On Friday, July 15th, 2022 we laid to rest TeamLift, Inc.’s co-founder, Peter Daino. He had traveled in June from Zambia to the United States for medical care and in the final weeks of his life suffered complications from pneumonia before dying on July 11th. He was buried next to his parents in the town of his birth in upstate New York.

Peter Daino was a man who was small in physical stature, but who commanded your attention with the size of his heart. Rooted in his Catholic faith and a core belief to serve people mired in spiritual, physical or emotional poverty, he came to Africa with the Peace Corps in his 20’s, and essentially never left. He built and staffed schools and healthcare facilities; cared for orphans and vulnerable children; and in the process gave away nearly every penny he earned. People would line up outside his door every morning looking for help, hoping to benefit in some small way from that generous heart.

In 2010, Peter and I co-founded TeamLift, Inc., a U.S.-based NGO that builds schools, healthcare facilities and farms in an effort to end chronic poverty for women and girls in Malawi. On the strength of his relationship with a wonderful family in Ohio, Peter negotiated funding and then managed the construction of our signature project -- St. Mary’s Secondary School for Girls -- a $4.0 million boarding school that is the top-rated secondary school for girls in all of Malawi. TeamLift has since added a hospital and farm to the campus.

Peter remains one of my dearest friends – even in death. So many people in New York, Ohio, Kenya, Zambia and Malawi would say the same thing. You can’t imagine letting go of this man. It saddens me to think we will never hear his voice again, but we must promise each other never to allow the compassion of his heart to fade.

-Don Neureuther