Meal-a-Day Fund
The Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund (CMaD) is a UK registered charity set up and run by the Christadelphians. It was founded in 1976 after the founders heard Henry Kissinger give a speech in which he said everyone on earth should have at least one meal a day.
CMaD's intent is, as a practical witness to our faith, to share the blessings we receive from God to help those who are in real need in the less developed parts of the world, seeking to facilitate personal and community dignity through sustainable, ‘down to earth’ local projects which:
- help to relieve the effects of hunger, disease, disability, destitution and homelessness
- promote agriculture, clean water, basic healthcare and education
- encourage sharing, learning and service to others and community development.
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, sponsorship, and by buying various items for sale such as cards, tea towels and t-shirts. In recent years, an average of £500,000 per annum has been raised by CMaD, around 60% of which is currently used on long term projects that rely largely, or solely, on CMaD funding. Some of these are described below.
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. Almost 500 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 supported by CMaD 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 provides out-reach health education.
Other projects
Aside from the major, long term projects, the fund has made significant one off donations to other causes, e.g. Tree Aid (which plants trees in Burkina Faso), Village Water Zambia (providing wells and a programme of hygiene education to rural Zambian villages), WhizzKids United (an Africaid-run HIV/AIDS education programme using football to teach lessons about health) and many others. Visit the CMaD website for more information about projects supported.
Affiliates
The CMaD Fund currently has two sister charities:
External links