Child Feeding & Support
Number of Children Impacted:
3,860
Countries:
Kenya, India, Malawi, Liberia, Zambia and Madagascar
How:
Collaboration with trusted charities running school lunch and slum outreach programmes
1. Help Change Lives – Luora Primary School, Homa Bay, Kenya, 2023
In September 2023, we started a new school feeding programme in a very poor area of western Kenya, called Homa Bay. We are now feeding just under 600 children at Luora Primary School. The children are given ugali and beans twice a week and ugali and greens 3 times a week. The food is freshly cooked on site.
Our social worker, Maxwell, visited the programme to verify everything and meet the suppliers in October 2023. He was delighted with his findings. We are so happy to share the excitement with you. It costs just £55 or KES 10,000/- to sponsor for a day.
The head-teacher shared the amazing impact and it is truly heart-warming- attendance is now 100%, performance has improved and happiness has multiplied. We also used the opportunity to donate 20 mattresses and blankets to poor students living far away who needed to sleep at the school during exam time.
We had already helped the primary school with reusable pad kits, returned with underwear due to the dire need, and helped sponsor some children into high school. The school was also delighted to share that this year there are no pregnancies due to transactional sex (sex in return for getting pads) due to our reusable pads distribution at this school earlier this year- how absolutely fantastic!
2. Sponsoring School Feeding in Africa though Mary’s Meals:
2020-2023
Mary’s Meals is a UK charity whose vision is that every child should receive one daily meal in their place of education. Vulnerable children are given a real chance to escape the vicious cycle of poverty as they are enabled to come to school and learn, rather than working, begging or staying idle.
It only costs £19.15 to feed a child for a school year (9.6 pence a meal). 93% of all donations to Mary’s Meals are spent on charitable activities and they have an army of volunteers. Our trustee, Pallvee Shah, is an ambassador for Mary’s Meals.
2023
We are feeding 612 children school lunch for 7 months at Esther Yalartia Academy in Liberia (another sponsor stepped in after this time).
We are feeding 410 children school lunch for a year at Phandadzinja school in Malawi.
We are feeding 643 children school lunch for 4 months at Nthongole Primary school in Zambia.
2022
We fed 506 children school lunch for a year at Esther Yalartia Academy in Liberia
We fed 400 children school lunch for a year at Phandadzinja school in Malawi.
2021
We fed 374 children school lunch at Phandadzinja school in Malawi. It is a mixed primary school in Chikhwawa district, southern Malawi, with 189 girls and 185 boys.
The Help Change Lives donation was UK Aid Matched and another 374 children were fed in Liberia!
2020
We sponsored lunches for a school year for 192 vulnerable children in Madagascar for the year to September 2020.
3. Kenya Children Centres, School Feeding in Kenya: 2019 – ongoing
This UK charity has a local partner in Kenya through which it runs excellent programmes. We support their feeding programme in Umoja, Thika, Kenya. The programme started by feeding children in the slum area. It has expanded and been moved to Umoja Primary School.
Help Change Lives now supports the feeding of porridge before school for 48 children and a hot githeri lunch for 60 children (more come for lunch). The average cost is about 10 pence a meal. The children are weighed and measured twice each term to assess progress.
From the UK trustee: “These are the most vulnerable that cannot afford a daily meal and have other family issues. Thanks very much for supporting them. It is making a big impact.”
4. Shishukunj, sponsoring 20 children in India: 2022
Shishukunj is a UK charity dedicated to serving children. It has no UK admin costs as all the work is done by volunteers.
Our trustee, Pallvee Shah, is part of the Shishukunj International Projects (SIP) committee and has worked closely with them to develop their Sponsor a Child programme in relation to support that is already being provided at 9 centres in India and Kenya.
We are delighted to have sponsored 20 children living on the streets and slums of Bhuj, India for a year through them.
Their community outreach programme is fantastic. The staff are very dedicated and passionate about what they do. The difference they make is heart-warming.