hope Hospital – which later had to close in 2016 due to insecurity in the region. By March 2022, the hospital reopened as His House of Hope & Faith Hospital. Throughout our time, we recognized a need to provide the majority of our Primary students as well as locals in the community with an opportunity to pursue vocational training since the economy is dependent on workers with valuable skill sets used in the region. In 2014 we officially opened the Vocational Training Institute. Over the course of the past 22 years in Yei (our charter campus), we have built staff housing, dorms, a kitchen and dining Hall, a Primary School, a Church, a Hospital, a Vocational Training Institute as well as other facilities within a fenced-in campus.

Today, we care for 64 orphans and provide Primary education for 473 students on our Yei campus. From our humble beginnings with just two people, we’ve since grown to serve 119 orphans and more than 1,680+ students at our 3 primary schools and secondary school, and thousands more through our churches, hospital and clinics across our three locations in South Sudan and Uganda.

To God be the glory!