I made my donation to Iris Ministries – Malawi Famine Relief. In my letter to them (along with some cheques), I informed them that Brendan Wood International is a firm that believes in using the best means to get their annual charitable donations as directly to those in need as possible. To accomplish this they send their friends and colleagues cheques for them to send to organizations who they believe are directly helping the needy.

“It now costs $4 to purchase a 12 kg bag
of maize flour, enriched with vitamins.
This is enough to give one person two
meals per day for a month, and quite
literally help keep them alive. ”

I know that David and Joanna Morrison of Iris Ministries are the ones physically buying the grain and physically handing it to the needy. There is no more direct approach than theirs. 100% of the money they receive will be used to buy and transport food, as all administrative costs have been covered in other ways. Following is a brief description of the work they are doing in Malawi.

Over the past two years we have been providing food on a monthly basis to an increasing number of very needy children, widows, elderly, crippled and blind people here in Malawi. What started off as a program that saw us feeding 700 people a month has now grown into a much larger operation that sees us providing food for over 3200 people each month. The people who receive this food truly are the neediest of the needy.

This past fall, as the availability of maize in Malawi dwindled and the price to purchase maize more than doubled, it became increasingly difficult to both find and purchase enough food to feed everyone in the program. As word of this challenge grew, friends and supporters responded with tremendous resourcefulness and generosity. With much effort, a few of our friends were able to locate a local processor of food here in Malawi. We signed a contract with this food processor, who has guaranteed a supply of enough food to feed the 3200 in our program for a period of eight months. This has been an enormous answer to prayer.

The challenge now is raising the funds to purchase the food that has been made available. Through our arrangement with this food processor, it now costs just $4 to purchase a 12 kg bag of maize flour, enriched with vitamins. This is enough to give one person two meals per day for a month, and quite literally help keep them alive.

I was very happy to be able to direct both Brendan Wood International’s cheque and CanadianMgrSearch’s cheque to this famine relief program.

Bruce & Monica Friesen