In 2018, $43,239.46 was given for animals which included the following: hens, roosters, rabbits, turkeys, pigs, goats, sheep, cows and water buffalo. Animals benefit children at ICCM schools and projects in several of the 33 countries where ICCM has work.
Linda Stryker Academy Goats Project (video)
#ICCMCongo 🇨🇩️ This is the goats project at Linda Stryker Academy in DRC. When the goats are ready for sale, they are sold and the money is used to help orphaned and very poor children’s school fees.
Posted by International Child Care Ministries on Monday, October 29, 2018
ICCM Haiti Projects
We are extremely excited to premiere a new video about our #ICCMHaiti Food Fund đź‡đź‡ą and our partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects. Please share! đź’š
Give to the Haiti Food Fund: http://bit.ly/ICCMHaitiFood
Give to Haiti Tree Projects: http://bit.ly/ICCMHaitiTrees
Give to Haiti Animal Projects: http://bit.ly/ICCMHaitiAnimalsVideo: Nick Beardslee
Rex Bullock Craig Erickson Iccm-Haiti Sponsorship
Posted by International Child Care Ministries on Tuesday, December 11, 2018
The short-term, urgent need is for school lunches provided by the Haiti Food Fund. Just 25 cents feeds a child!
To invest in longer-term solutions, you can give to our Haiti Tree Projects, in which we’re planting tens of thousands of fruit trees and other plants in our schools and at the homes of sponsored children in partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects.
We now also have managed Animal Projects, which demonstrate new ways of raising goats and chickens to benefit the school children and their families, as well as the environment.
Click on the video, share it widely and help us raise critically needed funds to come alongside Haiti in its chronic food insecurity.
Warm Heart of Africa – Malawi
In southeastern Africa where three major countries meet, there is a long, thin, landlocked country affectionately referred to as “The Warm Heart of Africa”. The country is Malawi – and they’ve earned that name because Malawians are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet.
If you are ever privileged to meet Rev. Annie Mdazyola, you will agree. Rev. Annie is the ICCM National Coordinator in Malawi, who is currently providing compassionate oversight for the children benefitting from sponsorship and scholarship.
Initially, ICCM Malawi sponsorship focused on assisting the children of pastors. We continue to do this for 40 pastors. However, in the last several years, we have slowly and steadily expanded the reach of ICCM to include several initiatives, including sponsoring orphans, reintroducing animal projects, and helping local churches strengthen their community preschool programs.
Rev. Annie is in regular communication with the superintendents of the three Free Methodist Church (FMC) conferences in Malawi, working with them to identify effective ways of meeting the needs of our own FMC children and reaching out into the community. In the past year, ICCM has partnered with the church to provide over 30 goats to needy families as a way of supplementing their diets with milk as well as supplying manure for their gardens.
This year we will begin providing goats to FMC nursery schools that are meeting a vital need for early childhood education and evangelism in surrounding communities. The Mwayiwathu Study Center and Nursery School are located along the Malawi and Mozambique border. It is being supervised by the Malawi FMC’s own cross-cultural missionary.
Malawians face many challenges on a daily basis, one of the most critical being that of access to food. Malawi often seems to be caught between either flooding or drought, both resulting in crippling food shortages. ICCM, partnering with the Board of Bishops, has been able to provide relief food supplies for our sponsored families, helping them to manage through the most difficult times.
Alleviating Poverty through Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Reforestation
For over 50 years, ICCM has supported children and families in Haiti through education. Tens of thousands of children have discovered the joy of learning, hope for living and the love of Jesus through our persistent efforts.
Sponsoring children’s education, providing uniforms, books, and lunches, and employing teachers and others who oversee 59 schools — these are no small accomplishments! Children’s education through the Free Methodist Church is our core mission.
Yet we know that for Haiti’s long-term economic survival, and even to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of feeding our students and working toward paying a living wage to our teachers, we also need to work on sustainable initiatives. In 2013 we began partnering with Eden Reforestation Projects in Haiti, casting a vision for Creation Care through our schools and getting children involved with “hands in the dirt” projects. Now we are taking this partnership to a whole new level, and it’s exciting!
Eden and ICCM are now partnering with Agrinotech, a successful Haitian-led agricultural group, and Harvest Craft, a small NGO, to tackle poverty and deforestation on several fronts:
- Teaching the most effective ways of planting trees and transplanting saplings; 60% of these will be fruit trees, and others will provide materials for fencing, building, and burning. As thousands of trees are established, they form a canopy that lends shade and nutrients for ground-based crops.
- Teaching best practices for chicken and egg projects that are now being implemented by Agrinotech and Harvest Craft.
- Establishing nurseries at ICCM schools, training adults and upper grade students in all phases of farming.
- Working with Haiti Providence University to create an Agricultural Extension Center where small farmers can come to learn better methods, purchase vaccines and other necessary items for raising goats, chickens and other small animals.
How do these initiatives fit with our long-term goals in Haiti? Just as extreme poverty forms the breeding ground for child labor in the restavek system, many other seemingly insurmountable problems in the lives of our friends in Haiti are caused by the poverty arising from the country’s 98% deforestation. For instance, the absence of trees degrades soil and makes subsistence farming less and less viable. Crop failures and decreasing yield undermine food security for families and the country as a whole.
Fund for Peace rates Haiti as the 10th most fragile nation in the world. Our graduates will only have a chance at a job and an improved future if the extreme poverty is addressed. Although our impact may seem small, as we partner with others and combine our resources and personnel, we can work holistically for the Kingdom of God and the betterment of Haiti.
The Gift that Kept on Giving
A highlight of one of my visits to Rwanda was to attend the celebration that accompanied the giving of the 32nd and 33rd cows in Binogo, the “great grand-calves” of some of the original 10 cows ICCM gave that region in 2001. A local committee decides which family will be the next recipient; they spend a year helping to care for the calf, learning animal husbandry. On the big day, families pledge loyalty to one another as they ceremoniously give and receive this life-giving gift. Village children who used to suffer from Kwashiorkor are now healthy—the cows’ milk and the fertilized gardens improve the kids’ diet. A local government official thanked ICCM for our investment, saying that their new program copies ours.
For $400 you can provide a high-quality cow of a breed that will flourish in Rwanda. This program also offers training and annual veterinary checkups. Mark your gift, “GIVE A COW—RWANDA.“
ICCM Animal Projects – Rwanda from Int'l Child Care Ministries on Vimeo.