Help These Children Avoid Further Suffering

The UN estimates that more than 10 million people in East Africa have been affected by the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in over 60 years. The drought in Ethiopia has resulted in a food shortage and increased malnutrition for over 97,800 people in the Oromia region alone. As a result families have been forced to migrate with their animals to areas of better pasture and children are removed from school and expected to contribute to household income through hazardous activities such as gold mining.

Retrak has been working in Oromio with a local organization called Rift Valley Children and Women Development Organization (RCWDO). We're working together to help children affected by the drought access education and regular meals. 

RCWDO works with women and children to address the causes of poverty and underdevelopment in the Rift Valley areas. The partnerhsip enables RCWDO to help prevent malnutrition in Oromia by providing 650 children in two target schools with meals for one year. As a result children will have the energy to concentrate in class and alleviate the families’ burden of struggling to provide food for their children during the drought. Food aid is also provided to over 2,200 vulnerable members of the community, including single parents and children under 5 years old.

Thanks to your support, children in Oromio are able to stay in school and to eat regular meals.  Please consider making an additional donation on June 12th, during GlobalGiving's Partner Bonus Days, where your donation will go even further. All donations made on June 12th will be matched by 50% by GlobalGiving.

Links:

• Retrak's website

Ayyelech Argaw is a social science teacher in Goro Rayya Primary School in rural Ethiopia.

Ayyelech says “Last year we did not have a school feeding program in our school. We usually encountered students who went faint while raising the flag in the morning. Inside the classroom, it was usual to watch students get depressed and fall asleep as the class activity progressed. There were times that I got desperate, stopped teaching and let the students have a break in the middle of the lesson. The participation of the students was minimal, to the extent that information flowed directly only from me to the students. Most of them did not react to the questions I ask. Yawning and depression were the frequent signs we always saw while teaching.’’

That was before Retrak, through our partner project Rift Valley Children and Women Development Organization (RCWDO), was able to offer students a supplemental feeding program, in which 650 children receive daily nutritious meals. Ayyelech describes a drastic change:

"This year we did not have to worry about low enrollment, absenteeism and dropout. We are just performing our regular tasks at school, teaching. Much of our time that we have been wasting moving around to get the absentee students back to school is saved. In addition, we can easily call students for catch-up classes and they voluntarily come and attend which has contributed to increasing students’ performances. I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to RCWDO and Retrak, for they have planned and implemented this project that saved our time and even motivated us to carry out our routine tasks without complications.”

Retrak would like to thank you for your support which allows us to in turn support organizations like RCWDO. Thanks to your generousity, Goro Rayya Primary School students have nutritious meals that enable them to stay in school and concentrate on their studies.

Want to continue to support this vital feeding program? Wednesday, March 13 is GlobalGiving Bonus Day, when your donation will be matched by 30%. Please consider making a donation to Retrak on Wednesday, and continue helping us help street children in Africa.