Recently Brussels Airlines received a huge quantity of oatmeal boxes from Quakers, to be distributed to the African b.foundation projects. Thank you Quaker!
We decided to transport the boxes to two West-African countries we fly to, Liberia and Guinea.
In Liberia people are very familiar with this porridge as they used to eat it during the war when rice was unavailable. The Brussels Airlines team brought boxes to the James Cooper orphanage, a b.foundation project supported by our Country Manager Frederic Vloeberghs. They also took quite a number of boxes to the Sisters of Mother Teresa who are doing a fantastic job in Liberia, mainly for orphans and Aids patients.
Given the current Ebola crisis, there is a shortage of food in Monrovia. Our team is identifying other groups of people and organisations that are in need and where mainly the children and their families suffer from hunger.
In Guinea (thanks to our Country Manager Geert Lemmen) the oatmeal was distributed to the street children that live in the care of Père Stirnemann “Les Foyers Saint Joseph”. The Brussels Airlines team received a very warm welcome! Père Stirnemann runs several homes for street children in Guinea giving shelter to about 300 kids. In Les Foyers Saint Joseph 40 children of various ages live together. They stay there all week and those who have family spend the weekend at home. Although the organization is catholic, 90 % of the kids are muslem.
Thanks tour friends at Quaker and all colleagues involved for their help!