About Many Hands Ministries

A faith-based nonprofit committed to transforming lives in Haiti and Abaco

Being love in action where it’s needed most.

Many Hands is a Christian nonprofit organization addressing the root causes of poverty through a proven, faith-based development model.

As a global missions nonprofit serving Haiti and Abaco, we move beyond short-term aid to create lasting community transformation. Our ministry mission and vision focus on restoring dignity, strengthening local leadership, and building sustainable pathways that help communities thrive.

Transforming lives since 2008

Transforming lives since 2008

22

Million

Meals Provided

1,076

Goats Distributed

171

Homes Built

1,190

Concrete Floors Installed

216,806

Thrift Volunteer Hours

1,685

IMPACT Trip Participants

The Many Hands Vision

Many Hands envisions a world where people, transformed together in Christ, unleash their God-given talents to be the Good News in a broken world.

Our Mission

To bring that world into being, we live our mission every single day: Transforming together, to be love in action, in a broken world.

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We are image-bearers of God.

We believe that all have a God-given identity and all have a purpose in God’s plan. All are called to serve their purpose. In relationships, we will help people understand their true calling and stand by them as they unleash their God-given talents to bring the Good News within their circles of influence.

We are the sent people of God.

Just as God sent His Son Jesus and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, we are to be the sent people of God, bringing the Good News to people wherever we are called. Jesus is waiting for us when we get outside of ourselves in faith and will meet us to help us fulfill our purpose.

We believed in saved wholes, not just saved souls.

Jesus didn’t come to be an insurance policy after one dies. He came to bring life and life to the full. We are called to fulfill Jesus’s mission in Luke 4:18–19 to proclaim the Good News, to physically restore that which is broken, and to release people from spiritual, relational, and economic oppression.

We are better together.

As it states in Romans 12:3, we are all broken and in need of a savior; we are just broken in different ways. As we enter into each other’s poverty with our riches, we are all transformed. Through this process, our image of God gets bigger to align with God’s global heart for His people.

We go an inch wide and a mile deep.

We believe in focused impact, not random activity. Breaking the chains of generational poverty is incredibly complicated. To work in this environment, we break it down into focused building blocks that stack on each other, moving towards a common goal.

We work in integrity to create sustainability.

We seek systematic God-sustaining change to fulfill Jesus Christ’s kingdom purposes. We strive to honor God in a fiscally responsible way, making every effort to create transparency in what we do. We live in the tension of short-term giving while seeking long-term God-sustaining change.

Our
Values

Our Model

For Many Hands, “Love in Action” isn’t just a motto—it’s a proven strategy we live out in everything we do. To create transformation, we use a two-fold strategy to help overcome barriers to transformation.

The Funnel

For abundant, but distracted cultures

We focus energy into purpose, creating intentional ways for people to get involved and find their purpose, such as:

Volunteering
Project sponsorship
Impact Trips and events

The Pyramid

For cultures with scarcity and and instability

We build a holistic foundation, equipping people and communities to transform and break cycles by providing programs that support:

Education
Safe Structures
Agriculture
Medical Needs
Leadership and Community Development

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Our Strategy

Many Hands seeks to break cycles of dependency, which often create generational poverty. Instead, we focus on being love in action, transforming families through sustainable efforts that empower people and communities.

The Cycle of Dependency

Poor Mothers Lack Support in Pregnancy: Children are born in unsafe conditions and face significant health risks.
Inadequate Nutrition Leads to Stunted Growth: 90% of brain development happens in the first 1,000 days of life. A child without proper nourishment may be stunted for life.
Child Needs a Sponsor to Attend School: At age 3, a child attends school with a U.S.-based sponsor family. They learn using outdated and ineffective methods, and the caregiver/parent receives no development.
Child Receives Little Food and Poor Care: The child receives basic food and little or no medical assistance. The family continues to live in an unsafe home and receives no investment.
Child’s Future is Dependent on Sponsor, Leaving Family Behind: The child becomes dependent on a sponsor for future education. The power to care for the family is taken from the parents.
The Cycle Continues to the Next Generation: The cycle of dependence and poverty continues into the next generation.

Breaking the Cycle

Pregnant Mothers Get Early Help: An impoverished mother-to-be is invited into programs and begins receiving prenatal care.
Mothers and Babies Thrive in Community: After birth, the child and mother live in a community receiving nutrition, education, health checks, and a safe home.
Kids Learn, Parents Grow: Children learn in specialized preschools and programs, while parents/caregivers learn literacy, farming, and financial skills.
Feed, Educate, and Protect Entire Families: The entire family receives food, education, and health checks. They gain independence with a savings account and pregnant goats for their future.
Families Have Resources to Pay for Child’s Education: At 1st grade and with six years of investment, the family is empowered with resources to pay for their child’s education on their own.
Families Break the Cycle of Poverty: With dignity, the family ends the cycle of dependence by contributing to their future and being productive stewards in their community.

See the Impact

Many Hands is a Christian nonprofit organization founded by Tim Brand, with the goal of bringing life transformation to thousands of people.

In 1998, Tim, a recent grad of Pella High School in Iowa, joined a church group to help build a new school in Haiti. This trip changed Tim’s perspective on God’s global heart and transformed the trajectory of his life. In college, God opened doors for Tim to return to Haiti, and upon his return from this trip, Tim made a covenant with God to be involved in Haiti in some way for the rest of his life.

While working on a master’s degree in business, Tim realized that he could leverage his business skills for nonprofit work. He formed an association of Iowa churches already serving Haiti, encouraging them to work together for the greater good and build upon efforts rather than replicate them. He strived to establish best practices and a development model for projects, create life-changing short-term mission trips and improve financial stewardship.

In 2008, ten years after his first trip to Haiti, Tim established Many Hands for Haiti, a Christian community development organization. In 2009, Many Hands for Haiti (MH4H) became an official 501(c)3 organization and many generous individuals were called to transform together, to be love in action, in a broken world.

In 2022, after the expansion of the mission into multiple branches, the organization became known as Many Hands and continues to bring life and community transformation to the people of Haiti, the Caribbean, and the United States.