We Have Rebranded!
Project Nyame Nsa has rebranded to Agape Global. Welcome to our new website!
Who We Are
Agape Global (formerly Project Nyame Nsa) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to expressing God’s love to orphans and highly vulnerable children, particularly in Ghana and Zambia, Africa.
Our Mission
Agape Global expresses God’s love through compassionate action, striving to bring comfort, support, healing, and growth to those in dire need throughout the world. We’re continuing to operate our thriving, village-style havens for orphans and the vulnerable in Ghana and Zambia, Africa. We place children in nurturing families and provide access to education and holistic programs to help transform their lives and realize their potential. While Agape Global has the ability to bring our village model to other areas in need, we’re also expanding our scope of service by working to answer additional challenges throughout the world. However, these needs may look — be it poverty, hunger, or an array of other issues — we deliver a solution-based response wrapped in faith, hope, and love.
Our Vision
We celebrate each child and have created an environment where they can learn and be nurtured so that their full potential is realized. We strive to transform children’s lives by offering hope, instilling values, and providing a sense of purpose.
Our work is centered around the belief that “it takes a village to change a generation.”
What We Do
We believe that children belong in families. Agape Global has built two sustainable models called the Village of Hope in Ghana and the Village of Joy in Zambia for orphans and the vulnerable to be placed in families where they will thrive and realize their potential. We aim to raise future leaders and instill hope back into the hopeless. We believe that changing the world starts with changing the life of one.
Where We Work
- New York City, United States of America
Headquarters Office - Ghana, Africa
Village of Hope - Zambia, Africa
Village of Joy
Our Programs
Agape Global’s programs are designed to give our children a holistic approach to a healthy and balanced childhood. We strive to foster each child’s God-given gifts and potential, helping them thrive to become adults of character and integrity.
Our programs include:
- Music Lessons
- Sunday Church services
- Excursions
- Counseling
- Prayer & Worship Nights
- Arts
- After School Support
- Cultural Dance
- Sports & Recreation
Our Story
The first spark of Agape Global came to life when founder Devon Leondis was 9 years old, and she dreamed of building a home for orphans in Africa. At the age of 16, after visiting Africa for a water well project, she felt compelled to make that dream a reality.
“Obviously, God had different plans and that trip ended up being something that kickstarted a larger vision,” recalls Leondis.
In 2010, compassionately moved by the poverty and need she saw, Devon gathered support from her family to create a non-profit called Project Nyame Nsa, which means “God’s helping hands” in Twi, a language commonly used in Ghana, Africa.
After partnering with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Project Nyame Nsa was able to construct Village of Hope, a haven for orphans and the vulnerable in Ghana, which opened in July 2016.
Village of Hope is a non-traditional model, which places children — those without living parents, others coming out of human trafficking, and infants given up at birth — in loving homes located within the village, each with its own foster mother and siblings. The children experience a faith-filled, enriching program, which provides a holistic approach to a healthy and balanced childhood. Through education, counseling, the arts, faith-based services, and more, Village of Hope taps into each child’s God-given gifts and potential to help them thrive to become adults of character and integrity.
The life-changing success of Village of Hope inspired Project Nyame Nsa’s expansion into Zambia with an identical program, Village of Joy, which opened in 2021. They care for 100 orphans and vulnerable children in the Village of Hope and Village of Joy programs, in an effort to raise future leaders and instill hope back into the hopeless.
“The core and the heart of what we desire to do is bring these children in, care for them, place them in loving homes, and raise them with skill sets and opportunities for a successful future,” Leondis says.
The organization’s continuing belief is that changing the world starts with changing the life of one. Now known as Agape Global, Project Nyame Nsa’s original vision of change continues to grow and evolve.
“The meaning of Agape is so beautiful, and I think it really speaks to what we’re doing and what we’re providing,” Leondis explains. “And what we always want to do is just display the sacrificial love of Jesus to a broken world that is in need of so much love and care and support. So that’s the reasoning behind, as well as serving as a bigger umbrella to all the different things we want to be a part of.”
While Agape Global has the ability to bring its village model to other areas in need, the organization is expanding its scope of service by working to answer additional challenges throughout the world. However, these needs may look — be it poverty, hunger or an array of other issues — Agape Global delivers a solution-based response wrapped in faith, hope, and love.
“Our mission is simple,” Leondis says. “It’s just love in action. Love is not so much an emotion, it’s not a feeling. To love someone, to be there for someone, it requires action, it requires movement, it requires sacrifice. So, how do we display Agape Global to the world? I truly believe it’s moving in a selfless love that is an active love. If you see a need, you’re responding to that need by whatever that looks like in different parts of the world.”
Leadership
Devon Leondis
Founder, Executive Director, Operational Trustee
Devon is the Founder and Executive Director of Agape Global (formerly Project Nyame Nsa). Devon graduated in May 2016 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Minor in African Diaspora studies. She relocated to Ghana in July 2016 to oversee the launch of the Village of Hope. In 2019, she led a campaign to develop the Village of Joy in Zambia that opened in 2021. Currently, she resides in Dallas managing both global operations while still intimately involved in the lives of the children and staff. Her long term vision is to continue to bring God’s love to orphans and vulnerable children to help shape future generations throughout the world.
Steven Leondis
Board of Directors, Senior Trustee
Steve Leondis serves as Strategic Advisor to the Horizon Group, a global specialized marine logistic provider. Having joined the company in 1983, Leondis worked in multiple areas of operations and sales that culminated with his CEO appointment in 2014. Under his leadership through 2025, the company grew significantly adding services and assets across the globe. Steve holds a BA in History from Yale University (’83). He also enjoyed an outstanding career for Yale Basketball, having been selected 3 times to the All-Ivy Basketball team, voted as the1980 Rookie of the Year and eventually recognized as a Legend of Ivy League Basketball in 2022. Today, he continues his philanthropic work as senior trustee for Agape Global in addition to serving on the boards of Xaverian High School and Foster Foundation.
Board of Directors
Scott Knuckles
Scott Knuckles is the President and General Manager of Adam Vaillancourt Roofing, New England’s largest residential roofing company. Prior to joining Adam Vaillancourt Roofing, Scott spent 25 years in executive leadership with Fidelity Investments. He oversaw the Stock Plan Services Global Contact Centers, driving strategy and execution against key performance indicators. Scott began his career with Fidelity in 1997 and most recently served as Vice President of Sales & Service Model Design, where he led multiple cross-company initiatives to enhance client and participant experiences. Earlier in his tenure, he managed the Garden City, NY branch for five years and built extensive expertise in workplace benefit plans and retail financial services. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Dallas Baptist University and an MBA from Boston University. In addition to his professional career, Scott has been active in nonprofit leadership. He currently serves as treasurer on the board of his church.
John Petras
Since the inception of RockFarmer Properties in 2006, Petras has been directly responsible for the acquisition, debt strategy, strategic development, and construction of more than 2 million square feet of multifamily, office and retail properties representing a total value of more than $2 billion. A Queens native, Petras began his career in fashion and merchandising. In 1986, he founded Alexis & Gianni, a retailer and manufacturer of luxury woman’s outerwear. From the onset, Petras had a passion for real estate, purchasing and operating multiple investment properties before selling his Alexis & Gianni in 2006 to pursue real estate full time. Petras is a graduate of Long Island University/CW Post and New York University, where he holds a BS in Accounting and an MS in Finance, respectively. Petras also serves on Board of Directors of the Hellenic American Education Foundation, a not-for-profit which sponsors and funds educational and athletic programs for children.
Brian Reilly
Brian is Chief Financial Officer at LuxWall, Inc., and a part-time Lecturer at Yale University. Previously, he was in investment banking for 27 years at Barclays and Lehman Brothers. A graduate of Yale University (1985) and Yale Law School (1992), he serves on the Dean’s Leadership Council at the Yale School of Nursing and is active on several boards, including CityLax and the Yale Lacrosse Association.
Operational Trustees
Yao O. Osei
Yao is a lawyer by profession and has been a career diplomat until his retirement two years ago. He served as a diplomat for Ghana in several countries including South Africa, Rumania, and UN – New York and Canada.
Francis Osei
Francis boasts a professional background in Chemical Engineering and further education in Organizational Leadership at Azusa Pacific University, CA. He currently serves as the National Director for CBN-Ghana and also oversees the ministry of Alpha Ghana as a volunteer.