Thank you Hand Up 4 East Africa team

Hand Up 4 East Africa team,

YOU reading this now, YOU who followed us on Facebook, YOU who tracked us on Twitter, YOU who met us along the route, YOU who shared our journey with friends, YOU who encouraged us, YOU were part of our team. We wanted to thank YOU, the entire Hand Up 4 East Africa team, for helping raise awareness and funds for the starving women and children who walk countless miles in search of food and aid.  Without your support Hand Up 4 East Africa would not have reached its fundraising goal.  Without your words of encouragement Hand Up 4 East Africa would never have been able to walk through excruciating pain, torrential rain, oppressive heat and scorching sun.  By your words of encouragement and guided by a mission larger than all of us, Hand Up 4 East Africa traversed 168 miles from Holland, through Grand Rapids, Lansing, Howell, Brighton, Novi and Farmington to end in Hart Plaza in Detroit.

Jessica, Brian and I can not express in words how thankful we are to the whole Hand Up 4 East Africa team...YOU.

Your help has spread awareness of drought, famine, and the victims of these. With your help we have reached ~$11,000 in life saving funds.  Although we all met these initial goals the needs persist, women and children still walk and you can still help.  Please continue to share information about the victims of the drought in East Africa, the hope that exists and how people can help.  Share Hand Up 4 East Africa with your friends, family and acquaintances giving them a glimpse of the hardship starving women and children are experiencing.  Challenge them to raise awareness and if they are moved to also invest their resources to help save lives.

Thank you so much,

Your Fellow Hand Up 4 East Africa Team (Jessica, Brian and Matt)

We Decided to Walk

I got a call. I picked up, and the first thing to spill into my ear was, “I have an idea.” The next thing I knew a small group of us felt the energy escalating. We met by video chat, talking fast and building on a budding project.

Our hearts were stirred as we read updates from folks on the ground reporting on a dry and dismal land filled with sick and hurting people. With each update, the situation grew ever more grim. Personal stories were getting lost in the numbers as the pains of drought became the common experience of one East African after another.

As I swallowed a gulp of cool, clean water, I thought about the many struggling for hydration only to find sources that are turbid and sparse. I felt the disconnect—of my experience from theirs—and desired deeply and genuinely to identify with their situation, though knowing I never truly could.  

Leaving their wives and families, men depart with their livestock (their livelihood) in a desperate measure to save their dwindling herd. The family suffers separation. Women trek unimaginable distances with children in tow. The Children, their vulnerable little bodies, are malnourished and sick from dirty water. Conditions remain dry and hurt persists. We asked: What could we do to help?

In response, we decided to walk. Though recognizing ours could not compare, we decided to make a journey, to walk in solidarity with those who have no other choice than to leave land that is providing little more than hunger pains.  We walk for relief, but we also walk for lasting change in a region that needs more than respite. Help us help East African communities emerge from the current crisis with the tools and resources necessary to triumphantly confront rainless seasons to come.