Seeding Mercy’s Board from Left to Right: Justin Recla, Board Officer and Strategist, Michelle Morgan, Legacy Global Foundation’s Planned Giving and Financial Controller & Advisory Board Member, Joel Mwanja, Staff, IT, Aken Tong, President & CEO, Pr. John Schaumburg, Board Member and Elizabeth Winter, Esq., Advisory Board Member
Legacy Global Foundation is pleased to announce it has provided a $10,000 matching grant to Seeding Mercy, a US Based 501(c)(3), non-profit, global-focused organization, providing long term food security for the displaced population in the country of South Sudan, Africa. Seeding Mercy is Founded by ASU Chemical Engineering student, Aken Tong, a South Sudan native, who’s goal is to alleviate famine in his home country by developing a self-sustaining food production model or “Food Innovation Project”. Along with providing a renewable agricultural model, Aken, has also developed a plant based, non-toxic pesticide to aid local communities in increasing crop yields to 85%.
Seeding Mercy’s Mission
The country of South Sudan is facing a massive humanitarian crisis as 2.9 million people are internally displaced with 15,000 people a day losing access to food and water. Civil war has raged for more than four years and has spread country wide. According to the UN World Food Program, 5.3 million people – or 48 percent of the population – in South Sudan are acutely affected by this hunger crisis. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has warned that at its peak, this figure could reach 7.1 million people in need of assistance in the coming months.
Photo courtesy of Seeding Mercy
As the rainy season descends upon South Sudan, an unprecedented number of communities and displaced refugees face severe food insecurity. With the rains, access to these populations will now be further hampered as flooded roads become impassable, leaving populations isolated in pockets throughout the country who depend heavily on airplane drops of emergency aid; an expensive way to deliver aid to an already underfunded humanitarian crisis. There is currently an estimated deficit of more than 1 billion pounds of locally produced cereal, according to a crop and food security assessment from WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This is a 26 percent increase from last year.
Seeding Mercy’s current goal is to feed 1,000 family members in South Sudan, for 6 months by providing the tools, equipment and seeds necessary to yield the highest crops post South Sudan’s rainy season, which occurs during June and July. By focusing on helping women, the main drivers of food production in South Sudan, learn the self-sustainable techniques of Regenerative Agriculture , they are able to increase their food yield in the crops like: Sorgham (Grain), Maize (Corn), Bread, and Nuts. These increased yields will not only feed their own families, but will provide an income by selling their crop yields to others in need, in their community.
GET INVOLVED!
If you would like to help support the work of Legacy Global Foundation and Seeding Mercy through your donor-advised fund, contact Amanda at amanda@legacyglobal.org
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