A Wisconsin charity has started a unique initiative to try to help starving people in West Africa. The Rural Empowerment Initiative just announced a new program called Harvest Shares Initiative. They want to raise $30K and are seeking it from household gardeners, community farmers, quilt makers and other volunteers.

Rural Empowerment Initiative (REI), a Wisconsin charitable organization, announces Harvest Shares Initiative (HSI), a program which engages local farmers, household gardeners and communities by asking them to share a portion of their agricultural harvest, or other form of involvement, to sustain families in need in West Africa.

REI’s Harvest Shares Initiatives allows individuals, community gardens, family farms and corporate harvesters to share the abundance from a portion of their crops to fund community farms in West Africa that will sustain life and provide hope for families in need.

Hopefully this program will include some effort to help people in West Africa become self sufficient and not just supply aid, although that is truly needed. What do you think of efforts like this?

Post Update:

REI pointed out to me that they do in fact work to help these people become self sufficient. Glad to hear it and sorry I overlooked that point.

“What’s unique about Harvest Shares is that donations from volunteer HSI projects provide long term sustainability for West African families and communities by teaching them to farm and harvest their own nourishment.”