Changing Course in the Middle of Life’s Journey.

Mozambique sits on the southeast coast of Africa. Its beautiful beaches and climate belie the challenges of poverty and growing pains associated with its independence, gained in 1975.

Those early years of building a new country brought food supply chain and infrastructure challenges. Famine was rampant. In 1984, Peter Pretorius, a South African, traveled to the area to see if there was something he could do. He had planned to be there for one day, but he was unable to get transportation out for more than a week.

Surrounded by starvation, Pretorius — a successful businessman — wondered why a country so rich in natural resources could not sustain basic living conditions for its people. With his wife Ann, he immediately went to work. That was 40 years ago.

From the beginning, they knew they were in for the long haul. They formed a nonprofit named Joint Aid Management (JAM), now known as ForAfrika. They began building networks of resources and education centers so that villagers could get the supplies they needed and learn how to manage the process themselves. Stephanie Guzman, ForAfrika’s vice president of philanthropy, says, “Peter was one of the most impactful people in the international development space. He was raised in Africa. He cares about the people, all of them.”

From one man’s humble yet ambitious vision, a lifesaving organization reaching across six countries now delivers nutritional relief to areas battered by natural disasters and war. Pretorius established a food program for orphans and built an orphanage. Food was delivered to war-torn Rwanda following the genocide. He gathered resources to build a food production factory in Angola. He traveled to Sudan to establish a food supply chain for 114 schools. He returned to Mozambique and built another food factory.

The new century saw extraordinary growth, with ForAfrika feeding over 1 million people by 2012. The organization began digging wells and establishing irrigation farms for locals. During the pandemic, ForAfrika orchestrated efforts to feed nearly 4 million suffering people.

“We go where there is the most desperate need,” Guzman says. “That was Peter’s vision: to make the biggest difference in the shortest time. To share in the struggles, not to take over. Help people work toward their own solutions. But first, feed them.”

One person. One vision. Millions of lives saved. Although Peter Pretorius passed away in 2018, his work continues. The number of lives he has impacted for good is impossible to calculate. But even if it were just one, he would tell you it was worth it.

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