Noon Meal Improves Girls' Learning in Burkina Faso

The cantine at the Lycee Modern de l'Amitie is operated by by 4 cooks and  provides a hot lunch (of beans, rice or pasta) to 750 students daily when school is in session.  In order to economize and to instill a sense of responsibility in the students, students are required to serve all of the lunches and and to maintain a clean dining area.   Due to the large number of students and the size of the cantine, students must take their lunches in two sittings both inside and outside the dining room.  Students rotate as servers for their assigned tables of 12.  

Photo 1: serving bowls of beans just out of the kitchen. 

Photo 2: a student picks up the serving bowl for her table.

Following each sitting, students clean the tables and sweep the floor.  Once a week, students wash down the entire dining area floor.

The cantine is necessary not only because of the distance between the school and the town where the vast majority of students reside, but also because of the extreme poverty of the students’ parents and the living conditions of some students.  Some students’ lodging consists of a mat to sleep on and they must find their own food to eat.   Providing them lunch at school reduces distances they must walk, ensures them at least one meal a day, and enables them to study before afternoon classes resume.  Most girls entered school initially with the assistance of the Lambs for School Project (GlobalGiving project #1818).  However, the sale of their lambs each year covers their school clothes and materials and is not sufficient to cover the cost of school lunches.

Photo 3: Ouedraogo Suzanne: "I live 11 km from school and the cantine allows me to eat, to rest and to study my lessons before classes resume in the afternoon."

Photo 4: Sarambe Karidiata: "Without the cantine, I would be obliged to pass the entire day with nothing to eat."

The noon meal which you so generously support is essential to the phenomenal success of these students.