NEWSLETTER: Gift Giving and Giving Gifts 2022

As we have moved through the season for giving thanks (Thanksgiving) and we have entered the season for giving gifts (Giving Tuesday, Christmas), we now ask that you consider giving a gift to the Haley McCready Outreach and Development Fund (HMODF). We strongly believe that gifts to the HMODF are more than donations to development. The gifts represent direct investments in development that address the Burundian realities and produce real results and significant benefits.

Realities

The Burundian realities include being one of the poorest countries in the world; a very small, densely-populated, high birth rate country with a very young population of 12 million people. Burundi is an agrarian country with more than 90% of population living in rural areas as farmers with very small, overworked, hand-cultivated plots, using low production, traditional methods. As an under-developed country, Burundi experiences tremendous poverty, hunger, famine, serious food insecurity and tremendous malnutrition (60% chronic malnutrition rate among children).

Agriculture Development 

We have come to believe that Burundi’s greatest development need is agriculture development and Burundi’s greatest development opportunity is agriculture development. Not surprisingly, almost all of our projects are agriculture development projects (96.7%) that are involved in crop cultivation, animal husbandry and microfinancing.

We have become an agriculture development fund and our project model includes an association of poor and vulnerable women who engage in income generation through crop cultivation (vegetables and grains), animal husbandry (goats and pigs) and microfinancing (savings and loans). Our projects receive a one-time, start-up grant and they are designed to be become self-supporting, self-managing, self-governing and self-sustaining. Half of our projects have been self-supporting for five or more years. We know it works! If you want to invest in development that works to alleviate poverty, please consider giving to the HMODF, please consider making a donation to the HMODF now.

Donation Link: http://haleymccreadyfund.com/u-s-donations/

Impressive Results (see table below)

  • We have a total of 30 active development projects; 22 original projects, 4 extension projects (spawned from 2 of the original projects) and 4 projects that have been started without a grant
  • We have 29 project associations; 21 original project associations, 4 extension project associations and 4 project associations for projects that started without a grant
  • We have development projects in 8 provinces, 12 communes and 23 collines
  • We have a total of 30 active projects and 29 of the active projects (96.7%) are active agriculture development projects
Members of Four Project Associations at Kabezi; One of Our Multiple Project Locations

Impressive Benefits (see table below) 

  • Our development projects currently have 374 beneficiaries, mostly poor, vulnerable women 
  • Our agriculture projects have cultivated a wide variety and a huge number of crops (vegetables and grains)
  • Our agriculture projects have shared a portion of the harvests with their beneficiaries
  • Our agriculture projects have sold a portion of the harvests to generate income for the association to continue with self-supporting crop cultivation 
  • Our agriculture development projects currently have a total of 754 animals (goats and pigs)
  • Our agriculture projects have sold 403 animals to generate income for the beneficiaries 
  • Our projects have developed microfinancing to provide beneficiaries with opportunities to benefit from income-generating activities

Giving Gifts 

Fortunately, we have been able to continue by attracting donations without making constant or frequent appeals for money. Our Newsletters focus on our development activities and the benefits for our beneficiaries rather than on marketing or fundraising. Although we are happy to receive gifts/donations at any time, once a year, we try to acquire more donors and more donations.

We want to be able to continue our development work and do more development work; we want to be able to continue to provide more start-up grants for more self-supporting projects that will provide more significant benefits and improve the lives of more beneficiaries and their families. Accordingly, we are asking you to consider giving some financial help to develop more projects and to enable more Burundian people to lift themselves out of poverty.

Donation Link: http://haleymccreadyfund.com/u-s-donations/

Beneficiaries (currently 374) 

Desire’s Beneficiaries at Nyabiraba, Kizunga
Viola’s Beneficiaries, Standing in One of Two Rice Fields
Audace’s Batwa Beneficiaries, Planting Rice in Two Fields

Cultivating Crops 

Growing Lenga Lenga or Amaranth
Epithace’s Beneficiaries, Weeding Beans

Displaying the Harvest

A Harvest of Peas
A Harvest of Potatoes

Sharing and Selling the Harvest 

Sharing a Portion of a Rice Harvest
Selling a Portion of a Rice Harvest

Animals (currently 754)

Women and Their Goats
Beneficiaries and Their Goats
Mum and Her Piglets
Pig and Piglets at Matara

Microfinancing 

Receiving Loan Money
Signing Loan Agreements

Gift Giving

Please keep in mind that all of your gift; all of your donation, will go directly to development of and development for poor beneficiaries in Burundi (no administration fees or expenses). Your gift, your donation represents a one-time, start-up investment in development and our projects become self-supporting and continue to produce life-improving benefits year after year. Please help us extend and expand the development results and benefits; please allow us to invest more start-up development grants for important, life-improving benefits for more poor beneficiaries and their families.

Please donate now; please donate within this giving season and before the end of this calendar year and this taxation year. We invite you to donate and we invite you to consider encouraging some of your family members and/or friends to donate.

Donation Link: http://haleymccreadyfund.com/u-s-donations/