As an Benedictine Abbey, Ndanda is an independent enterprise, but bound into a larger group of monasteries, called the Congregation of St. Ottilien. St. Ottilien itself is a big monastery in Southern Germany, founded in 1884. The aim of this foundation was - as did the Benedictine monks in the middle ages - to prepare young men and women for the monastic life and afterwards to send them as missionaries all over the world, especially to Eastern Africa. Nowadays the congregation of St. Ottilien has monasteries in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Venezuela, Columbia, United States, South Korea, India, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Togo and Tanzania.