Tanya and Amos come from opposite worlds, but they have a shared vision:
What's on our plates decides what's left of our planet.
Amos Leuka
Amos is a traditional Maasai man from rural Kenya. He is a teacher, cultural leader, and member of the Loita Council of Elders. He is the founder and director of the OloipLang Project, championing Indigenous rights, cultural heritage, biodiversity, and resilient communities.
Tanya O'Callaghan
Tanya is an internationally acclaimed rock musician from Ireland. She is a speaker, writer and passionate activist and advocate for environmental, animal and human rights.
Our Story
In 2023, Tanya traveled to West Africa for the first time and witnessed a powerful paradox: a continent rooted in some of the world's richest, healthiest, naturally plant-based food cultures was already facing the first wave of ultra-processed foods and rising diet-related illness. She didn't see a problem. She saw a defining opportunity.
Africa has done this before.
Much of the continent never waited for landlines. It went straight to mobile phones. In Kenya, M-Pesa let millions of people send and save money from a basic phone without ever opening a bank account, years before mobile payments took off in the West. Across the continent, solar power is reaching villages the electric grid never did. In Rwanda, drones deliver blood to hospitals along roads that were never built.
Again and again, Africa hasn't followed the rest of the world's path. It has leapt over them into the future.
Food is the next leap.
Moved by the generosity and community-centered wisdom she encountered across her travels, Tanya founded Mission Leapfrog: a movement to put Africa's food wisdom where it belongs, at the front of the global conversation and our need to shift toward healthier, plant-based eating for the better of all beings and our planet. In 2024, in collaboration with legendary humanitarian advocate Molly Melching and Tostan International in Senegal, Tanya brought together a team of doctors and chefs to host an educational seminar for 15 NGO leaders from across Africa. The response was remarkable.
Then came Amos.
A Maasai leader from the Loita Hills of southern Kenya, Amos arrived at the seminar with an open mind and a deep commitment to his community's wellbeing. The Maasai diet has traditionally centered on meat, dairy, and blood, while Tanya has been vegan her whole life. Yet after hours of conversation, they recognized something in each other: two people from opposite ends of the earth, fighting for the same future.
Now, from the kitchen to the classroom, they're on a mission to protect and celebrate the food wisdom Africa still holds and the rest of the world has lost.
Africa isn't catching up. It's leading the way.