In arid schools, pupils hunger for food

As schools open for the first term of this year, many children in arid and semi-arid districts will be looking forward to much more than satisfying their hunger for learning and meeting their friends once again.

Related Stories

• Food, water, and milk flow again as the guns go silent

For those like Linet Tira, a Standard Six pupil at Naikarra Boarding Primary School in Narok, school is the only sure way to get food. Linet, 13, says since she joined the school five months ago, she is happy because now she has a full stomach.

“At home we were having only one meal of unga (maize flour), salt and water mixture in the evening. Today we have a good lunch,” says Linet who previously attended a school where there was no feeding programme. Linet is one of 25,000 pupils in Nairobi and Narok North and South districts who are benefiting from the Food for Education campaign being driven by the government, in partnership with the World Food Programme and Unilever.

The campaign started in 2007 aims to improve nutrition among primary school children. Similar programmes are running in Indonesia, Gambia and Ghana. The three-year campaign is in line with the millennium development goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving universal primary education.

Senior deputy secretary in the Ministry of Education Magdalene Wambua says a key task of the project locally referred to as “Sungura Sam” involves identifying the foods that promote a balanced diet in schools’ localities.

A standard food package comprises 150 grammes of maize, 40 grammes of peas, five grammes of oil and three grammes of salt. This is called a food basket and it costs Sh12 (16 US cents) per day per child.

Balanced diet

Forty-eight schools in Narok South and 12 in Narok North are benefiting from the programme. According to a July 2007 study of 1,100 pupils in Narok and Nairobi only 29 per cent was found to be able to define a balanced diet correctly.

“It therefore became necessary to come up with an education campaign on what comprises a balanced diet. Children are the best change agents. To make a programme sustainable, impart it on children because when they reach home they will spread the message among parents,” says Ms Mary Waweru, a programme officer at the WFP.

At Naikarra Boarding Primary, a model school participating in nutrition campaign, pupils have initiated several activities to promote balanced diets, including gardens and food corners. Vegetables like kales, carrots and pumpkins from the gardens supplement the school feeding programme.

“The Sungura Sam project has taught us that everything is possible,” says Mr Loontuba Koileken, the headmaster, adding that his school has become a showground for many parents who “come to see for themselves the miracle.” Discussions at a recent workshop in Narok showed that while the staple food in the area was milk and ugali (maize meal), most children are now fed on black tea and ugali due to the drought.

Mr Victor Momanyi, the Narok North district quality assurance and standards Officer, attributes the district’s improved performance — from a mean score of 240 in 2008 to 247 — in the KCPE exam to the programmme. “While there are other factors like hard work and discipline, the food for education campaign takes bigger credit,” he says.

WFP plans to fund school gardens in 32 schools supported by Unilever this year. The gardens will serve as outdoor classrooms where children and their parents can learn simple methods of growing fruits and vegetables and replicate at home. Research indicates that school feeding programme is the biggest incentive of education in developing countries.

Mr Koileken says while many parents are still opposed to educating their daughters due to outdated cultural practices, many girls are now seeking refuge in his school. The school, which started off in 1968 without a girl, today has 409 girls and 618 boys.

He says the school is popular with girls rescued from forced marriages and female circumcision partly due to the feeding programme. Twenty-nine such girls have joined the the school since the WFP/Uniliver programme started in 2007.