What About Results?

Here are a few examples (out of hundreds) of the humanitarian good that we NTC networked social entrepreneurs have produced in our first 3 years:

Lumbadzi, Malawi … No sooner had the ribbon been removed from the grand opening, and the crowds completed their tours of the facility, than the production workers moved into position and food started coming off the end of the line.

In less than a week the workers were able to set a record to be topped; 2000 bags of Nourish the Children's VitaMeals in a single day. That is enough food to feed 2000 children for 30 days, and it was produced in a single record-setting day.

Plans call for a minimum of 1000 bags a day in production, but the work crew showed management just how far they could stretch the minimum requirements.

Nourish The Children (www.nourishthechildren.com), Feed The Children, Nu Skin Enterprises (www.nuskinenterprises.com), Force For Good Foundation (www.forceforgood.org), Lee Iacocca Foundation, Healing Hands International, Blessings Hospital, and the Malawi Project joined their efforts into one, and coupled with the cooperation of the Malawi government and local traditional authorities, the plant went from ground breaking to opening in only 10 months.

Agriculture programs that now include over 33,000 farmers will help "feed" the needs of the plant in soybeans and maize corn. Vitamins and minerals will be shipped to the plant from Nourish The Children, and Nourish The Children will purchase, and then donate to the Malawi Project the first 24,000 packages of food a month.

The food being produced in this first-of-a-kind facility is not just food to fill stomachs. Each program carried out by the Malawi Project is targeted to be the best it can be, and a program that will be a pace-setting example to other aid organizations.

The food plant is an excellent example of this effort to excel. The food that is being produced carries a highly enhanced vitamin and mineral mix that contains the following needed vitamins and minerals for the health of the children eating it. Seldom will these children have a meal that will be as good for their health as the VitaMeals that come from the Madalistso Food Plant. www.malawiproject.org

Plans for the plant will not only focus on distribution of food aid through the programs of Blessings Hospital and the Malawi Project but also will focus on assisting other aid organizations in Malawi, and in the nations surrounding this tiny spot in the sub-Sahara.

DROUGHT UPDATE
PLUSNEWS, IRIN AFRICA- “The impacts of drought, HIV/AIDS and a weak economy have combined to undermine already vulnerable households in Malawi's rural areas…

Penelope Howarth, head of the World Food Programme (WFP) suboffice in Blantyre, told IRIN that many villages in the district had "harvested next to nothing" this year, and people were surviving on wild vegetation and seeking out ganyu (piece work) across the border in Mozambique.

"Others are diving for water lilies - the danger is that there are a lot of crocodiles in the river," she added. Sam Sheku, a WFP field liaison officer, said people had to dive to the riverbed to get the edible roots of the lilies, and Howarth noted that "six members of a family died recently because they ate the wrong kind of lily". Sheku said, "Normally, this time of year they would have harvested [enough to eat] and would be planting winter maize, but there's no residual moisture in the soil [for planting], as there has been no rain."

The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) report noted that if the maize price kept pace with inflation at the average rate for 2002-2004, some 4.2 million people would be at risk. If inflation accelerated (as evidenced by the 75
percent rise in the current maize price) the situation could worsen. The worst-case scenario, depending on the speed and price of imports, could see 4.6 million people at risk in Malawi this year…

In one female-headed household in Thauzeni village, Maria Saba, who estimated her age at about 23, and her mother, Esnath, care for Maria's three children as well as her younger sister Nondo's two young kids. "Both the fathers of the children have died," Maria said.

With five children to feed, the women rely on ganyu to buy maize for the household, but with a poor harvest, ganyu has been hard to find and they have resorted to foraging for edible wild vegetation. The women tried to plant this season "but our maize dried up", Maria said. "The wild leaves we eat are bitter and sometimes they make us vomit, but we only have enough maize meal to last a day," Maria said, so the family has reduced its intake to one meal a day. Corn fields dying from the drought.

A few metres from Maria's home, two young girls, aged 10 and 11, and their 18-year-old brother have been forced to fend for themselves. Zione, the youngest, and her sister, Marianna, have relied on whatever income their brother, Masauko, is able to earn from selling firewood and thatching for homes. "We are here like this because our parents died last year - they died from a long illness," said Masauko.”

Russ Merrill and Angela Soper from the Nu Skin Audio Visual staff recently visited Malawi and Russ described Angela’s reaction:

“I was glad Angela was there to experience Malawi. At one point at the wood-carving market she broke down and cried while watching people walk by. She saw some hurtful sights and conditions that the people there live with. “And we have so much – it just isn’t right!” She was torn apart – I mean really emotionally torn apart. I tried to prepare her for those sights – but how can you really prepare anyone for something like that? She had no idea.”

Because of your donations, over 30,000 children in Malawi are being fed a nutritious meal every day through this crisis. Thank you for remembering the children of Malawi.

Nourish the Chidren is feeding children in many nations. This humanitarian good is driven by the effort and action of NTC allied social entrepreneurs around the world.