Thank you so much for the overwhelming response to our
famine relief efforts. In the end we had funds enough to purchase 307
sacks of maize! The official distribution started on the 17th of this
month and has been going well. The villages around us that seem to have
been hit the hardest by a poor harvest are Magambua, Ilasee, Ovada,
Wairo, Dinae, Manantu, Gumbu and Motto. We have two distribution
points, one here at the church house (Lorusso’s place) in Magambua, and
the pastor’s house in Kwa Mtoro. Borrowing wisdom from some Christian
transformational development ideas (see the book “When Helping Hurts”),
we decided with this distribution to do a sliding scale approach, and
sell small amounts of maize at about half the normal market price to
those who can afford it. For those who are extremely poor, widows, or
orphans, we are helping them with free food. We’re depending a lot on
church leaders, local believers, and village leaders to identify those
who are really hurting in the community, and we’ve been asking for
references. This has helped decrease some of the massive lines in
previous years where everyone shows up (rich and poor) to get their free
handout. Money that comes in from the half-price sales will go back in
to the fund to buy more food for relief or specially treated seed to
distribute to people so that this coming year they can plant again and
avoid dependency.

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