In a small village in Malawi, amidst small huts in the red dirt, hundreds of children are being fed. Their parents are gone for the day, commuting on foot to the bigger city of Lilongwe to work. Two days a week, the children are fed a lunch of nsima, made from ground corn. Three days a week, they’re fed rice meals—meals that may have been packed by you if you volunteered at last year’s MH-MM packathon.
“It was amazing,” says Heidi Busch, MH-MM operations manager, who visited Malawi this summer. “They cooked 4 boxes of our rice, so 800 meals—and they ate every single grain. The kids would go back and scrape the bottoms of the pots, they’d scrape with their hands to get out the last, burned bits.” Busch recognized the Many Hands boxes—the logo clearly visible, with last year’s packathon dates handwritten on the side.
Children of the Nations cooks meals for the children 5 days a week, ensuring that kids get one hot meal a day. It’s part of the organization’s bigger goal to build self-sufficient, sustainable communities in the region.
“It’s an amazing model of service,” says Busch. “They [Children of the Nations] walk alongside the villagers. Their model is very specific, requiring partnership for the long term. Now they’ve been in it for 20 years and are beginning to see that the communities are standing on their own. Like with our meals—they serve it with chicken and vegetables that they grow in their villages.”
Progress is being made, but it’s slow going. On the one hand, young people are getting a good education, even starting their own small businesses. The villagers have water. But the water is from old fashioned well hand pumps—there’s no running water. There are old-fashioned latrine pits. Few have electricity.
But still, progress is visible, and gains are being made. Busch adds, “It’s changing lives and communities for generations.”
“It was amazing,” says Heidi Busch, MH-MM operations manager, who visited Malawi this summer. “They cooked 4 boxes of our rice, so 800 meals—and they ate every single grain. The kids would go back and scrape the bottoms of the pots, they’d scrape with their hands to get out the last, burned bits.” Busch recognized the Many Hands boxes—the logo clearly visible, with last year’s packathon dates handwritten on the side.
Children of the Nations cooks meals for the children 5 days a week, ensuring that kids get one hot meal a day. It’s part of the organization’s bigger goal to build self-sufficient, sustainable communities in the region.
“It’s an amazing model of service,” says Busch. “They [Children of the Nations] walk alongside the villagers. Their model is very specific, requiring partnership for the long term. Now they’ve been in it for 20 years and are beginning to see that the communities are standing on their own. Like with our meals—they serve it with chicken and vegetables that they grow in their villages.”
Progress is being made, but it’s slow going. On the one hand, young people are getting a good education, even starting their own small businesses. The villagers have water. But the water is from old fashioned well hand pumps—there’s no running water. There are old-fashioned latrine pits. Few have electricity.
But still, progress is visible, and gains are being made. Busch adds, “It’s changing lives and communities for generations.”