FARM STEW is making a difference and many people are taking note. Last month in South Sudan, Dr. Sherry and I visited the office of the Magwi County Commissioner, Otto David Ramson who gave his report.

“This FARM STEW has created jobs for my youth.  They are able to have small enterprises.  You brought skills to my community that they didn’t know.  You taught them to try soya milk and they love it. You brought a lot of groups together so they can discuss their issues.  Poverty is one of the major factors of life and you are minimizing it. When people work in groups, they increase their production.  I’ve seen it myself. The FARM STEW trainers have improved the life of my community.”

It was powerful to hear David’s report but next we visited Martin Okot, the Health Officer for Magwi County. What he said made the impact even more important.  He described that Magwi County has 297,000 people with only 1 doctor. We asked about the nearest hospital and he shared that it was in Nimule which was over 4-5 hours away after traveling on “roads'' that were impassable without an all terrain vehicle, like the Toyota Land Cruiser your generosity allowed us to purchase a few months back.

I could not imagine trying to get to Nimule, with a serious illness in the 1 ambulance for the entire county.  Even if a person makes it there alive, Martin shared there are basically no medicines available.  

Coming out of Martin’s office, I’d never been more convinced that prevention is better than cure.  That is what FARM STEW is all about.  We talk about FARM STEW as the recipe for abundant life, addressing the root causes of hunger, disease and poverty.  On this trip, we got to see how it is working.