Following prolonged famine in East Africa, many school going children are severely affected. Many parents in rural Kenya are peasant farmers whose income in adversely affected by the ongoing drought. As a result, many children relied on one meal per day. It is on this back-drop that it became necessary to make a proposal seeking funding for a feeding program.

ENERGY SAVING STOVE

In order to have a sustainable feeding program, it was important to invest in energy. Formerly, the traditional 3-stone cooking stove was used. This consumes a lot of firewood. It is not energy efficient. The first phase of the feeding program was procuring an energy saving stove. So far firewood consumption has reduced drastically. Formerly, the pupils used to supply firewood daily. At present, they supply firewood once in a week thanks to the improved stove.

The improved stove came with three deep boiling pots. These are very useful and have helped greatly as food cooks faster than in ordinary cooking ware.

SUPPLY OF FOOD

The two schools have received a continuous supply of food every week for the whole term three 2022 which is 10 weeks. The food is boiled mixture of maize and beans. Cooking oil and salt are added to spice up the meal. The food is supplied weekly because of storage and security challenges. Both schools have no permanent stores and so considering the prevailing famine challenges, it was thought wise to supply the food weekly.

IMPACT OF THE PROJECT

ENERGY SAVING STOVE
  • Less firewood is spent to produce maximum heat. This makes the process of food preparation less time consuming and economical.
  • Previously, firewood was supplied daily; while at present pupils carry one firewood once in a week.
  • There is less smoke unlike before. This means the kitchen is much cleaner than previously. Cleaning and maintaining the cooking ware is easier than before as only little soot sticks on their surface.
  • The health of the cooking staff is also well taken care of. This is because they don’t have to waste a lot of time trying to light the fire in a smoky kitchen as they did before.
FEEDING PROGRAM
  • The feeding program is helping in retention of learners in school. Previously, leaners used to miss schools because of lack of food. Learners are more attentive for the afternoon lessons unlike before. This has overall impact on learners’ academic achievement.
  • Considering the biting famine, it is thought that a third of the learners rely on the school food which is one meal in a day. This is quit unfortunate.

GREAT SUCCESS

The school feeding program is a great success. The communities of both Masaku and kaluluini primary school will remain forever grateful for such a gesture.

Considering the famine is still ongoing in spite of the onset of the short rains, we still appeal for more support ahead of the harvests in the month of April.