WHO WE ARE
Founded in 1971, FH Association (“FHA”) incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland, operates programs in over 18 countries throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Food for the Hungry (FH) was founded by Dr. Larry Ward based on a simple premise, “If children died one at a time, I can help them one at a time.” Currently, FH operates in more than 20 countries in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
While we collectively refer to ourselves as “FH”, international staff should be aware that there is additional “Food for the Hungry” organizations in other countries that also trace their lineage back to the same founder, Larry Ward, in 1971. They collectively call themselves “Food for the Hungry International” or “FHI”. FHA and FHI cooperate on projects together but may not share common governance.
Values: The Heartbeat of FH
- We follow Jesus. We are ambassadors of Jesus in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
- Our work is relational. We pursue reconciled relationships as a result of grace with
- those with whom we work, partner, and serve.
- We invest wisely and focus on results. We are stewards in God’s Kingdom and strive
- to invest all resources to maximize missional impact.
- We serve with humility. We recognize the dignity of others and put their interests
- above our own.
- We pursue beauty, goodness, and truth. In a broken world we are witnesses through our relationships and work of God’s beauty, goodness, and truth.
Vision
- All forms of human poverty ended worldwide
Purpose
- Together we follow God’s call to respond to human suffering and graduate communities from
FH IN ETHIOPIA
Following the 1984 drought-induced famine, FH started its operations in Ethiopia by providing food and non-food aid to the famine victims in Northern Ethiopia and then engaged in sustainable development and humanitarian response activities in Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromiya, Sidama, SNNPR and Tigray Regions, sustainably graduating millions of people from poverty and responding to human suffering in Ethiopia ever since.
OUR PURPOSE
Together we follow God’s call to respond to human suffering and graduate communities from extreme poverty. Towards this end, FH engages communities on:
Education
- FH Focuses on increasing access and improving the quality of education in rural and urban settings. We build school facilities including libraries and provide the required supplies to attain the goals.
- FH provides school supplies and dignity kits to the most vulnerable children.
- FH also addresses early childhood development (ECD) by building the required infrastructure and availing appropriate furniture and supplies.
- FH builds the capacity of teachers both in schools and ECD centers in partnership with school communities and education offices.
Natural Resource Management
To protect and rehabilitate degraded environments FH is engaged in:
- Water and soil protection through physical and biological means
- FH has planted an average of 20 million seedlings each year of which 144,562 Public Work beneficiaries were involved to plant seedlings on 74 watersheds. In doing so, an estimated 1,200 hectares of land were covered.
- Nearly one million coffee, fruit and multi-purpose tree seedlings are raised and distributed every year to household farmers to increase income.
Health and Nutrition
The current Health and nutrition program aims to:
- Improve maternal and child health and nutritional practices among women of reproductive age groups and children under two years of age
- Improve access to nutritious food
- Improve hygiene and sanitation through developing WASH infrastructure and promotion of community-led total sanitation
- Health system strengthening and
- Responding to emergency health outbreaks and pandemics
Income Generation and Food Security
- Construct small-scale river diversions and hand-dug wells for irrigation at the household level
- Provision of finance for Rural Saving and Credit Cooperatives for easy access to loans to the rural community
- A cash transfer to the targeted families as startup capital for small animal raring, petty trade, and fattening … to build their assets
- Organizing and training Self Help Groups, Youth Groups, and Water User Groups to boost their economic benefits
- Introducing Conservation Agriculture both as a food security means and environmental protection
Emergency response
- Commodity and cash transfer with two objectives:
- Meet emergency food needs of transitory food insecure populations; and
- Protect assets of targeted households (HH)
- GBV Response & Mitigation
- Emergency Seed Distribution
- Emergency WASH (shower, latrine, water system, NFI’s)
- Emergency Shelter NFI Response
