Newsletter March 2021

Dear friends,

We hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. Unfortunately, we have some bad news to share with you this month: locusts have destroyed the harvest in Mayana, and heavy rainfall and flooding have caused damages and disruptions. Read more to find out what we are doing and how you can help!

Your MCP Team

Locust plague hits Mayana

Earlier this month we received the following sad message from the team in Mayana: "It seems we are in trouble with another disaster, a swamp of locust has started attacking our crops."

The evening of the same day, we received the photo shown here with the message: "That's how Mayana village crops in the field have been destroyed, we are in danger the hunger is calling in Mayana😭"

Within a day, huge swarms of locusts had destroyed most of the crops in Mayana and all over the Kavango East and West regions. The swarms were so big that they looked like clouds and made it difficult for people to see.

Crops were supposed to be harvested in May. Most families in Mayana are subsistence farmers and rely entirely on the harvest their fields provide in order to survive. In the last two years, the region suffered from extreme droughts. This season, rainfall was initially very good, promising a full harvest, which makes this news even more devastating.

MCP will support the active team in Mayana with food essentials throughout this crisis. We of course also continue to provide the feeding scheme to all 48 kindergarten kids and continue to monitor them closely through mid-upper arm measurements. We value your support and ideas for supporting the community through this.

Watch this video from the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation for more info.

Heavy rainfall and floods causing disruptions

When it rains it pours! Heavy rainfall, unfortunately, caused flooding and damage, including to the kindergarten floors and roof and the chicken house. Repairs won't be able to be done until the rain has stopped, which could be as late as the end of this school term at the end of April. We are expecting damage of at least NAD 10,000 NAD (EUR 600). In addition to the damages, the rain is also causing many kids to stay home from kindergarten disrupting the solar power supply. The team has to go to a local shop that's connected to the grid to charge their phones. However, the lines of people are long and phone batteries get stolen easily. Nevertheless, we are grateful the MMF-Team is keeping us updated throughout all these challenges.

If you would like to support the Mayana community through difficult times you can make a donation or contact us with ideas.

Members, save the date for the AGM!

The Annual General Meeting is coming up and this year it's going to be on April 17th at 2 pm. You can join us online via Google Meets this year! Invitations will be sent out via email to all members soon. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Projects that we fundraise for

In this section, we'll tell you a little bit about one programme or project we are currently fundraising for. We value your support in helping us make change possible through these projects and programmes. This month:

Kindergarten Feeding Scheme: Bread rolls 🍞

The provision of bread rolls was the very first initiative we introduced as part of the feeding scheme many years ago. Every child receives one bread roll a day. This way we can ensure they don't have to learn on an empty stomach. The feeding scheme also includes the distribution of eggs, peanut butter, and soup to contribute to the kids overall health and protects them from malnutrition.

Bread rolls

Lydia is a local baker who prepares the bread rolls over a woodfire and has been supplying the kindergarten feeding scheme for many years. Each morning she delivers the bread rolls to the kindergarten, which provides her with a steady income to provide for her extended family.

To provide the kids with bread rolls for one year we need to raise €600.