School Meals are Vital
Inflation has caused the price of pasho – the staple food at school – to double since January. Earlier this year, the school in Kitintale cut back to just one meal a day for students, and families have been eating just one meal every 2 to 3 days. This means our kids are in danger…
Families in Kitintale do not earn enough to purchase food, and there is really no place here to grow it for themselves. They live in the maze-like slums with hard-packed soil and over 17,000 people all in the same situation. For the most kids at TOUCH, the meal they receive at school is the only meal they will have.
At home, they will eat once every two to three days. This “meal” often consists of tea without milk, or thin porridge, with little nutritional value. The lack of nutrition is already showing, in terms of sickness, lower grades, and absences from school.
“First, you are poor at home. No bread, no tea. Nothing. Secondly, the school is poor. Now, what are you going to accomplish? Yesterday, I did not eat.” – Martin
Your monthly pledge helps us to provide meals for the children. Many of you have increased your pledges to help provide food for the children during this crisis, and, as a result, we have been able to add a serving of porridge in the morning. The porridge doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value, but it helps the children concentrate in class.
If we can get an additional 200 children sponsored, food will not be an issue. Sponsorship funds pay for tuition, and provide food at the school. With increased sponsorship, the children will be more likely to stay healthy, they will attend school more frequently, and they will perform better in school.
Some of the TOUCH kids are HIV positive, and proper nutrition is a life or death issue for them. They can’t keep their medicines down without food, and without food the medications’ side effects can be devastating. By sponsoring a child or giving for food, you will be saving lives.
One-time gifts are always welcome too! You can make a one-time gift to feed children here:
