IRIS Relief-Unplugged

My heart is filled with gratitude to Iris Relief and many others who partnered with me on a mission of mercy to the war torn country of Somalia. A nation that is recovering from over 20 years of conflict and a severe drought, which produced one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. 

The needs are immense! There is a whole generation that has grown up knowing nothing but war, hunger and severe suffering. Most of the country is still in rubble and temporary IDP, (internally displaced people) camps lie scattered across every horizon. These camps are filled with hundreds of thousands of desperate people who have attempted to flee war, famine and oppression by the terrorist group al-Shabaab, who is still in control of the majority of the country. One such example of this desperation is a little community I visited, of approx a 150 homeless children and youth, living under a bridge. Most of them are orphans suffering with malnourishment and mental health issues caused by trauma. These boys are between the ages of 5 to 20 and in their desperate attempts to cope with grief, loss and loneliness, they have turned to sniffing glue. One courageous local lady has let them stay on her land and built a little corrugated iron ‘shack’, with the help of a foreign donation. I had the joy of setting her up with a little ‘African style’ kitchen and took in food and footballs. The boys all clapped and cheered and were overjoyed, especially by the football! It was truly memorable to watch them take off down the field running after ball! For the coming month there will be deliveries of fresh food for this little community every week and a paid cook available daily to prepare the it for them. Hooray for toys and hooray for full happy stomachs! I pray that through the simplicity of food and toys, each boy will realize that he is infinitely valued, loved and not forgotten!

I visited two hospitals and gave out toys to the children.  They still treat many cases of severe malnutrition on a daily basis, as well as many bullet and shrapnel wounds. The situation there, although greatly improved from my last visit, still left me gasping for breath at times, as I saw mothers rocking their starving babies in their arms, who weigh 2 or 3 times less than they should, for their age. Their frail little bodies struggle to keep warm, even in the tropical summer months and sadly, many die of hypothermia, simply due to lack of blankets. We were able to provide enough blankets for the malnourishment and diarrhea wards of the children’s hospital. These are the wards that treat the most critical cases. 

We were also able to donate a months worth of specialist food to a clinic that helps the most severe cases of malnourishment in babies and young children. They send out ‘scouts’ in to the IDP camps and rescue babies and young children who are on the brink of starvation and need immediate intervention to save their lives. They are brought back to this little clinic to be nursed back to life. This clinic often struggles to be able to provide food for these little ones and relies heavily on ‘mercy’ gifts of highly nutritious ‘nutty paste’ from donors. The day we donated the food they were in extremely desperate need, not knowing how they were going to continue their life-saving service to the most vulnerable.

What a joy and privilege to partner together to fill stomachs with food and hearts with hope in one of the most desperate places in the world! 

Thank you for partnering with me Iris Relief and for loving the people of Somalia back to life!

Ania

The end of  January 2012 saw Tropical Cyclone Funso make landfall in Mozambique. It caused parts of the Zambezi River to dramatically swell and flood. This resulted in thousands of people losing  their homes.  Many more lost their farms; their source of food and livelihood  

Our team of 14, nationals and internationals drove for two days south to the Zambezia province.  The Zambezi river cuts across central Mozambique. 

Most of the province’s villages and towns are only accessible by the occasional airstrip or by driving several hours on unpaved dirt paths, that in the rainy season can become quite treacherous and often completely impassible.

We brought Rice and beans for the flood victims, unsure of what awaited us.  We drove to a town named Morrumbala where we set up camp for the next few days. From there we made excursions out to several villages that had been affected by the disaster.   In the first village  we came to, the people were living in a temporary camp that had been created because their homes had been destroyed.  We distributed Rice, beans, clothing, and Soap to each of 86 Mozambican families and 9 Malawian families.  In addition our team medical expert offered a medical clinic for the victims of the floods.

Every place we went, we were well received by the people and were sobered by their hunger, both in the natural and in the spirit.

 On one occasion we got stuck in the mud.  As a result of our delay in getting the land rover out of the mud a few kilometers later we ran into a large group of people walking with a cart carrying two men, a father and son who had both contracted cholera.  We stopped and our team medic was able to provide them with some medical attention and we prayed for them.  The people who were with the men were stunned that our team member would lay hands on them, let alone stop to attend to their needs.

There was one village in particular that we felt drawn to.  The village in the Southern most portion of Zambezia province on the river itself, was reported to have some of the most need that we had heard of.  It was also expected to be one of the most difficult villages to reach due to the rains washing out the roads and making them inaccessible to almost all vehicles.   We decided to brave the roads, in spite of the danger.  We set off down the road, and on a number of occasions the mud was so bad that we all had to get out of the trucks and go across on foot to lighten the loads.  (Despite the fact that the truck was carrying more than 2 tons of food.)  

We finally reached the village,  and it is hard to describe the joy with which the people there received us.  They had waited all day for us to arrive, and greeted us with singing and dancing when we approached.  We distributed food, clothing and soap to over 385 families. 9,175 Kgs of Rice and 1,000 Kgs of Beans were given out.  Almost every family also received a bag of clothing and a bar of soap.

During our trip we were also able to provide replacement building supplies for many of the churches that had been damaged in the region.  1,250 meters of plastic for roofing was given out, in addition to some replacement corrugated metal Chapas for roofing materiel.

Post Written by Ben Aijian, Team Member

After 2 days of driving on rough roads, and 3 flat tires, we made it to Wajir, Kenya with the aim of revisiting previous villages that were still struggling in the drought. We heard that no food was getting through because the security situation has caused NGO’s to withdraw, or NGO money had dried up.

On the first day, we visited the village to ask permission from the village elders. The next day we returned, we were escorted by 2 armed guards with a truck with relief food enough for 150 families for 1 ½ months.  The village had not received food aid since December, 3 months ago.  On arrival, the kids and women were incredibly shy, but this quickly changed when we gave out balls, balloons and stickers.  We bought 2 goats for the village to have a goat feast with them.    The preparations for the goat feast were very much underway and many gathered, when we reluctantly had to tear ourselves away.  We left exhausted but satisfied from pouring out love on this village.  I believe the village was impacted by the relationship with the same people returning to them, and not forgetting about them.

During our time in Wajir,  we also had the opportunity to visit a rehabilitation centre for children with disabilities and bring them gifts of toys.  Those who cared for the children were doing an incredible job showing value and honor to kids where many are often rejected by their communities.because ever

We also visited a school and brought sanitary pads for the girls there.  We were informed that the girls miss out on a lot of school days due to their monthly cycle.  With the supplies of sanitary pads, they are now able to attend school everyday! 

We feel the momentum building as we go back each time to the same villages and continue to sow into relationships.  We are thankful for God’s protection over us despite the dangers.  We are excited and expectant of what’s to come in the future!  Thank you for your prayers and support!

IRIS Relief will reassess food insufficiency issues in this region this summer 2012.

Post written by Elaine Savage, Wajir Team Member

After having two back to back cyclones in January, parts of Mozambique  was devastated and experienced heavy flooding, leaving 400,000 without homes. 

IRIS Relief and our IRIS Mozambican family have sent a team to distribute food and clothing. They aim to help to bring love, help rebuild houses, and roofs on IRIS churches.

Latest from the team, ‘Zambezia Relief Update: very long drive today to floods affected area, then food distribution. With Jesus its all a fun party in the bush bush’- Henk van der Meer, IRIS Relief Team,