Rising Together: Food For The Poor Honors Women
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 4, 2016) People and organizations around the world will celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8.
Food For The Poor is recognizing the hardworking women it has worked with or served over the years like Sister Edna, who has dedicated her life to serving starving children through her nutritional center in Guatemala, which has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world.
She climbs rural mountainsides to reach suffering children in need.
“The more you give of yourself, the more you can give to the poor,” Sister Edna said.
In Guyana, Janella shares a crumbling shack with her terminally ill mother. She helps any way she can. Extreme poverty forces children like Janella to grow up too fast.
“When she was sick, that will make me sad. I bring her water, and sometimes if she asks for the tablet, I will give her. Sometimes, I carry her,” Janella said.
Maria’s daughter tragically committed suicide leaving Maria to care for her granddaughter, Karla, alone. But Maria is staying positive and working hard selling tortillas to provide a better life for Karla.
“I have hope. Even if I have to go slowly, I have to keep going,” Maria said.
On International Women’s Day, which has been commemorated annually for more than 100 years, generous donors can be a blessing to these women and others like them by giving to Food For The Poor projects that help poor women and young girls across the Caribbean and Latin America.
Food For The Poor will construct a bakery in San Fernando, Honduras, to help struggling women and their families, many of whom live in shacks and can’t afford to send their children to school regularly. Through the bakery, 16 women of the Arlemunsi cooperative group will learn how to bake bread and make pastries to sell.
Today, these women bake goods in an old clay oven, which produces soot and waves of smoke. These unhealthy conditions have caused respiratory problems in some of the women. After working long hours, sometimes as much as 10 hours a day, the women travel on foot to sell their baked goods to the urban parts of Siguatepeque.
And despite their long hours and labor, many still struggle to make enough money to care for their families.
But with newly acquired skills made possible by the bakery, these women — many of whom are single mothers — can earn a steady income and be able to provide for their families. They will be able to sell their goods right out of the shop instead of traveling to sell them on the street.
“Women and girls are known to suffer disproportionately when they are poor. Girls are often thrust into the role of caregiver when a parent is ill,” said Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma. “If a family lacks the funds to send all the children to school, the girls are kept home. If there is not enough food for a family to share, a mother will go hungry to fill her children’s empty stomachs.”
To learn more about the women Food For The Poor is recognizing on International Women’s Day, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.com/women.
To donate to the bakery project, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.com/bakery.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]