Bumpy roads wind deep into Liberia’s bush country. Life is hard in these remote villages where access to nutritious food and other items is severely limited.
Eighty-year-old Towne, pictured below, lives in one of these bush villages with her three daughters. Towne’s husband passed away several years ago, and her only son has been missing since 1998. Because they haven’t heard from him in so long, they presume he died in Liberia’s civil war.
Towne and her daughters live several hours away from the nearest clinic or grocery store. To provide some food, Towne’s daughters try to raise rice, cassava, corn, and plantain, which are staple foods in Liberia. But sometimes this is not enough. For a family with no source of income, they cannot eat if they do not work on their farm or if their crops fail.
The arrival of an International-Feed-A-Family food parcel helps stretch Towne’s and her daughters’ food supply. Even though this food lasts only part of the month, it eases the family’s hardship for a time. They are encouraged by this reminder that others care for their needs.
Towne enjoys cooking with the food that arrives in the parcel. She especially likes the canned chicken. She can hardly walk, but it does not deter her from cooking over a coal fire.
In Liberia, more than half of the population lives on less than two dollars per day. People still experience the effects of the wars between 1989 and 2003 that sent the country on a steep slide into poverty. The International-Feed-A-Family program tremendously encourages those who struggle to find sufficient food to eat.
Thank you, supporters, for helping destitute people in Liberia’s bush, Haiti, and the Middle East. For many recipients, it makes the difference between food and hunger, smiles and tears, and hope and despair.
