If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one
Education is good and should be encouraged at all levels in the education ladder, but on an empty stomach it becomes very difficult to concentrate on your studies and learning in general. Most of the young boys and girls that we are supporting are from very poor vulnerable homes and getting a decent straight meal for a day is indeed an uphill task. Very few of the slums dwellers can actually afford a good meal thus the multiple hunger pangs and related complications.
Our encounter with this challenge ofa big number of the children literary starving is emotionally draining. It had been one of the main reasons why many could not attend school on an empty stomach. Many were not able to concentrate in class and that is why we started the feeding program. We have different feeding programs.
The In-school feeding program entails our children feeding at our Heart to Heart Schools where they are provided with breakfast and lunch. In our schools in Kibera and Kawangware (Karama & Prince of Peace) we have good nutritious break fast which includes milk and bread or Porridge and Banana in the morning and at lunch time there are different balanced meals as per the menu. For some of these children this is the only meal that they get for the day until the next day. Over time we observed this need and therefore decided to come up with the early supper or dinner.
We realized that some of the children at Karama School do not get meals at home at all and thus need to help with early supper meaning that even if they get back at home, they have totally nothing. At least the food they get in the late afternoon sustains them up to the next day. The number of such needy cases is growing by the day but we can only be able to feed as much as the support that we recieve.
There are cases that are extreme, children who do not have food at all and thus put a smile on their face as they get three meals a day. Together with this we also have a food ration program where we deliver food at homes to families that poverty stricken and can hardly afford to put food on the table. Some of these family house holds in the slums have big of family members including relatives who in reality have no source of income. Most of such families take in children from relatives who past away for different reasons but mostly have died of HIV & AIDS related illnesses. In such families we give them monthly food rations.