Ryan Keith
President, Forgotten Voices International

Ryan serves as the President of Forgotten Voices International, an organization that is partnering with church leaders in Southern Africa to meet the physical and spiritual needs of HIV/AIDS orphans in their communities.  Ryan is passionate about sharing the stories of vulnerable children, those that care for them, and local churches in Zimbabwe & Zambia, all working together to love as Christ commanded, but need champions to hear their cries for effective partnership.  Focused on education, home based care, and skill development in areas of the world often ignored by the West, Forgotten Voices is providing hope to forgotten orphans and church leaders at the local level.

Ryan was on the initial trip to Zimbabwe in 2004 and felt called by God to help WSEFC start a ministry at the church, which eventually would become the separate non-profit ministry of Forgotten Voices. Ryan has enjoyed watching the ministry emerge from an idea birthed from conversations around camp fires with Zimbabwean pastors into a movement that is engaging supporters all around the USA, reaching hundreds churches and thousands of vulnerable kids in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Ryan is a 2002 graduate of Messiah College and is currently a Pforzheimer Fellow in Non-Profit Management at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, where he is a candidate for a Masters of Public Policy.  Ryan expects to graduate in June 2010.

Ryan and his wife Katie, who is a Social Worker, MSW at a Head Start preschool, live in Watertown, MA, just outside Boston, MA, where Ryan grew up. After Ryan’s graduation, they plan to return to the Harrisburg, PA.

Q: What is unique about the ministry of Forgotten Voices?

A: Forgotten Voices is an organization embodying our mission of equipping local churches and listening to local voices. Daily, I see our team of staff in Africa and volunteers in the USA really trying to understand where pastors in Africa are coming from and where churches in the USA find themselves. Ministry is messy, involving people that are hurting and searching for something beyond human ambition.  As the only full-time employee in the USA so far, I’m fortunate to work with a host of volunteers here in the States and around southern Africa --- each person making our little engine roar. We couldn’t reach so many kids without a host of people choosing daily to love kids they’ve never met, but loving them as if the kids were their own. I’ve never encountered a more committed body of believers, who are striving to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ through service to God and the mission of Forgotten Voices.  Every day, I’m humbled by the unique passion of each person affiliated with Forgotten Voices and the dynamic that emerges when people are serving a purpose beyond what we can imagine.  The passion I see in the eyes and hear in the voices of our partners, volunteers, and African staff drives me forward. It’s such an exciting movement to be part of – what a privilege.

<Back to the Board of Directors