distributing to the widows

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I was talking about, in our last blog, how we helped prepare 3 ½ tonnes of beans into 10kg sacks ready to be distributed; well maize and rice had also been sacked up in 5kg bags (before we had arrive) and were already to be given to the widows and disabled in the community.



On Monday 9^th of January, hundreds of men and women came to the Iris base, collected a ticket and queued up ready to collect their free food for the next 2 weeks. We had 4 stations ready to receive 1 person at a time, to load them up with food to take home to their families. They laid down their multipurpose material flat on the floor and we would poor rice in and then put a bag of beans and a bag of maize on top, the material was then wrapped and tied around the food ready to be lifted up and placed on their head. These are no soft women, some of them seemed absolutely tiny, some were just little girls yet they still carried 20kg worth of food on top of their heads, whilst making the long/short journey home.



For some reason some them applied for 2 lots of food, this means carrying 40kg of food home which they did with, it seemed, ease. I think I would have just taken the 20kg a struggled trying to carry that home. There is 1 picture on Facebook of a women not only carrying but also balancing 40kg on her head, a baby on her back and 2 plastic bags of cloths and soap to walk back home. I couldn’t help but stand back in amazement to the measures that they need go through to live.



Whilst giving this food out something struck me, there was something special about the widows in the community coming and laying their cloth in front of us ready to put the food on… I don’t know what that ‘something special’ is yet but it defiantly chocked me up shedding a few tears.

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