Direct Aid believes in raising the level of empowerment in the neediest African communities by seeking to find sustainable solutions. The association has focused on implementing many development projects that mesh with the culture of African societies in order to enhance the lives of poor families in a sustainable manner, and the most important of these projects is grinding and storing grains.
The idea of the grain grinding and storage project arose from Direct Aid’s observation of poor families’ use of primitive tools in grinding grains. Using primitive tools leads to a significant consumption of time and effort, and results in the disruption of many family members’ lives, including dropping out of education, the mother’s preoccupation with raising children and their needs, and the Direct Aid centers’ need for grains to feed our orphanages. The old system required establishing warehouses equipped to store grains, especially at a time of low prices. Therefore, mills that operate with electricity, fuel, or solar energy were built with the aim of obtaining fresh flour faster and at a more convenient time, and to reduce what was wasted during manual grinding. During 2023 alone, Direct Aid was able to implement about 50 projects for grinding and storing grains, including building warehouses and machines for grinding grains. About 200,000 people in 13 African countries benefited from it as a result of fulfilling several development goals: 1) Achieving the lowest cost and highest quality standard to meet the permanent need for grains, and grinding them at the association’s orphanages. 2) Meet the needs of poor farmers in nearby villages by providing grain and grinding it for them at low prices throughout the year. 3) Creating job opportunities for young men and women, and mothers of orphans to provide them with a sustainable income.