Helping Destitute Families Feed Orphans

Aug 14

Helping Destitute Families Feed Orphans

Earlier this year forty people, most of them women, were chosen to participate in a micro-enterprise program designed to help them start a small, but sustainable business. Many of the participants are guardians of children at House of Moses or our other Crisis Nurseries. With the help of this program, called Heaven's Blessing, these guardians will be able to provide a home and food for the children of relatives who have died.

Heaven's Blessing is a two and a half pound plastic package of ground corn, or "mealie meal", the staple food for Zambian families. Maize is ground and packaged at our hammer mill in the center of Kanyama, a Lusaka shantytown. Participants are grouped into cells, with five in each group. Ten packages of meal, each called a pamela, are given to each participant each day for six weeks. As they sell, they pay back the "loan" at the wholesale price of the mealie meal. In six weeks the new business people can have their loan paid and own enough mealie meal to keep the business moving at a level that will give them support for their families.

We are extremely proud of all the participants, and we pray for their success as they work to care for their own children.

The Saturday before the first pamelas were to be distributed, students from our 8th grade showed up to volunteer with the packing and weighing. Having been helped themselves, they were quick to offer their help to others.

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