08 Apr “Dear Friends” – A Letter from Tanzania

In 2011 our Tanzanian partners at Grace & Healing Ministry began a Nutrition Program to serve lunch to children living with HIV in their community. Funded through Rice & Beans Month donations, this program has continued to dramatically impact the lives and health of these children ever since. Read this letter that we recently received from the director of the program, Esther Muhagachi.

Dear Friends,

Every Friday the kids we support at Grace & Healing Ministry of Dodoma (GHMD) meet at our church here in Tanzania for learning and socializing together with other kids. Part of the Friday program always includes having lunch together. We discovered that not only were most of the kids coming from very poor families, but that the only good meal they ate was at the church on Fridays. We became especially concerned for those infected with HIV. But we thank God for the people who fasted and joined the idea of eating rice and beans to serve these vulnerable kids who could not afford even a single meal a day. With the Rice & Beans Month money we receive from Lahash, we created a special Nutrition Program for the kids with HIV.

Lahash sponsored kids sharing a meal at the Friday program

This special lunch is served to over 25 kids at the church every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then on Friday they join all the others and eat together. It has been a blessing to many kids such as Paskali and Gabriel to mention a few, whose condition was worse due to HIV-related infections and lack of food while on antiretroviral drugs. We have seen a difference and their condition has improved a lot. For example Paskali was kind of confused — you could find him picking food in a dumping place, and he was not going to school! But now he is able to go to school instead of searching for food, because he knows that by afternoon he will be at the church for lunch. The same situation happened to Gabriel whose grandmother had given up on him, waiting for his death. But due to the Nutrition Program his health has improved, and now he is happily going to school.

The kids of Grace & Healing Ministry show off their colorful new sign!

There is much to tell about the Nutrition Program, but my heart is full of thanks for the Rice & Beans Month since this is a source of blessing to the GHMD kids. Thank you all who joined this program. You have fulfilled the word of God from Matthew 25:35, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.” My prayer for you comes from Isaiah 58:10, “And if you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

Thank you and God bless you,

Esther EB Muhagachi
Director of Grace & Healing Ministry in Dodoma, Tanzania