SOUTHWEST BALTIMORE, Md. — A Baltimore man who was featured in the award-winning documentary "Boys of Baraka" has returned to Kenya as an adult to give back to the country that transformed his life.
WATCH: Baltimore man from 'Boys of Baraka' documentary returns to Kenya
Devon Brown, now 35, led a mission trip to Kenya in December through his nonprofit "Kenya with Love." Brown was one of 12 Baltimore boys featured in the documentary that followed their journey attending boarding school in Kenya for a year when he was just 12 years old.
"Kenya actually saved my life. It actually changed my life, and it made me the man that I am today," Brown said. "God gave me the opportunity as a 12-year-old boy from East Baltimore to grow up and now be able to go and do missions work in Kenya."
Brown's team of six visited Kibera, the world's third-largest slum, in Nairobi, where they provided two months of food for over 100 children and held a Christmas party for them. The group also gave clothes and formula to a hospital sheltering abandoned babies and delivered a much-needed copier machine to an orphanage, among many stops on their two-week trip. Brown has promised to give that orphanage a hot water tank next Christmas.
"These kids literally have nothing. When you get out of the car, and they see you pull up, they are excited, they are dancing, they are greeting you in the most Kenyan way, and it's just like the most amazing experience," Brown said.
The experience brings joy to the children and humility in return for Brown and his team.
"There's a certain feeling that you get that came over me when I stepped foot off of the plane that's different than anything that I felt before," Brown said. "As a kid, you don't understand what that feeling is, but as an adult, it humbles you, and it makes you grateful for everything."
Now Brown is starting a new mission called "Baraka for All" and wants to take boys from Baltimore on two-week mission trips to Kenya.
"It's my responsibility to reach back into my community and give another kid who was just like me, whose mom was addicted to drugs, whose father was an alcoholic, whose grandparents were raising them," Brown said.
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