In 2001 Ken Frantz was leafing through National Geographic and saw a photo of Ethiopian villagers struggling to cross the swollen Blue Nile by looping themselves and their cattle to a frayed rope held by 10 men on each side of the span. Their footbridge had broken down leaving them no safe way to cross. Seeing people so desperate to cross a river that they would put their lives at risk to do it, Frantz decided in that moment he would repair the bridge.

Frantz had the skills needed to do the job; he was a builder in Yorktown VA. He went to Ethiopia and fixed the bridge which was critical to the lives of hundreds of thousands of Amhara highlanders, most of whom live without running water or electricity and depend on footpaths for their commerce and well-being. As one Ethiopian businessman observed to Frantz, “If this bridge is broken, their lives are broken.”

Frantz knew how to build footbridges that wouldn’t break down. He did some research and identified the need for thousands of footbridges around the world, and then he set out to build them. He established the non-profit Bridges to Prosperity and signed on as its executive director. Since that time, he has gone around the world fixing and building footbridges—fifty bridges in twelve countries in the first eight years. Frantz not only didn’t draw a salary, he personally provided the seed money for the organization and its early construction projects.

Because so many rural people have never had footbridges, Frantz’s work in a community often begins by educating the people themselves to the advantages a bridge would bring them. Then he introduces them to his technology for footbridges. Finally, he approaches potential donors to get financial support for the project. There, too, Frantz must educate, explaining both the benefits of footbridges and the needs of these otherwise forgotten rural populations.

In 2009 Frantz expanded his reach by completing work on a comprehensive how-to manual, giving step-by-step instructions that allow any construction group to build a bridge with little-to-no outside assistance. The manual is available on the Bridges to Prosperity website (www.bridgestoprosperity.org).

Fixing bridges joins one community to another; it connects impoverished people to the resources they need for survival and the education they need to improve their lives. “This is symbolic of fixing a larger problem worldwide,” says Ken Frantz. “More than a billion people live in extreme poverty, but it’s a problem we can solve if we all join together.”