Meal-a-Day Fund
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The Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund is a registered charity set up and run by the Christadelphians. 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 aims to overcome the effects of hunger, disease, disability and homelessness as well as promoting heath care and education. The focus is mainly on African and other less economically developed nations, although help for people in the UK is available. Money is raised by a number of methods. There are individual one off donations, group donations from church collections, donations in wills, gift aid and by buying various items for sale such as tea towels and t-shirts. Around £350,000 is raised per annum by the fund, half of which is used on their four long term projects.
[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. Meal-a-Day has assumed responsibility for 50% of funding for the school since 1996.
- The Meal-a-Day Academy, Monrovia, Liberia: The academy helps with 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 now wishes to expand its programme from the present four levels to cover the full eight levels of Kenyan primary education. The development will involve 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 will rise to 96.
- The Timboni Tiva children‘s home: Established in 1996. There is a small nurse-led clinic on site which provides medical care to the nearby communities and also provides out-reach health education. There is also dining hall (which seats 120), kitchen, latrine block, and a 48-bed girls’ dormitory and a 48 bed boys' dormitory.
[edit] Other Projects
Aside from these four 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.
