This May, we recognize the maternal figures in our lives in a special way with Mother’s Day. To all the amazing people who take on the role of mother, we celebrate and thank you for your selfless love. From your example, we learn the values of leadership, service, and goodness that dominate our morals and life perspective.
In the communities we serve in Africa, India, and Pakistan, a mother’s selflessness is multiplied tenfold out of necessity. When food, clean water, and medication are extreme scarcities, mothers often go without to provide for their children.
Meet Nalongo, a 20-year-old widow and mother of two daughters.
“I feel happy about being a mother. I desperately want my twins to grow up and get an education so that they can get good jobs and have a better life.”
— Nalongo
Each day, she treks six miles to the land of her children’s father’s family. With one daughter on her front and one on her back, she puts one foot in front of the other until she reaches the garden where she works. Then, after gardening all day, she collects firewood and carries it on her head, back to her mud hut. Once home, she rests briefly before walking three miles to the nearest water well with a five-gallon bucket and walking back with the additional weight of the water. Finally, home for the night, she cooks rice and plants seeds in her garden, both provided by the International Children’s Fund thanks to the generosity of our supporters.
This night, there was enough food for all three. Most nights are not so fortunate.
Despite her dedication to caring for her girls and providing them with food and water, the young family is extremely vulnerable to starvation, disease, and other conditions as a result of poverty. The International Children’s Fund wants to make every effort to remove the burdensome weight that sits atop Nalongo’s shoulders at every waking moment. Only 20 years old, we want to make sure she, and all mothers in Africa burdened by poverty, have their whole life ahead of them.
With your generosity, we have been able to do that by providing life-saving food and medicine. With your continuous support, we will continue to provide as much help as we can.
Nalongo is one of millions of impoverished women around the world whose day-to-day lives are spent in an endless cycle of trying to provide for themselves and their children with too little resources. At the International Children’s Fund, it is not only our goal to provide for the wellbeing of these women and children, but also to create long-lasting change in the systems that perpetuate this cycle of poverty.
One initiative for sustainable development is our Girls College in Monrovia, Liberia. This project will empower women with something no one can ever take away from them: an education. With opportunities to study nursing, computer science, business administration, and much more, this college will open doors for women across Africa to have more agency and independence. They will be more likely to get jobs and a stable source of income with which they can participate in and strengthen their local economy. Female representation in education and careers are crucial to gender equality, and this project promotes this representation in every way possible.
We are happy to report that the project’s construction is progressing well! The tiling of first-floor classrooms, offices, and bathrooms was recently completed, and we expect to start classes during 2024. Classes will progress as soon as possible on the first floor while the construction of the second and third floor progresses. Please visit icfaid.org/girls-college/ for updates on this exciting project which will change the lives of tens of thousands of young women in Liberia and throughout Africa
Nalongo married young out of necessity. With the completion of our all-girls college, Nalongo’s daughters will have more opportunities for a better life, one where every choice is not dominated by the thought of survival.
Regular giving helps us support our missions in their effort to make sustainable improvements in the lives of desperately poor children and their families. We call these donors Hope Ambassadors because they help ICF to provide hope to those who truly face life and death needs. Please consider becoming a Hope Ambassador. I encourage you to visit our website at www.icfaid.org or call our office at 920-729-5721 to learn about this important program.
Please know that every gift, no matter how large or small, is an answer to our prayers and an investment in the life of a child. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your continued prayers and financial support.
“For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25: 35-40
Dr. David Bruenning
Founder/Int’l Director
See children fed, educated, and empowered.
Become a Hope Ambassador
It can be easy to skim past this verse, but the historical context of an “ambassador” brings a wealth of meaning. Such ambassadors or delegates, whether Jewish or Greco-Roman, came with the authority of the sender, in his place, to secure his interests. The reality is, God is making his appeal through us, and wants to secure His very own interests.