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Last week I was able to travel to Zambia to meet with a lot of the people who Africa Imports supports to do humanitarian work there. If you had been able to go, I am sure you would have been as impressed as I was. Most of these people work in very difficult situations., and make some big sacrifices to help others. The money that we send each month to each of these people makes a huge difference to a lot of people.
We support these people with part or sometimes all of their living expenses. The amounts are really low by our standards. It does not give people the standard of living that we have in the US at all, but there are other people and organizations besides Africa Imports who help the same people as well.
We also set aside some money each month for emergency situations (normally medical needs) that happen to different people. While we were in Africa, some people came to us with strongly felt thank yous for money that we had sent to them during these emergencies. Here are two fast stories.
Rachael and Marvin help people in their community in different ways. She is a principal for several schools for impoverished and orphan children who can not pay the cost of a government school. They also have a number of foster children that they care for in their home. A few months ago, one of their daughters needed to have her tonsils removed. To do this, they needed to travel a days journey away to get to a doctor where this could be done, and needed to pay $300.US, which they did not have. We sent them the money for this.
When we met with Rachael and Marvin, they were very grateful. Rachel was in tears as she described how her daughter could not breathe and she thought about her dying each night when she was sleeping. When we sent the money originally, I was not thinking of this as a life threatening problem. Marvin and Rachael had no other way to get their daughter this treatment. I don’t know what tonsil removal costs in the US, but I’m sure it is a lot more than $300.
Rachael and Marvin with one of their daughters
Another person who we recently started supporting is named Pendo. She is a mother who is working to help street children. Her husband is no longer helping her with her expenses. Her daughter is living with Pendo’s mother, and Pendo can not afford to travel back to see her most days. When we met with her, I gave her a gift of a US $100 bill to help her out with her child. When I gave this to her, she broke down in tears and had to walk away for a few minutes. She was under a lot of stress for her daughter. She was extremely thankful.
Pendo with her husband
There are a lot of other stories. Stories of children, vulnerable women, and others who are helped by the work that these people do. The people who do the work are also helped personally in ways that seem to us to be really disproportionate to the amount of money that they receive. These are two stories from last week that were memorable to me. I hope that knowing this shows your own work with Africa Imports products to be more meaningful as well.