CRC provides emergency food to families struggling due to COVID lockdowns

7/2/2020

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)

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”.

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.

The CRC delivered emergency food to several of the villages served by case management, including Fengehun, Manguama, Sami, Mattru on the Rail, and Yamandu.