|
School Lunch Project
Malnutrition perpetuates the cycle of poverty. During the summer of 2007 we traveled to the Meali Primary School, the site of our summer uniform project. While there, we observed firsthand the devastating effects of hunger. These children were in trouble. They were underweight, had stunted growth, scalp conditions, eye diseases and distended stomachs. Like Meali, many schools in Tanzania are not able to provide lunch to students who either live too great a distance from school to travel home for lunch or students whose families do not have the means to provide their children with a mid day meal. Guaranteeing each child one meal and vitamin supplement per day improves their overall health, affects their performance in school and encourages better school attendance by giving parents an incentive to send their children to school. In December of 2007, we built Meali School a kitchen, hired two cooks and had food supplies delivered. This program feeds 400 primary school children daily. The yearly cost of running this program is $17,000. We have also built kitchens at Ololosokwan Primary School and Karatu’s Endarofta Secondary Boarding School. The need for school kitchens and for providing lunch has grown due to the extreme and reccurring drought conditions in northern Tanzania.
|
Children of Tanzania
|
