How Orchard: Africa started ...

Our founders, Mike and Michelle Tessendorf, pastored a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic church in the north west province of South Africa for over 20 years. Through this church, the ministry of Orchard: Africa was birthed.

The AIDS pandemic created a humanitarian crisis of overwhelming proportions. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, hospitals, unable to cope and with no treatment available, sent people home to die. Millions of children were left orphaned, fending for themselves.

What started as a church-led response of compassion to the sick, the dying and their children, turned into a fully fledged ministry of its own.

Over the past three decades, Orchard: Africa has served tens of thousands of adults and children through relief, reconstruction, and development programs.