Indianapolis Hunger Initiative

31 May 2010- IHI

On 27 May we drove three hours from Malindi to Mombasa at 5:30 am, waited two hours, flew to Nairobi, waited five hours, flew to Kisumu and finally checked into the St. Anna guest house at 9:00 pm.  Our host in Kisumu is Joseph, the director of the Umoja Project.

Thursday morning we went to visit Ogada Primary and secondary schools.  In the afternoon we saw the Kawino Primary and Secondary schools.  Friday we went to Chulaimbo Schools.  These schools are all part of the school lunch program supported by Umoja and the Indianpolis Hunger Initiative.

This program identifies orphans and vulnerable children.  They provide lunch at school every day for these kids.  Umoja also provides school uniforms and shoes.  If it is a child-headed household they also receive kerosene for the lamp so they can read at home, kotex for the girls, food support, and a blanket.  The dream is to provide the child headed homes with new cook stoves and water purifiers in the near future.

Umoja has worked in partnership with Heifer to design and build new cook stoves for the schools in the project.  They were burning a lot of firewood preparing the lunches over open fires.  The new stoves use less firewood, are more energy efficient and cost effective.

All the schools have gardens or small farms on site.   The students work in the garden to learn basic agricultural skills and also top provide some of the food for the schools.  The hope is for each school to develop an income generating project to fund the school lunches.  The project is again a partnership between Umoja, the school and the guardians of the children.  Heifer is working in four of the schools to begin animal husbandry programs.  The animals will provide a teaching opportunity, give milk and/or eggs for the lunches, and eventually allow the program to sell milk or eggs and use the manure on the farm.

HIV/AIDS is still the leading cause of death in East Africa.  On top of that the area suffers from extreme  poverty and tribal conflicts.  There are many children who have no parents or only one parent.  Some live with other relatives, neighbors, or alone.  Umoja and IHI allow these kids to stay in school.  The meal they receive at noon is often the only meals they have all day.  It is a plate full of beans and corn, or beans and rice.  Sometimes they get some boiled bananas (plantains) along with the corn.

The fifteen schools being served by this program all report that the number of orphans attending school is up.  The performance of the students on the national exams is up.  The children are healthier and they have a future.  But the need is still so great.

In the 15 schools served there are 2700 children receiving assistance.  It costs $17 to feed a child lunch for an entire year.  They feed the students for just under nine cents per meal.  In the secondary schools it costs $325 a year to keep a child enrolled.

I am absolutely amazed at what a difference a few dollars can make in a person’s life.  These children are beautiful and they really deserve a chance.