Food = Hope

Even though the scene repeats itself each year, it’s is hard to describe the satisfaction we feel in seeing dozens of South African residents take home the food we’ve provided that is so critical to their survival!

Today at Gugulethu’s JL Zwane Church, we stacked and distributed more than one hundred of the nearly 2000 parcels we give to the townships’ neediest families annually.

Here in Malungeni, most of them packed their allotment of ingredients like corn, rice, beans, sugar, cooking oil, and chicken into the vehicles their family and friends can borrow to take the food home.

Many of the recipients are in tears when they describe how thankful they are to Arm in Arm in Africa and to the donors who help them keep devastating hunger out of their homes for the next few weeks.

————

Down the road from the morning’s food distribution, we were fortunate to again visit some of the more than fifty adults in Kyalitsha who were abandoned by their families just because of the severity of their disabilities…

We reconnected with the nuns who are still working in the very spot chosen by Mother Teresa—where they are fulfilling her mission and providing around the clock care every day.

We delivered hats, scarves, hand and foot massages, and back rubs at the Missionaries of Charity Home. It is always so clear that what they appreciate most is the conversation and the caring touch we bring to them.

We see many of these bed-ridden and wheelchair-bound men and women every year… and the countdown has begun for us to be able to celebrate life itself with them again this time next year.