If you give some of your own food to feed the hungry and to satisfy the needs of those who are humble, then your light will rise in the dark, and your darkness will become as bright as the noon-day sun. Isaiah 58:10.

The increase in the cost of food over the past three months has been staggering. Maize, that for the 15 years Springs of Hope Foundation has been working in Kenya seasonally fluctuates between 2,500K/- and 3,000K/- for a 90 kg sack is now 6,500K/- if you can find it in the market. Beans have been around 6,000K/- for a 90 kg sack for many years. Last week we managed to purchase the last three sacks in the market for our food hampers for 12,000 K/-. 
Our food hamper program is still ongoing, despite, or should I say, because of the staggering increase in the price of staples such as maize and beans. We can afford to pay double the usual cost of the staples we put into our food hampers because of an additional emergency food relief grant we recently received from Spirit in Action and the ongoing generosity of donors like you.The number of calls we are getting weekly from area chiefs reporting that when checking on the elderly in their communities they are finding that they have gone without food for over three days is becoming more and more distressing.  In response to the requests, we will be doing three food hamper distributions this week to different communities.
Last week our Springs of Hope Foundation’s Kijiji Mission food hamper distribution was at Pipeline on the outskirts of Nakuru City. We visited the IDP (Internally displaced people) camp known as Canaan. There are over 4,000 people living on this very overcrowded 10-acre parcel of land. The Government has built a dispensary and put up a water tank with clean running water for the residents. The Catholic Church has also built a nursery school. There is a primary school but no secondary school. Most of the students drop out due to school fees thus becoming pregnant at the very tender age of between 12 – 14 years old. They were heavily affected by the covid 19 pandemic, as most rely on the manual field or house help jobs to sustain themselves and their families. With the persisting drought, most are often unable to afford to have one meal a day. We also have a lot of disabled and elderly people living in the camp.
For those that couldn’t come to the hall, we went for home visits. Among the people we made home visits to where an elderly lady whose legs are paralyzed due to arthritis, a young lady who is also paralyzed, a young man, who lost both his legs in a motorcycle accident, and is fitted with plastic legs, a middle-aged man who was involved in an accident and is house-ridden, an elderly man, whose legs are troubling him due to diabetes, and his throat is also troubling him, he can hardly talk. He is a tailor by profession using his skills to earn a living, however, the diabetes is slowing down his ability to work on his trundle sewing machine, soon making it impossible to work. Our final visit was to an elderly man who lost his eyesight and also lost his wife last year. She had been his main caregiver for many years. He now lives with his sons who have to leave him at home alone every day while they go out looking for manual labor.They really appreciated our gesture and prayed that those hands that give may be blessed so more people can be beneficiaries.
Two young girls who completed the fourth form approached us requesting a chance to join Kijiji Mission Projects in our August intake, which we are delighted to do, as their parents can’t afford to pay for their college fees.All of the IDP camp residents live in deplorable conditions as the camp is very overcrowded and congested.Blessings to our sponsors for making all of our life-changing work possible.

Asante SanaAntoinette.
One of our Kijiji Mission Projects food hamper recipients was all smiles and very excited to see us. She is 90+ years old, living alone in her small one-roomed house. She has no immediate family and can hardly fend for herself. She still does her household chores and can still move around. She held the food hamper and prayed and blessed the hands that bought the food.
If you give some of your own food to feed the hungry and to satisfy the needs of those who are humble, then your light will rise in the dark, and your darkness will become as bright as the noon-day sun.Isaiah 58:10.