Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Food Distribution Update

Hi Friends,
Some of you may have been wondering about the status of our Food Distribution from the March donations. I am blessed and excited to tell you that the funds have been received in Zimbabwe and have been divided and distributed to three of the most needy areas of Zimbabwe. The food distribution was planned to begin this week and should already be in progress! We are anticipating the results and finding out how many people received food through this widespread distribution! I will continue to post updates as I receive more information.

I was stirred by a question that I was asked this weekend and I wanted to share the answer with you. The question was essentially this "How do I know that 100% of my donation is truly being used for it's intended purpose?" This is such a important question and one that I've given a lot of thought to over the last few months. You will actually see the answers in video interviews that I did of my Zim friends because I asked them the same question! The answer to this question is multi-faceted:

1) I personally know the people who are distributing the resource. It is a goal of Wells of Life to only donate to established programs with whom we have had a long-standing relationship. I know it must seem ambiguous because I purposefully don't include their names on this blog and that is only to protect them.

2) The programs that we are donating to are church based. This means that those to whom we are giving the resource to are leaders who care deeply about their people and their country. Not only are they accountable to others, but feel a deeper sense of conviction to be accountable to God for their actions.

3) Accurate Reporting. It is a goal of Wells of Life to only donate to programs who can meet specific criteria in terms of reporting. We are asking for specific information from each of these distributors in order to confirm the success of the distribution of resources. We also have the privilege of knowing many people who travel to Zimbabwe and even have the possibility of traveling their ourselves (although not this year) to follow up on the progress. With the record of names kept from the distribution, we will eventually have opportunity to meet some of those to whom food has been distributed and to discuss the actual process with them and find out how they benefited. This will also allow us to track other, more specific needs in the area of widows, orphans, and perhaps an educational program to benefit the orphans.

We know that your donation is a precious investment and we are taking every step that we know of to be sure that your donation makes it to the intended destination! We take your investment as seriously as you do.

Remember, just $10 will feed one "family" (made up of mostly orphans and widows) for one month.

To fill the need, please contact me at julie@hiscreations.com

Most sincerely,
Julie

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