Presbyterian Moderator Dr Russell Birney will spend the next three weeks in the central African state of Malawi to visit partner churches and meet overseas staff of the Presbyterian Church.
And high on Dr Birney's list will be to see at first hand the relief and development work that is being carried on in the famine hit areas of the country. Last year, as a direct result of an appeal by Dr Birney, Presbyterians across Ireland donated £270,000 for famine relief in Malawi. This was given to Tearfund, Christian Aid and the Presbyterian's partner church the Church of Central African Presbyterian.
'The generosity of Presbyterians throughout Ireland to my appeal was just amazing and I'm glad to have this opportunity of going to see and report bacxk on how the money donated is being used,' commented the Moderator. 'Malawi has declared a National Food Disaster and I'm told that around 80% of farming families have no food.'
Much of the church famine relief work in Malawi is being directed by Maghera Presbyterian, Maurice McNicholl who works as a Development Officer with the Blantyre Synod Projects Office in the south of the country which is the worst affected area. 'We're at a point where food from the last harvest has run out and the next harvest is still a number of months away' explains Maurice McNicholl. 'The people depend on us for food and families receive a bag of maize per month to keep them going.'
While some of the Presbyterian money has gone directly to feeding people some was also used in another scheme to help 15,000 farmers buy seed, which was sown in December and hopefully will be ready for harvesting in May.
In addition to seeing Maurice McNichol's work the Moderator, accompanied by Mrs Birney will also visit education and medical projects in Ekwendeni and Livingstonia in the North of the county and Lilongwe and Nkhoma in the central region.
The Presbyterian Church has had a long historical connection with Malawi and presently has around 16 personnel in Malawi working alongside the local church in educational, medical, agricultural and community development programmes.
Issued by Stephen Lynas, Presbyterian Information Services. Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
PCI Home . . . Press Office . . . News Archive