Educate and Nourish 50 Students in Rural Malawi

In the Spring of this year, Malawi declared a state of emergency and disaster due to a food shortage caused by severe droughts spreading through Malawi and much of Southern Africa. In April, the government of Malawi estimated that 2.8 million Malawians faced food insecurity, which makes Malawi the number one country affected by food insecurity and drought. Severe food insecurity outcomes are expected to persist in 24 out of the 28 districts in Malawi through March 2017, including the Phalombe District (where EKARI operates). These drought and food insecurity levels are the worst that Malawi has experienced in 35 years.

Thankfully, EKARI students are staying nourished through the 3 Meals a Day Program. Michelle, EKARI's USA Executive Director, visited Malawi in August. She verified that while EKARI's students stayed at the EKARI home in August during their school holiday, they continued to eat 3 nutritious meals and 2 snacks a day, which adhere to Malawi's 6 food groups. Jenipher, a student beneficiary of EKARI and the 3 Meals a Day Program told Michelle, "The 3 Meals a Day Program greatly improves our health and allows us to focus on our studies. We see a complete difference when we eat nutritional meals and understand the importance. Without the program, we could not focus on our studies."    

Michelle also assessed the students' satisfaction rates, and found that they are very happy with the 3 Meals a Day Program. Students ranked the program 4.5 out of 5 during assessments (meaning that they had little criticism). Sarah, a beneficiary of the Program told Michelle that "A majority of us do not want to go home during school holidays. This is not because we do not want to see our families, but it is because we feel that we will be a burden to our families. We will be another mouth to feed and this will cause additional stress to our families. Our families have very very little food and cannot feed our brothers and sisters and other family members more than one meal a day and sometimes not even the one meal. We are very grateful for the nutritional food we receive from EKARI."

If you would like to learn more about the food crisis, check out this in-depth article from The Guardian that expands on the history behind this reoccurring disaster. Thank you for donating to EKARI Foundation's 3 Meals a Day Program and allowing our beneficiaries to continue their studies by getting the proper nutrition to thrive.