Mulli Relaunches Thousands thru Farming

Mulli Changes a Nation: The Ultimate in Growing Futures and Relaunching Lives

From Abandoned to Abundance: How One Man's Farm Changed a Nation—And How We Can Do the Same

Watch his documentary  Mully (1:21)

Charles Mully - Movie Cover

The Man Who Saw Himself in Street Children

In 1986, a gang of street children stole Charles Mulli's car. The Kenyan millionaire could have called the police. Instead, he saw something that would change everything: "I saw myself in their faces."

Mulli knew those streets intimately. Abandoned at age six, he'd survived through begging before building a transportation empire that made him one of Kenya's wealthiest entrepreneurs. Now, at the height of his success, he couldn't escape the haunting question: What about the children still out there?

Three years later, in 1989, Charles Mulli did the unthinkable. He sold everything—all his businesses, all his property—and moved his family to barren land in Ndalani to become a father to the fatherless.

Some of the thousands of Mully's adopted family members in front of their farm schoolhouse

Today, 35 years later, Mully Children's Family has rescued over 35,000 abandoned children. More than 13,000 have graduated to become doctors, engineers, and teachers. That barren land? Now a thriving 503-acre farm with 2 million trees, creating its own microclimate and influencing over 100,000 farmers across Kenya. In 2009, Mulli won the UN Environment Programme “Champion of the Earth” award for proving regenerative agriculture creates measurable transformation.

One man. One family. One farm. One nation transformed.

Planting a Tree on Environment Day

The Soil Beneath the Miracle

Here's what makes Mulli's story revolutionary: He didn't just rescue children—he grew them a future.

The farm wasn't an add-on to the mission. It was a critical part of the mission. Mulli understood something profound: you cannot heal broken lives with handouts alone. You heal them with purpose, with work, with education, and with the dignity of growing food from soil you've tended with your own hands.

This is where Charles Mulli's vision aligns so well with Eden Streets' Declaration of Common Ground:

The Earth is abundant. Mulli took desolate land, discovered water underground, and watched abundance emerge from scarcity. Today that farm operates at 50% self-sustainability, producing organic vegetables for international markets while feeding thousands.

Engaging with nature transforms individuals. Over 13,000 children learned they could create beauty with their own hands. They learned their labor produced abundance. They learned they mattered.

Each person has immense value. Every child Mulli took in had been discarded by society. Every single one was treated as infinitely precious—and became proof that with the right support, anyone can rise from homelessness to success.

It Takes a "Farmily". Mulli felt inspired to grow food which would not only feed the children, but provide opportunities for them to experience the law of the harvest in action. In the farm and other settings, these young people learned to support one another, to be resilient and self reliant. They came to know the rhythm of planting and reaping which teaches that what you invest today, you gather tomorrow. 

This model is what Eden Streets is building: farms that provide not just meals but job- and life-skills, not just paychecks but purpose, not just job training but community. MCF demonstrated that working together on farms leads to transformed lives—and that impact radiates outward, healing entire communities.

Charles Mully and his Wife - Esther Nthenya

Your Turn to Relaunch Lives

Here's what stops most people: the scale seems impossible. Thirty-five thousand children? Two million trees?

But Mulli didn't start there. He started with one decision, one piece of land, one day of digging until he found water. He started with planting the first tree.

Amazing outcomes are possible when you put people together within a supportive, caring environment working toward a profoundly meaningful cause - gaining an education while growing food. That's not rhetoric—that's the documented history of Mully Children's Family.

Join the Community Farming Movement

Eden Streets aims to advance this model in our communities. We establish farms with social missions to relaunch individuals, strengthen communities, and fortify local economies.

You need them as much as they need you. People experiencing homelessness aren't projects to fix—they're partners in creating something beautiful. They're proof that human potential is never exhausted, only waiting for the right soil.

Charles Mulli faced ridicule, financial struggles, and skepticism. But he persevered, and every barrier was overcome. That's not optimism—that's a promise backed by 35,000 rescued lives and one transformed nation.

Begin Where You Are

If one abandoned child could become a millionaire, then voluntarily become poor again to father thousands—imagine what we can do together.

When we combine love with land, faith with farming, and compassion with community, we don't just grow food.

We cultivate hope. We grow futures. We relaunch lives.

Join Eden Streets in building farms that transform lives, one harvest at a time. Whether you contribute an hour, an acre, or a lifetime—you can be part of solving society's most challenging problems.

To learn more about joining this movement—as a volunteer, partner, supporter, or trainee—visit EdenStreets.org or contact Farmer Karl at Karl@EdenStreets.org.

The soil is waiting. The only question is: Are you?

Author: Karl Ebeling, Executive Director, Eden Streets