"We're happy to do this because we are called to love other people regardless of who they are," Moussa*, a volunteer helping with the subsidized grain sale, told Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) staff.

Moussa himself is a beneficiary of CRWRC’s emergency food distribution in Niger.  In the face of crippling drought, CRWRC, is working with a local organization to make grain available to about 10,000 people through sales of grain at subsidized prices and by increasing the stock of cereal banks. Due to his harvest and family sizes, Moussa had been one of the individuals selected to purchase grain at a much-subsidized price the week before.

“This has been much harder than a normal year,” Moussa said at the distribution.  “In a normal year, I can harvest 400 measures of grain.  This past year, I only harvested 150 due to poor rains.”

As a result of the poor harvest, Moussa and his family had to look for other sources of income and food.  They were spending a lot of time cutting wood and collecting leaves to sell, leaving little time for working in their fields to cultivate the next crop.

Thanks to the CRWRC/Canadian Foodgrains Bank subsidized sale, Moussa was able to buy grain at about $20 per sack instead of the regular $42, enabling him to return to his field.

Now, a week later, he was back at a different grain distribution.  CRWRC asked him why he was there if he had already received grain.  His reply was inspiring.

“My organization has committed to having volunteers here to help with the distribution,” he said.  “We are called to love others, and this is one way to do it.”

Moussa is a member of a small organization that is committed to showing love to those around them regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender.  Despite their own poverty and struggles with this year’s drought, the members gave of their own funds to purchase several subsidized bags of grain that they could give to those in need.

“We are glad to be able to purchase the grain ourselves instead of having it come just from CRWRC,” he said.  “That shows that the aid is coming from our organization and not just from the outside.”

What a great example this is of how to live our faith and show our love to our neighbors.

CRWRC’s food distributions in Niger took place in August.

Story submitted by CRWRC's communications office.