Bag of Rice Project #260 -A visit to the Eke family


Learn how you can be apart of helping people who are in need with our A Thrifty Mom Bag of Rice Campaign
. In 2016 we started helping a young man named Ikechukwu from Nigeria. Summer of 2019 we were able to visit his family in Aba, Nigeria. While there we saw widespread poverty and lack of basic needs. We would like to invite you to help meet one of those basic needs, by providing
Nigerian families with rice. This gift will feed a large family for a few months, or a single person a year. It also reminds them they are loved, and brings most of them to tears… as a full bag of rice is one of the most generous gifts they will ever receive. You can also read about other families we have been able to bless here.

The Following story is about the Eke family, their bag of rice was donated thanks to Helen Root this is the 260th bag of rice our program has been able to give away thanks to generous donations.

Meeting new people has always been a great time to start new conversations, so we met Mrs. Eke Idam, a poor widow about the age of 86.
She lived in a rickety hut since she was 22, that was when she got married to her late husband. Her village, Ozizza wasn’t too far away from the urban city where she used to trade her products, she practically invested in rice because she had farmlands to cultivate and harvest. Rice has been a sustainable business for her since she was in her youth now it has been halted because of her age difference. She has a grand daughter who lives with her who has taken up the role of a care giver.

Looking at how she lived her life currently, she is being exposed to frosty air at night due to lack of home infrastructure, her wooden doors and windows are partly damaged. She also cooks with the popular tripod stand supported by three huge stones and firewood to heat up the metal pot. She could barely afford three square meal and always prayed for better days.

Much to her surprise, Mrs. Eke Idam was presented with a bag of rice, at once, she became very excited and wished she was in her youth again. This bag of rice will ease the burdens she is enduring. Thanking everyone around, she praised the donors and whomever was behind bringing smiles on her face this year.

You might notice in the photos the bag says flour. This village was far away from where we normally purchase the rice, We found a rice mill closer to their village that would sell us the rice in bulk. However we had to bring our own bags to fill. The bags we found were not rice bags they were flour sacks, but they fulfilled the purpose we needed. We were grateful to be able get this rice to this remote village, it was a difficult task and took some resourceful thinking to make it happen.

Learn how you can be apart of helping people who are in need with our A Thrifty Mom Bag of Rice Campaign. You can also read about other families we have been able to bless here.