An unexpected gift supports Colombian farmers when they need it most
Farmers in Sincelejo, in Colombia, were facing a desperate situation when a drought destroyed their crops in 2014. The Sincelejo community works hard to grow organic crops, save seeds, recover drought-tolerant native plants, and find solutions to the many environmental and societal challenges they face. Yet the drought put all their hard work in peril.
Implementing member, Mennonite Central Committee, suddenly found itself searching for additional funds for emergency loans to help farmers with a second planting.
Around the same time, two longtime Growing Hope volunteers were having a conversation with a friend of theirs, a philanthropist. This couple evidently made a good case for the effectiveness of Growing Hope’s work, because the philanthropist wired a significant donation for Growing Hope to use “where most needed.”
Aside from the philanthropist’s generosity, the amazing part was that the donation was EXACTLY the amount the program needed to meet the extra expenses caused by the drought.
Thanks to this gift from the heart, the Sincelejo program was able to respond to the crisis without having to dip into its budget earmarked for conservation agriculture trainings and the construction of much-needed irrigation systems. The program combines human rights and peace-building work with food security through training, agricultural activities, or organizational capacity building.