The Good News

During his most recent trip he visited the hut where an elderly woman and her 13 grandchildren lived. He learned that the children’s parents had both died and the burden of caring for the children had fallen onto their grandmother.

With your support during 2020, we were able to make an incredible impact. The enclosed Annual Report provides a brief summary of our progress during 2020. We highlight a few of the more noteworthy accomplishments:

Although there is very little to celebrate in the rural villages of Africa, our pastors try to make Christmas special for the children. However, “special” has a very different meaning. The children do not dream of a new video game or a new bicycle, they dream of a nutritious meal or maybe a toy.

These pastors identify the greatest needs within their villages, then work closely with ICF to request, receive, process, and distribute our life-saving aid.

At our mission in Togo, ICF supported the construction of a fish farm. The farm consisted of two fishponds, one stocked with tilapia and one with catfish.

We support education at all our missions. This support ranges from primary and secondary education to technical/jobs training for adults. Each of these programs has a sustainable impact on the individual and their families.

ICF plans to support the drilling of more than a dozen water wells during 2020. We estimate that these wells will service the needs of more than 12,000 people.

According to the United Nations, the virus threatens to kill more than 300,000 people in Africa and plunge tens of millions more into poverty. Further, the World Health Organization predicts that the virus will cause disruption of medical deliveries – like essential mosquito nets – which will dramatically increase the prevalence of malaria (primarily affecting young children).

While for many people this is the first time they have experienced a pandemic; humanity has been dealing with pandemics for much of recorded history. When looking back, we can see a peculiar response from Christians during troubling times.