Mrs Phiri and Kondwani covered a total of 276 km in one day last week delivering emergency food to seven families.
Through our news feeds and recent food appeal you will have seen what a difficult time our families are facing in Malawi. They are in the middle of the worst crisis for ten years and their stories are heartbreaking.
Children in our homes always have enough to eat, but now with your help, we have been able to step in with some extra food for the children that we have returned back to their families.
When we saw the malnutrition levels on our Outreach visits at the start of the year, we quickly ordered emergency food supplies to help. The team are now starting to deliver it to the 200 children and families we support through our Outreach programme. As you can imagine it is a huge job on top of the day to day operations in the homes. But there is a very important part for us to play in helping families within their own communities. Our work will give much needed food to those Open Arms families that are most vulnerable and help them through until the next harvest is due in April.
Mrs Phiri’s trip to deliver to seven families took the whole day, she left at 7.30 and returned at 4pm. As you can imagine the families are very spread out, and some of the roads become impassable in the rains. Unfortunately, we only find this out when we get on the road. As you will have seen from our pictures, much of the journey is made on dirt roads with our faithful pick up truck. But when the rain hits, these become mud tracks with huge pot holes and so driving can be very difficult.
Matron and Kondwani visited recently returned children Isaac and Mada, who volunteers from this year will remember fondly as young Harrogate House residents.
Both little boys are now with their Grannies, Mada’s Granny was so thankful for the donation of food as they haven’t been able to grow any food yet so they are very hungry.
We also saw Aisha and little Frank who is always pleased to see Mrs Phiri’s familiar face and show her around his home.
While out on the visits, Mrs Phiri takes time to talk to the families and see how they are doing, she checks the children’s health and wellbeing and monitors their development. She also looks at the crops to make sure food is growing for the future.
As you will see from Frank’s photo, the maize is starting to grow and doing well, which is a huge relief. Our team of two were told that there is regular rain now and if this continues there will be much a better harvest in the spring.
In the meantime the families are doing piece work where they can to earn the money for each day’s meals. It’s hard work for them and there will still be a lot of hunger and worry until a good harvest returns.
Once nutrition levels are assess, Mrs Phiri and Kondwani also deliver rehydration sachets, soaps and clothes from our donated store. This is not a lot, but helps make life that bit more comfortable through such a tough time.
We are always indebted to our supporters and donors and this is no exception. Reintegration of children and supporting the long term sustainability of communities is a core part of Open Arms. From time to time however, our families need that extra bit of support and it is only with your help that we can deliver projects like emergency food distributions. For that we would like to say thank you.
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