Thanks to the support of our donors,  including a very generous gift from the congregation of Floris UMC, the CRC was able to provide emergency food supplies to families that have been made even more vulnerable by the COVID pandemic.  "Most parents have lost their source of income to support their homes," CRC Director Olivia Fonnie said.  The CRC provided hundreds of needy families with rice, cooking oil, onions, and Maggi seasoning cubes, the staple foods for most lower income Sierra Leone families.  

In addition to helping families in Bo, the CRC case managers brought supplies to families in Fengehun, Manguama, Yamandu, Mattru on the Rail, and Sami villages.

The majority of Sierra Leonean households spend most of their income on food, and the COVID containment measures have created real hardship for the vulnerable families served by the CRC.  Even before COVID-19, experts projected that more than a million Sierra Leoneans would face severe acute food insecurity this year (Source: reliefweb.int.)  The One Campaign estimates that 12,000 people per day across the globe could die from hunger linked to the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 by the end of this year.   You can support our COVID response by donating here. 

The families served by the Child Reintegration Centre live on the margins, even by the standards of one of the poorest countries in the world.  The government's nationwide lockdown in response to the global COVID pandemic has pushed these families to the brink, and some have become extremely food insecure. (See Lockdowns will starve people in low-income countries, The Washington Post)
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With the generous help of our donors, the CRC has responded by distributing emergency food to help the most desperate families get through the crisis. The families were provided with food essentials including rice, vegetable oil, onions, and Maggi flavoring cubes.  The entire CRC staff pitched in to assemble food packages and distribute them to the grateful families. 

“I am a single mother with four children and my husband died during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone," one mother said.   "For the past months my children and I have not been having enough food to eat. Thank God today we have got some food substance”. 
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Food was distributed in Bo and in several of the villages the CRC serves, including Fengehun, Manguama, Sami, Mattru on the Rail, and Yamandu.  Case manager Victor Kanu explained the situation.  “Families in the rural communities are more vulnerable than those in big towns and communities, and find it difficult to get food."  

In the Mattru on the Rail community near Bo, a mother expressed her gratitude for the assistance.  “I am happy to receive the food you people brought to my community this morning.  I am preparing to go to the farm with my family since school is not in session so as to find what we can eat, not knowing that God will send his people to support us with food.” 

If you would like to help provide struggling families with emergency food, you can donate to HCW's COVID response by clicking on the link below.