Last year’s harvest is nearing an end and the new crops are still months away. It will soon be “the time of famine” and it arrives somewhere in Malawi almost every year between January and April before the new harvest can be gathered from the fields.
Aid is Shifted When Tsunami Strikes Southeast Asia
Arriving ahead of the famine the first segment of a planned 250 trailers of rice started arriving in Malawi in late 2007. The agreement to bring the rice was put in place between the government of Taiwan, Nourish the Children, Feed the Children and the Malawi Project in late 2005 when a request was issued to a Taiwan delegation for the assistance. The delegation carried it to the government of Taiwan and action was soon under way to help Malawi, an important trade partner with Taiwan. The ice was planned for arrival in Malawi in 2006 but was interrupted when the tsunami in Southeast Asia called for the aid to be shifted to the stricken area.
Groups Share Responsibility For Cost of Distribution
By mid-2007 the plan was again in place for the government of Taiwan to donate the rice and pay for shipping it to the African coast. At that point Feed the Children would supply the funds to get the trailers to the truck docks in Blantyre and Lilongwe. At this point the Malawi Project and various other agencies, including the Malawi offices of Feed the Children, would share the cost of distribution to village sites where harvests were insufficient.The plan is now being carried out with the first of four shipments having been given to Feed the Children, Malawi. The arrival of the next portion of the shipments has not yet been scheduled. The Malawi Project now has sufficient funding to handle the portion of the distribution that will be assigned to the Project.
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Hopelessness Seen During An Earlier Famine
Famine is never far from the minds of people in Africa’s sub-Sahara. Seen on the face of the old woman on the left is the hopelessness that can be seen when the “time of famine” arrives in Africa and there is no hope of expectation of aid being available.