JEROME — Tracy Hills’ second home in Malawi couldn’t be any more different from her comfortable house outside Jerome.

InMalawi, her friends and loved ones constantly sidestep deadly but preventable diseases like malaria and HIV. According to the United Nations, the country is home to 1.2 million orphans — a little less than the population of Idaho. Children wear torn clothes, and few have shoes to protect their tiny feet on the miles-long walk to school. And that’s if they’re lucky enough to be enrolled.

But Tracy aims to make a difference.

Tracy founded a Malawian children’s village, McKallie’s Home of Future and Hope. The non-denominational Christian nonprofit organization is named after Tracy’s adopted daughter McKallie, now 12.

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Tracy remembers wanting to go to Africa as a 10-year-old. Her path didn’t take her there right away — she became a respiratory therapist, married Jerre Hills and had three sons.

In 2002, the couple adopted siblings McKallie andParker. McKallie, who was 4 at the time, suffered from reactive attachment disorder as a result of neglect by her meth-addicted biological parents. Tracy said she had to tear down all McKallie’s defenses and work to build her trust.

While she cared for the two new additions to her family, she dreamed of Africa. In late 2004, she joined a 15-day medical mission to Malawi with nonprofit relief organization Feed the Children after learning about the group through a documentary. There, she encountered poverty, sick families and orphaned or abandoned children.

Those children, like McKallie and Parker, suffered from neglect. Tracy couldn’t imagine leaving them behind and not taking action.

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