Your Generosity Has a Worldwide Impact: Mambud’s Story
Skills learned at the Asian Rural Institute in Japan create a teaching farm in Sierra Leone
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Credit: The United Church of Canada
Oct. 31, 2021
We don’t always know the extent of the good we do even when we are giving generously. When we make a gift, we hope to have an impact but often can’t foresee how many lives we touch or how far our care extends. Mambud Samai’s story is a tangible example of how your gifts through Mission & Service send ripples of compassion across continents.
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Mambud, a pastor, lives in Sierra Leone, where an estimated 27,000 citizens became amputees during the civil war that raged between 1991 and 2002.
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To support amputees he visited in rehabilitation camps after the war, Mambud turned to soccer, his country’s favourite sport. He founded a soccer league for amputees called the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club of Sierra Leone to help restore hope. Now 350 members strong, the league isn’t just about helping amputees overcome discrimination, restoring their pride, and providing therapeutic support. As if these alone aren’t amazing.
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Two years ago, Mambud decided he wanted to make an even bigger difference. So, he flew all the way to the Asian Rural Institute (ARI for short), a unique school in Japan that your Mission & Service gifts support. Thanks to generous supporters like you, ARI trains thousands of leaders like Mambud from all over the world to grow food, tend livestock, and be effective change agents in their community.
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After graduating from the nine-month program at ARI, Mambud returned to the soccer fields of Sierra Leone with a new goal: to develop teaching farms where people can learn to grow food sustainably and support themselves financially by selling that food at market.
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Mambud and members of the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club of Sierra Leone now run an educational farm, and there are plans to convert more of Sierra Leone’s fertile land into gardens and teaching centres. In a country where the average person lives just 43 years, Mambud’s extraordinary leadership and the skills he learned in Japan save lives.
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From Canada to Japan to Sierra Leone―Mambud’s story is just one example of how your gifts do a world of good.
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If Mission & Service giving is already a regular part of your life, thank you so much! By supporting leaders like Mambud with education and training, your generosity helps change lives around the world. Thank you!
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Growing Stronger Together: Maina’s Story
The Association of Strong Women Alone made all the difference for Maina.
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Maina Bai can now read and write and is empowering others to become literate.
Credit: ASWA
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Published On: September 20, 2021 24 Oct. 2021
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Maina Bai’s mother died when she was a baby, and Maina never went to school.
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When she was just 10 years old, her father married her off to an older man. By 16, she had a child. A few years after the birth of her daughter, her husband died. When she returned to her maternal home, Maina was married off―again.
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After a few years of marriage, Maina became a widow again. Single, she faced extraordinary stigma.
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Approximately 2.18 million single women like Maina live in the state of Rajasthan, India. Whether they are widowed, divorced, or have never been married, these women are deemed “incomplete” and a disgrace to their families. As a result, many live lives marked by stigma, fear, and violence―simply for not being married.
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In 1986, The United Church of Canada partnered with Astha Sansthan, an organization that empowers marginalized individuals to advocate for their needs. In 1999, Astha Sansthan launched the Association of Strong Women Alone (ASWA), which your Mission & Service gifts support. Immediately, 450 single women joined. Today, there are more than 70,000 members.
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ASWA’s approach is simple: Create a safe space for single women to come together and get the knowledge and skills necessary to improve their lives.
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The association has made all the difference for Maina.
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She can now read and write and is empowering other women to become literate. Because of her leadership, 35 women have enrolled in adult learning. All of them now have grade eight certificates. What’s more, the generational cycle of illiteracy has been broken. Maina’s daughter can not only read and write but is also teaching others to do the same.
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Your Mission & Service gifts empower women like Maina to be agents of change within their communities. Thank you for your generosity.
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World Food Sunday
This week we will observe World Food Sunday Oct. 17, 2021
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It was appalling to read that food charities outnumber grocery stores 4 to 1 in this country and served 6.7 million Canadians last year.
Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest - Canada’s largest food rescue organization, wrote in Monday’s Globe and Mail - that as if this isn’t bad enough - half of the food that we produce in Canada winds up in the landfill!
Clearly something is disastrously wrong when people are hungry in a rich, food-producing country like ours. In the article, Nikkel proposes changes that would address poverty, stop waste and make good food more available to everyone.
The United Church works to eliminate food insecurity locally and around the world. Visit www.united-church.ca/social-action to learn more.
Thank you for your support of foodbanks, the Mission and Service Fund and our church’s efforts to provide meals to hungry people on the Coast.
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Defining Love: Emmanuel’s Story
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Emmanuel didn’t want to just feed the children—he wanted to make sure they could one day feed themselves.
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Have you ever stood in front of the pantry at 6 p.m. looking for dinner inspiration? For some of us, figuring out what to make for dinner is stressful. The truth is that if our family mealtime dilemma is wondering what to make, we are fortunate. We’re fortunate because we aren’t asking, “Will we eat?”
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1 in 9 people around the world go to bed hungry each night.
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191,000,000 children under 5 years old are malnourished.
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As a young child living in Kenya, Emmanuel Baya went to bed hungry more nights than he can count. Sadly, his parents died when he was a young child, and he worked hard just to survive. That’s why his heart stirred when he saw children under the cashew trees near his property. He knew they were too busy looking for food to go to school.
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“Most of the children who did not go to school were orphans. It saddened my heart so much that I decided to help,” he explains.
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In 2008, Emmanuel opened the Magarini Children Centre. Today, over 287 children receive warm, healthy meals and education there. But Emmanuel decided he didn’t want to just feed the children—he wanted to make sure they could one day feed themselves.
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So, he enrolled in the Asian Rural Institute (ARI), which your Mission & Service gifts support. There, he learned organic farming techniques. Long story short, he opened a demonstration farm next to the Children Centre. It’s now a learning hub for seven surrounding communities.
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“This is my definition of love,” he says.
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Isn’t Emmanuel’s story amazing? And isn’t it amazing that you have a part in it?
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Please make a gift through Mission & Service this World Food Day.
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Your gifts will help feed, educate, and advocate for the most vulnerable at home and around the world.
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Your support makes a life-changing difference through extraordinary leaders like Emmanuel, whose lives define love every day.
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Thanksgiving Appeal
Oct. 10, 2021
One in nine people around the world will go to bed hungry tonight. You can help! This Thanksgiving, support those who are hungry by making a gift through Mission & Service. Your generosity not only provides food in emergency situations, it also transforms families and communities for generations. Check out Emmanuel Baya’s amazing story.
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Wondering What More You Can Do to Become Anti-Racist?
“We commit to this work not alone but with God.”
Published On: August 21, 2021 Oct. 3, 2021
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Wondering what more you can do to become anti-racist in your local communities? You aren’t alone.
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It’s one of the questions Adele Halliday, the United Church’s Anti-Racism and Equity Lead, is asked a lot. 40 Days of Engagement on Anti-Racism, a new cutting-edge program set to run from October 12 through November 26, is one of the ways Halliday is answering.
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“I took the question to heart, mulled it over with colleagues, and an idea was born to invite the whole church to intentionally reflect on a range of racial justice issues in creative ways for a specific period of time together,” she says.
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Each day for 40 days, heart-expanding reflections on anti-racism themes written by contributors from across the church will be shared on the United Church’s website. These free reflections geared for individuals and small groups will also come with activities for children and families, prayers, and practical ways to take action in local communities.
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What does Halliday hope the impact of the program will be?
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“I’m hoping there will be engagement with advocacy, personal transformation, and continued commitment to work to become actively anti-racist not just for 40 days but over the long haul,” says Halliday. “We commit to this work not alone but with God. Ultimately, I hope 40 Days of Engagement on Anti-Racism will draw church members into a deeper understanding of God’s vision for a just world and how they can live it out.”
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Your Mission & Service gifts help support the development of awakening education and learning resources like 40 Days. Because of your generosity, the whole of the church will be blessed with practical ways to live into God’s call to become anti-racist. And in turn, our world will become a more just and equitable place for all. Thank you.
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