Meal-a-Day Fund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund (CMaD) is a UK registered charity set up and run by the Christadelphians. It was founded in 1976 in Tamworth, UK after the founders heard Henry Kissinger give a speech in which he said everyone on earth should have at least one meal a day.
The fund seeks to facilitate self-sufficiency and self-worth through sustainable, 'down to earth' local projects, which aim to overcome the effects of hunger, disease, disability, destitution and homelessness as well as promoting agriculture, clean water, health care and education. The focus is mainly on African and other less economically developed nations.
Money is raised by a number of methods, including donations from individuals, group donations from church collections, donations in wills, gift aid and by buying various items for sale such as cards, tea towels and t-shirts. In recent years, between £350,000 and £500,000 has been raised per annum by the fund, around half of which is used on long term projects that rely largely, or solely, on CMaD funding. Some of these are described below.
[edit] Major Projects
- Christadelphian School for Blind and Handicapped, Mbengwi, Cameroon: The school can admit up to 40 blind or disabled pupils and provides training in skills that help them to become self-supporting and to take up their place in society.
- The Meal-a-Day Academy, Monrovia, Liberia: The academy provides primary level education for the least well-off children in Monrovia. There are close ties between the school, the local church and the community. About 300 orphaned or abandoned children are enrolled at the school, most of them living in the community with ‘guardians’, usually neighbours or distant relatives. There are ten trained teachers. As well as educating the children the academy provides a hot lunch each day.
- The Nalondo School for Physically Handicapped Children, Western Province, Kenya was established in 1998 with 48 students. Classrooms, dormitories, kitchens and administration buildings were all built over the first few years. A water supply was provided and the school has some agricultural and animal projects to improve the children’s diet and self-sufficiency. The school is recognised as a centre of excellence in the region. The school has now expanded its programme from the original four levels to cover the full eight levels of Kenyan primary education. The development involved the construction of four new classrooms, two dormitories, two latrines and washing block, three water tanks and a teacher’s house. The total number of students has risen to 96.
- The Timboni Tiva Children‘s Home: Established in 1996 in an arid part of Kenya, east of Nairobi, the home cares for over 100 orphaned children. There is also a small nurse-led clinic on site which provides medical care to the nearby communities and also provides out-reach health education.
[edit] Other Projects
Aside from the major, long term projects, the fund has made significant one off donations to other causes including Tree Aid which plants trees in Burkina Faso, Fundación Santa Cruz which helps Colombian street children, the Ayries Society which is based in Tamil Nadu, Southern India and helps people with HIV/AIDS and TB and Trek Aid which helps Tibetan refugees.
