This week, CitiHope was offered a huge donation--2,200 metric tons of rice for Malawi orphans and school children by the Government of Taiwan. That's 135 twenty-foot containers that would arrive by ship!
If accepted, the donation will flow through Feed the Children (a Christian NGO) who contacted us to see if could effectively use it. We know where and how to distribute the rice, but we lack the funds to transport it to northern Malawi.
CitiHope has an unfunded but well-documented Plan that targets 88 primary schools and 40 community-based social agencies assisting families, including 7 Orphan Care Centers. Total recipients for all this rice will be 35,000 primary school age children, family members and their teachers over a two-year period.
We could accept the donation if Feed the Children or another charitable organization would pay for the shipping costs from Taiwan to our warehouse in Mzuzu, Malawi(a $400,000 expense!) We submitted a proposal and are awaiting a response.
If a funder can be found to pay the shipping bill, we will joyfully accept the generous donation and distribute the rice as a 'Rice for Education' program aimed at keeping children in school by providing hot meals during school and a bag of rice to take home to their family each month.
This opportunity is very timely and providential, for we have run out of food to distribute to the orphans. Please pray with us about this critical need and opportunity. I will let you know how it turns out.