Throughout the last 165 years RABI has been supporting the farming community, the charity was  founded by John Mechi in 1860. He was a first generation farmer, through his work in London  supplying scientific instruments, pencils and patented ‘Mechi’s major razor strop’ he earned enough to buy a farm in Essex. Seeing the poverty in the countryside, with no one to help the families in  distress, he appealed to farmers across the country to link together to “support the aged, shelter the  homeless and befriend the innocent and unprotected orphans”