Provide school lunch to 3900 hungry Kenyan kids

For many of our students, personal circumstances are so desperate that the lunch they get at school each day is the only guaranteed meal of the day. Their stories help us to understand the challenges our students face, and why support for the school lunch program is critical. Meet one such student, Tonnic, and his sister Pauleen.

Tonnic is a 13 year old orphan, the youngest of 7 siblings, whose mother died recently. Tonnick now lives with his oldest sister, Pauleen, who was forced to drop out of high school in her 3rd year because there was no money for school fees. To support the family, Pauleen has taken over her late mother’s business buying and selling alcohol. She also plants maize for the family to eat.

In this child-headed home, Pauleen says she feels helpless, as no one in the extended family gives her help running the household. Pauleen reports that she is pressured by family members to hand over the deed to her mother’s land and home where Pauleen and Tonnick live. However, Pauleen is sure that if she were to do so, she and Tonnic would be kicked out of the house and become homeless.

Pauleen reports that she cannot afford to keep Tonnic but is doing her best. She wants him to excel academically so that he can help the family, but Tonnic struggles in his 6th grade classes.

In these dire circumstances, this little family struggles to afford daily food. Only the school lunch program assures Tonnic that he will have one meal each day. As a child-headed household, they also receive a small portion of food for Pauleen and him to eat on evenings and weekends.

Your support for the school lunch program is critical for Tonnick and Pauleen! We thank you for your generous donations which make the school lunch program possible.

Links:

• Global Interfaith Partnership website
• Watch a video about the lunch program

Our school lunch program is entering its 8th year, and students who benefited from the program during the critical middle school years (6th to 8th grade) are just graduating from high school.  These early adolescent years are when children begin missing school in order to help their families by working as day laborers.  As more and more school is missed, academic performance drops, and eventually the child drops out of school altogether.

Esther is one such child who began getting food when she was in 6th grade. Esther grew up an orphan, the youngest of seven children in a child-headed household. The children had no adult present, and supported themselves through small-scale farming, which provided food for the family as well as some extra produce to sell. When the school lunch program began in her primary school, Esther and her brothers and sisters were able to get a daily meal.  Esther had dependable nutrition and spent less time foraging for and preparing food, allowing more study time. 

Esther was a good student.  She excelled in high school and recently achieved a top score on the national exam required for high school graduation. She is on her way to university, a dream she never thought possible 8 years ago. 

Your support for students like Esther not only meets their nutritional needs, but also helps them achieve their long-term goals.  The cycle of poverty is broken as more and more of these students stay in school and pursue a sustaining career. 

For students like Esther, a gift of $25 provides a school lunch for a year, and transforms their future.  We are so grateful for your financial support!  

Links:

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