Newsletter April 2021

Thank You For Your Support 💚

Dear friends,

We are simply overwhelmed by your response to our previous newsletter. We raised over 820€ in just a couple of days! We have renamed our "drought relief fund" into "disaster relief fund" and were able to send support to the MMF team right away. Each active member has 50kg of maize meal, beans, soup stock, sugar, tea, and oil for them and their family. We will continue to provide funds for this until food security is granted again. Of course, your funds also ensure we can continue to provide the kindergarten feeding scheme as usual.

A huge thank you to everyone who donated, shared, and reached out. We are so grateful for your support 💚

Rosalia, teacher at the Mayana Meho Kindergarten, with first month supply of essential foods provided by MCP donations.

Soap Handout 🧼

It's not just the Corona virus that people in Mayana are struggling with - now they are facing flu season as well. A few teachers and some of the children have already been affected. As a result, soap has been handed out to each child. (To find out more about this project, keep reading until the end of the newsletter.) In addition, the kids and teachers are doing their very best to keep a distance of 2 meters from each other, if it is possible, and to wear a mask if they cannot keep the recommended distance.

Expected harvest and miracle maize 🌽

After the locust plague, the expected crop yield in Mayana is about 10% to 25%. However, this applies only to the crops that were already planted in December. From the crops that were planted in January, they can probably harvest only 0% to 5%.

Fortunately, the corn planted for the chickens seems to be more robust than the Mahnagu (millet) crops, so the team will be able to harvest a lot of it, which will keep the feeding scheme protein line going. 🥚

Upper Arm Measurement

We received new upper arm measurements and good news: in the last month, all the kids are above 135 mm which means they are well-nourished! We've identified 16 children who are at risk for malnutrition. For those kids, we transferred funds to receive peanut butter for this term, which is a great source of protein, fat, vitamin e, and other important nutrients.

Projects that we fundraise for

In this section, we'll tell you a little bit about one programme or project we are currently fundraising for. We value your support in helping us make change possible through these projects and programmes. This month:

Soap and Sanitizer

This programme provides hand sanitizer and soap for teachers and learners to use at the kindergarten upon arrival, before and after eating, as well as before and after going to the bathroom. It also provides children with a bar of soap to take home every month. It provides improvement in health situations and protects from the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases. In addition it teaches children about the need for and benefits of hygiene.

To provide soap and sanitizer for the entire school year we need to raise 300€.