Feedinganeed

African school children get free meals as part of cooperation initiatives with Chinese NGOS

i hope the number of beneficiary schools in Africa can be increased, and the project, like its success in China, can really help alleviate the hunger problem in Africa.

empty classrooms at page Vision elementary School in the slums outside Nairobi are a thing of the past. Since March, seats are occupied daily and there are smiles on the faces of young students.

“The children have been coming to school constantly, and there is no absenteeism,” said Paul Onyach, Headmaster of the school. The reason is simple - full stomachs make happy students. “We have free lunch and breakfast at this school and that is [something] positive for us,” said Onyach.

Nearly 600,000 people live in Mathare, a 3-squarekm slum area outside the Kenyan capital. Many local residents earn less than $1 per day and eat just one meal.

In this poverty-stricken area, there are 84 primary schools, which provide breakfast and lunch on the premises, charging 300 shillings ($3) per month, per child. However, many children from poor families cannot afford even these low fees, which is the main reason that they dropped out of school in the first place.

The free lunch and breakfast initiative at Page Vision Elementary School is provided by the Free Lunch for Children (FLFC) program in Africa. On March 1, 2017, this program was formally launched in the school by Chinese public welfare activist Deng Fei, together with the Chinese Red Cross Foundation and China Social Welfare Foundation.

At the time of writing, the project had provided 1,103 primary school students with free meals at Changrong Light Center, Hank Elementary School, Changqing Dream Building Service Association (DBSA) School, Success Elementary School and Page Vision Elementary School. the successful operation of the FLFC in China, he launched the program in Africa. The meals should include meat, eggs and fruits to ensure a balanced diet. To guarantee that the whole operation process is transparent, schools are required to publicize related information on Facebook and Twitter regularly. In addition, local governments and residents also participate in supervising the operation.

Deng and his team also made some adjustments to the program in Africa to meet local needs. For example, the standard of meals in the African FLFC program is controlled in a unified way; the program executive team selects local food material suppliers, who distribute food materials to each school and are paid on the 20th of each month.

For Deng, program implementation in Africa is the key to success and he received great assistance from Yin Binbin, the founder of DBSA. Over the past three years, Yin, now Executive Director of the African FLFC program, and his team have raised money and helped rebuild three schools in Kenya.

Another challenge for Deng is raising funds for the African FLFC program. Deng was fortunate to team up with the Pearl Humanitarian Rescue Team, a Chinese NGO which donated 1 million yuan ($144,930) as the startup funds for Africa FLFC program early this year.

African FLFC program is not only applauded by local students, their teachers and parents, but also highly praised by the government. According to Deng, the Kenyan Government is even considering to include African FLFC program in its Vision 2030, the