Feed 300 poor children in urban Mombasa

Firstly, thank you to the donors of the Mustard Seed Project (MSP). Food inflation continues to be very high in Kenya and for some of the families we support starvation would be very close without our intervention. Because our school has a feeding programme for all the children they keep healthy and are ready to learn, but life is still a struggle for many families. During school holidays the very poorest are provided with the basic maize meal and beans but the number in need has increased a lot and continues to do so. Additionally now, our Headteacher has told us of people in the community who have had children in the school who have now moved on to secondary education. One of these is a lovely lady called Siti. Siti is a single parent who not only had children of her own but took in a child with cerebral palsy as there was no-one else to care for her. The child, Halima, now has a sponsor through MSP and is doing well at a special school. Siti's gratitude for the help we have been able to provide is heartbreaking. I met her in 2022 on my visit to Kenya. Siti was given the job of going to the market to buy fresh produce for the school cooks, a job they would have to do otherwise. She was delighted to be asked to do it. Now Siti is ill. Our Headteacher had ensured that she received enough food to keep starvation at bay but was concerned that Siti was no longer part of a family with a child in the school, the criteria for such help. MSP could do no other than support Siti who has been such a supporter of our Project for many years. Then there is Esther who took in  her grandchildren when their mother died of Aids. Both Siti and Esther are well known to us and are proud women who only ever ask for help in desperation.So we now have a small number of people in our community, where children have moved on to further education, whom we also support. It is a community which values what we have to offer, particularly education, but also food help. Our feeding programme costs almost as much to run as it costs to run the school, but without healthy children our school may not have achieved such success. For a number of children the food they have in school is their only food for the day. It includes porridge on arrival and a well-balanced lunchtime meal. I saw no food waste while I was there, apart from the container of banana skins which the goats were enjoying!

We need your support for our feeding project more than ever. Please continue to support us or join us. We at MSP are grateful to each of you for what we have been able to achieve because of you, healthy children ready to take advantage of an education that can give them a better future.