About Be A Number

Our Story

Be A Number began in 2010 when founder Kevin Hershock was a college student who refused to accept that communities recovering from war had to depend on outside charity forever.

After years of direct experience in Northern Uganda — living in villages, building relationships with local leaders, running a women's bakery for five years — he recognized a fundamental problem: traditional aid creates dependency. Programs end when funding ends. Communities wait for outsiders instead of building their own future.

So we built something different. Working with local partners, we developed integrated community systems — healthcare, education, vocational training, and economic infrastructure — designed to sustain themselves through earned income and local ownership.

Be A Number works in deep partnership with Youth Development Organisation Uganda (YDO), our local implementing partner led by Simon Peter Wilobo.

Be A Number provides strategic design, fundraising, international partnerships, and systems architecture from the U.S.

YDO provides local leadership, community relationships, program implementation, and on-the-ground operations in Northern Uganda.

This isn't a donor-recipient relationship. It's a true partnership where both organizations bring essential capabilities. YDO isn't implementing our programs — we're jointly building systems that belong to the community.