In response to a growing food crisis in Maluku, our church partners are mobilising all the resources at their disposal to improve food security and tackle poverty.
We’ve been supporting the Protestant Church of Maluku (GPM) and their development agency to expand their initiative of planting community kitchen gardens to address growing poverty and food insecurity.
Three new community kitchen gardens have been planted in 2023, using the land of local congregations and individuals in the church.
“That the church is driving this is also an encouragement for the people,” says Rev Jeny Mahupale, who has made her own family land available for the project.
“We’re still in an early trial with different vegetables like spinach but the results are good so far with fruits like rambutan and pineapple.”
The General Secretary of the GPM Synod, Pastor S. Sapulette, describes the initiative as a “planting movement” and hopes Rev Jeny and the church’s leadership will inspire others to join.
“This is a movement that was born from reflecting on the struggles of our congregations and the reality we face together as a nation,” said Pastor Sapulette.
He hopes that more congregations can be empowered and trained by Rev Jeny and her team to make their land available for economically productive crops to help tackle the food crisis.
Please pray for the work of our partners in the Protestant Church of Maluku and for an end to the food crisis there.
Thank you for enabling us to support our partners to expand this project through your donations.
We are gathering more stories from this project to share over the next few months.
Photos: Rev Jeny and the team at the community kitchen garden.