How we started…

The idea for Global Orphan Foundation came to our founder, Michele Jackson, through her work with an organization that researched causes of exploitation and trafficking of women and children. She was driven to discover how they got into that situation; the answer was rooted in their families and past experiences, mostly due to poverty. Many of these women and children were forced into exploitation after coming out of orphanages homeless, hopeless, and without a path to independence. 

Global Orphan Foundation grew from this experience; Michele felt compelled to find a way to help knowing that many of these children would never be adopted. GOF was designed with the desire to help those with nothing; those who are the most ‘forgotten’ and disenfranchised: children who have been orphaned.

Global Orphan Foundation was founded in 2007 with a profound passion for orphan care and the creation of loving families. Michele traveled to some of the poorest countries in the world to see if there were other ways she could help children in need. After witnessing first-hand the plight of children without the comfort of a home or love of a family, Michele and her husband, Wayne DeVeydt, started the GOF family as a means for all who want to give hope to the most vulnerable children in the world.