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ZMission

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216 Needy Families Fed Today in Rwanda

5/26/2020

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Today is the first week that we have reduced our feeding program to half of what we have been doing through April and May.  We are still giving the same amount of food for each family (22 pounds corn flour, 11 pounds of dry beans, and one 12 inch long bar of soap) to last for one week.

We are thankful that the country is slowly having the restrictions lifted, but it looks like through June 1st lockdown remains in place for non-essential workers.

In addition to this, about fifty people/families have approached us who have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 crisis, and some of those are due to businesses having closed with no immediate expectation that they will be able to re-open. 

Our current plans are to provide food assistance next week similar to this week (which is for about half as many families as the first eight weeks of the crisis), and then after the week ending June 8, see how many families still need assistance due to job losses.

We definitely do not want to create dependency, and this is something we think about in all of the relief work we do.  We are always seeking to help people be self-sufficient, through providing skills and opportunities for work and dignity.  At the same time, we do not want to abandon people that we can help who are truly facing destitution, and do not have anywhere to turn for help.

We thank the Lord for this privilege of helping those in need, and we are grateful for the many who have helped us to respond, and continue to respond as this crisis begins to lessen, and as more people can get back to work.  We are grateful for the prayers and help of everyone who has joined us in this service to Christ and those He loves.  As Jesus said, "Whatever you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me."
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UN World Food Program Warns of COVID19 Hunger Pandemic: "130 million on the edge of starvation"

5/18/2020

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21 April 2020
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062272
Humanitarian Aid The world is not only facing “a global health pandemic but also a global humanitarian catastrophe”, the UN food relief agency chief told the Security Council on Tuesday via video link.

World Food Programme✔@WFPWFP Chief warns of hunger pandemic as #COVID19 spreads.

Noting that the global spread of COVID-19 this year has sparked “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two”, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley pointed to deepening crises, more frequent natural disasters and changing weather patterns, saying “we’re already facing a perfect storm”.
As millions of civilians in conflict-scarred nations teeter on the brink of starvation, he said, “famine is a very real and dangerous possibility”. 
Mr. Beasley painted a grim picture of 135 million people facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, coupled with an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation prompted by Coronavirus, noting that WFP currently offers a lifeline to nearly 100 million people – up from about 80 million just a few years ago. 
“If we can’t reach these people with the life-saving assistance they need, our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period”, he upheld. “This does not include the increase of starvation due to COVID-19”. 
Requesting assistanceNoting that WFP is the “logistics backbone” for humanitarians and “even more so now for the global effort to beat the COVID-19 pandemic”, the WFP chief urged the Council to “lead the way”. 
“First and foremost, we need peace”, he said.
He asked that all involved in the fighting provide “swift and unimpeded” humanitarian access to vulnerable communities and for coordinated action to support life-saving assistance, along with $350 million in new funding, to set up a network of logistics hubs to keep worldwide humanitarian supply chains moving. 
Mr. Beasley also raised the need for early warning systems: “If we don’t prepare and act now – to secure access, avoid funding shortfalls and disruptions to trade – we could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months.”
In closing, he underlined that “we do not have time on our side, so let’s act wisely – and let’s act fast”. 
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Generous gift provides food for 2 weeks for 3,000 people

5/18/2020

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As we continue to feed those struggling to survive under the ongoing lockdown and latent effects it has created, we are rejoicing in a large gift of stock we have received that will help us to feed 3,000 people in Rwanda for two weeks.  The gift is also allowing us to provide clean water through the addition of a 5,000 gallon holding tank for a well that is used to provide clean drinking water to the community.  We are grateful for the gifts we have received, of all sizes, that have allowed us to provide food for approximately 3,000 people per week since the week of March 21 when the lockdown went into effect.  

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COVID-19 Pushes Rwandans to Brink of Starvation

5/14/2020

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By Ralph Kurtenbach, gatewatcher1980@gmail.com, +1 (605) 728-3079 (WhatsApp), May 14, 2020, Nyanza, Rwanda
​It took a month for “starvation” to make a U.S. newspaper headline in the context of COVID-19. Elsewhere in the world, the threat was real within days of the government’s nationwide lockdown.  Under normal circumstances, people in Nyanza District would work their garden plots and subsist on what was produced. However, the coronavirus that has rewritten life’s daily rhythms in other nations has also disrupted the hardscrabble existence of rural Rwanda in East Africa.
​
On March 21—with several people testing COVID-19 positive—the government told Rwandans to shelter in place to limit the spread of the highly-transmissible virus. That nationwide initiative may head off a healthcare crisis (287 positive cases and no deaths) but it comes at a high cost.

“Rwandans typically work today to be fed tonight,” said Clarke Kennedy of the U.S.-based The Zinzendorf Mission (ZMission), “So this has created a serious problem, and people are going without food for days.” Kennedy and his Rwanda consultants (Martha Vetter in South Carolina, Lori Bryan and Godfrey Karema in Rwanda) quickly mobilized a food distribution program for the extremely hungry in the Southern Province.

Their local agency, The Dufatanye Organization (which means “Let’s Join Together”) began their distributions with members of the agency’s cooperative, the historically marginalized and a community nearby called the Village of Hope. These ministries sprang from Karema’s recognition in 2003 of the needs of the 1994 genocide survivors, especially widows with HIV and AIDS. The Rwandan government deeded land to the NGO and the village in the terraced slopes nearby. Dufatanye reached out to these people, now named The Village of Hope, and has helped community members with banana and avocado trees, chickens and subsistence kitchen gardens. Zmission joined this effort in 2008.

Since mid-March (through May 14) the ministries have distributed just over 70 tons of food to 24,752 individuals—a statistic that would include giving to people on more than one occasion. It represents serving a little more than one percent of the district population. The consultants believe that no other NGO’s are working in their area of Rwanda.

“The district authorities are giving us a list of people needing our support,” Karema said. People were issued maize and beans, as well as soap—critical for hygiene to limit the virus’ spread. The giving must be judicious, the consultants agreed. Too much to some could engender the envy of others and even theft. 
“Overall, people are very good about sharing what they have,” said Vetter. The area had just come through a harvest, but few had large reserves of the edible beans they’d grown.

“We are only able to do this work,” Karema said, “because the local government and police gave us special permission to move and work (following COVID-19 guidelines), so that we save people from starving.” In an email message afterwards, Bryan related an account of a mother and father coping with the lockdown by trying to find food into the night, unwilling to stay home and hear their children’s hungry pleas. An older beneficiary of a distribution told Bryan that he had gone to bed without eating, but “Today I will not go to bed hungry.”
​
People who would like to help fight the hunger in Rwanda and help keep families from starving can find a thorough description of the project at zmission.org/helprwanda. A donation of $18 allows Dufatanye to provide a family of six with a week’s supply of food (22 pounds corn flour, 11 pounds beans, a 12” bar of soap). Ten families can be fed for $180 and $4,500 can provide food to 250 families for one week.

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Lockdown restrictions still in place for many in Rwanda

5/11/2020

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Just yesterday we learned that many in Rwanda are still unable to return to work, because their jobs are not considered essential.  So they are still facing the stringencies of the lockdown and the inability to work and feed their families.  Godfrey Karema, director of the Dufatanye Organization, said that we need to have enough food to feed the full number of 600 families for another two weeks, and then a reduction to approximately 300 families for another two weeks after that, for a total of four weeks of food support from today.  In light of this, we have raised our goal from the needs for six weeks, to ten weeks of food assistance, going from $57,600 to $76,000.  We are grateful to those who have prayed and given for the feeding of those in need in Rwanda.
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President Kagame of Rwanda eases Covid-19 Restrictions

5/1/2020

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On Thursday, April 30th, President Kagame of Rwanda met with members of his cabinet and decided to slowly ease restrictions in the national Covid-19 lockdown, beginning Monday, May 4th.  It is said that these newly eased restrictions, which can be found detailed in the Rwanda's primary newspaper, The New Times, will be in effect for 15 days from Monday, May 4th, which means restrictions are still in place until at least May 19.

It is unclear how this partial easing of restrictions will affect the people we have been feeding every week, due to lack of work.  There are still social distancing restrictions even for businesses, and only those classified as "essential" workers are allowed to go to their business, while all others must remain at home.  Most of the people we serve most likely would not be considered "essential" workers, and thus we suspect their plight and their inability to provide for their families through working will continue to be an issue for several weeks.

So we are expecting that this partial easing of restrictions may not have a significant benefit to those we have been feeding, and are expecting to need to continue our food relief efforts for several more weeks.

Please pray that the Lord will provide relief for the people of Rwanda, especially those who are suffering from the restrictions, and that all those helping the relief effort through prayers and giving will continue to engage and help in every way possible.

​Thank you!

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the Zinzendorf Mission (a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization)  | PO Box 329 | Boone, NC 28607 | USA | Tel. +1 828 209-8097  CONNECT@zmission.ORG
​a ministry of the first century church

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