Silver Spring, Maryland--The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International, in partnership with several other organizations, has distributed nearly $18 million in relief supplies in Malawi. The donated supplies included medicine, food, clothing, books, seeds, and even a fire truck.

The first shipments arrived in Malawi in May of 2006 and continued through December. The supplies have benefited people throughout the country in orphanages, nursing homes, rural clinics, hospitals, colleges, libraries, and more.

"This has been a fantastic experience," enthused Adentayo Odeyemi, country director for ADRA Malawi. "Malawi is a country with great needs, and these donations have already touched so many lives, and met so many of those needs," Odeyemi continued.
"The entire country is better for it." In total, the distribution will benefit more than a million people.

The shipments were made possible by a collaboration between several donors, including ADRA International, World Response, World Emergency Relief, HELP International, ADRA Malawi, International Medical Equipment Collaborative (IMEC), Meals for Malawi, and Brother's Brother, among others.
Scotland-based charity organization Glasgow the Caring City coordinated the donation of the fire truck, which will be used in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city.

"Partnership between like-minded nongovernmental organizations allowed this to happen," said James Lanning, ADRA International's director of acquisitions. "Unilaterally, none of us could have pulled it off, but by joining forces we were able to ship these much-needed supplies to Malawi."

ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, or ethnicity.

Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org.