WFP funding school dinners for 55,000 pupils in Tete

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WFP funding school dinners for 55,000 pupils in Tete

1:59 CAT | 08 Jul 2018

File photo: APA

Almost 55,000 students attending 48 primary schools in the central Mozambican province of Tete are receiving cooked lunches at school through a World Food Programme (WFP) supported project aiming to reduce the high drop-out rates caused by hunger.

This figure was revealed on Thursday during a meeting held by the provincial governor, Paulo Auade, with representatives of non-governmental organisations.

To ensure the project’s success, WFP is channelling its funding through the district governments who in turn purchase the necessary food. The five-year project covers the districts of Changara, Marara, Cahora Bassa, and Doa, all of which are semi-arid and among the province’s most food insecure districts.

Many children drop out of school in the province to assist their parents with tending the farm, fishing, and charcoal production, as a way of ensuring their survival. The project seeks to reverse this trend by giving a good meal to the children at school.

The governor praised the initiative which covers districts particularly affected by drought. Addressing those present, Auade said that the programme should ensure that children remain in school. He also expressed his hope that it would be expanded to more schools and cover more children, with particular emphasis on girls as “to educate a woman is to educate a nation”.

The recent harvest in the southern part of Tete fell below expectations due to drought and a plague of fall armyworm caterpillars. According to the provincial director of agriculture, Jose Mendonca, so far over 30,000 hectares of crops have been lost to the pest and drought, with the harvests of maize, sorghum, millet and vegetables worst affected.

The combined effect of drought, fungus, and fall armyworm has affected over 14,000 peasant households in the districts of Mutarara, Doa, Moatize, Marara, Chiuta, Magoe, Cahora Bassa, Changara and Chifunde. This has caused some families to leave their homes in search of food.

The infestation of fall armyworm began last year and efforts to combat the spread of the pest through spraying the fields with pesticides has been of limited success due to its resistance to pesticides.

Source: AIM