The impact of the Heart for Africa feeding program to the community.

The Heart for Africa feeding program acts as a beacon tree of hope in the Kingdom of Eswatini. This tree spreads its roots and fruits from Project Canaan, to the surrounding communities, to social welfare offices and to our church partners in far rural communities in the four regions of the country. This feeding program brings hope to more than 400 children housed in Project Canaan, more than 400 Project Canaan employees, 4000+ orphans and vulnerable children in the church partners, their relatives and many more others who benefit from this program either direct or indirect.

To describe the impact of our feeding program in the Kingdom of Eswatini, I will start by explaining in details how this works.

There is an English saying that goes, “Charity begins at home.” I will start with feeding our own children at Project Canaan, our employees, the nearby communities and finally with far communities.

Project Canaan Children

The children living at Project Canaan enjoy eggs, MannaPack™, oats, etc, that are part of the food from our program. Since these are healthy foods, children are directly benefiting from this. Heart for Africa partners who donate these food products help the project by lowering some of the cost of buying food for the children and we are eternally grateful for their continuous support.

Project Canaan Employees

Employees at Project Canaan also benefit from our feeding program. Some employees come from extremely poor homes, whereby some of them are the only people employed and sole providers at those homesteads. Some also come from big extended families with many people to feed. At Project Canaan, we have a criterion of identifying those heavily loaded employees and we often give MannaPack™ to help them in feeding their families.

Project Canaan surrounding communities

Heart for Africa feeding program extends a helping hand to its neighbors in many ways. First, we have church partners in those communities whereby most of the children from employees feed several days in a week. Homestead visits from Project Canaan are activities that happens more often in the nearby communities. We usually take our visiting volunteers to those homesteads. In Africa, it is regarded as a good thing to visit your neighbors and check on their wellbeing so we like being a good neighbor. In preparations to visit those homesteads, we usually identify the neediest ones and take with us a lot of food and clothing to them. At those homesteads we also pray with them and act as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Some of the people who benefit from this program are orphans, vulnerable children, elderlies and people living with disabilities and multiple chronic health conditions. We bring hope to them and build good relationships with them while serving God at the same time.

Church Partners

Heart for Africa partners with 30 churches that are located in the poorest and most rural parts of the country. These churches have been carefully identified and selected due to their dedication in serving God in their communities through preaching the gospel as well as feeding orphans and vulnerable children in their communities. They are also sensitive to the needs of their communities. There are more than 4000 of these children who benefit directly from this feeding program. There are different feeding schedules in these churches as follows; some cook for the children 2 days in a week, some cook seven days in a week and others cook for the children in their nearby schools. Heart for Africa ensures continuous supply of food products like MannaPack™, Gleanings for the Hungry soup mix, eggs, sugar beans, etc. There is a Heart for Africa truck that delivers food to them and when it arrives those churches’ children identify it as a source of hope for them.

It is worthy mentioning that this season was not a good one because some of communities in the country did not receive enough rains. Therefore people did not get good harvests. In addition to this, the cost of living is skyrocketing in most countries and Eswatini has not been spared. As members of society experience these struggles, the Heart for Africa feeding program has become a big source of hope for them. Most parents know that their children will get food from these church partners, will not sleep on empty stomachs, and the cost of buying food at their homes is reduced as well.

We often hear from those church leaders that our feeding program has helped them in so many ways like helping them win more souls for God. As children come to eat at the church, the gospel is told to them, they bring with them more friends, parents, etc., thus expanding their ministries.

Creation of peace and reduction in crime.

Creation of peace and harmony amongst members of societies is another aspect that our feeding program promotes. Church leaders are highly respected members by everyone in the societies. Their feeding program does not feed only children in their church but also children from other churches and nearby communities. During feeding time, children interact with each other as well as some of adults who bring those children. This interaction creates good neighborhood thus resulting in peace and harmony amongst those people.

Crime rate reduction is another benefit that comes with our feeding program. When parents do not have food to feed their hungry children, and when older children are hungry (especially teenagers), they are tempted to commit crimes looking for means to provide or get food etc. Due to our feeding program, all the children are fed and therefore less and less crimes are committed.

Social Welfare Offices

Social welfare offices act as sources of hope for many desperate and hopeless members in the society. Members of society usually go to their offices and discuss with them their desperations in different aspects. People are desperate due to child neglect, child abuse, child abandonments, and some children even die when the situation is dire. The Heart for Africa feeding program partners with some of these social welfare offices and provide them with food so that they can assist those who are desperate for food. This has helped with especially teenagers who become desperate and hopeless. The result of this is less and less children become abandoned, killed and hope gets restored. We thank these members of society for the good work they do in their societies and country at large.

Conclusion.

On behalf of the Heart for Africa feeding program, I would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who is supporting this program in any aspect. Your continuous support and prayers have been giving hope and will continue doing so to so many needy people in this beautiful country. I would like to ask you to continue supporting us more and invite your friends to support the program as well.

Anthony Mutua, Hunger Initiative Project Manager and Nurse at Project Canaan