School feeding scheme provides hope for children

"There is no food at home. I am fed at school. I think I would die without school meals, like my sister did," Janice Simelane, an eight-year-old second grade student at Swaziland's Sobani Primary School, told IRIN. Janice, who comes from a home affected by HIV/AIDS, is among the most vulnerable of Swazi children in the current food crisis. But she is now being assisted by a new school feeding scheme. Her mother said that Janice's sister died of an AIDS-related illness, and it was the lack of food at home that worsened her condition. "With the food crisis, AIDS has become an opportunistic disease of hunger," said Abigail Mngomezulu, a nurse in the dry southeastern lowveld of Swaziland's largely undeveloped Shiselweni district. One-quarter of the population is currently without food, according to the National Emergency Relief Task force, which monitors drought conditions and food supplies. Shiselweni and eastern Lubombo regions are at the centre of the food crisis, and where the the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has based its school feeding scheme. As the end of the academic year approaches, the five primary schools involved in the initial pilot project were reporting promising results. "The most heartening thing we are seeing is that the schools' drop-out rate has stopped and reversed," UNICEF's national representative Alan Brody told IRIN. "Some children were too weak from hunger to walk long distances to rural schools." Of the more than 14 million people facing starvation in Southern Africa, half are believed to be children. UNICEF said that over 10 percent of school drop-outs are due to families forced to use school fees to pay the rising costs of staple foods. In Swaziland the price of maize has increased 61 percent this year, placing it beyond the financial reach of two-thirds of the population that live in poverty. The food crisis has also affected the traditional extended family's ability to fulfill its previous function as a social safety net, forcing relatives to turn orphans and vulnerable children away. The food, provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) and coordinated by UNICEF, hopes to save 36,000 children in rural areas who are severely affected by the drought conditions. It provides breakfast and lunch to young students and sponsors school gardens that ensure a regular supply of vegetables. "The lunch is porridge and vegetables, or soup and beans. It is not much, but those two meals a day have really changed the students. They are arriving early, before the teachers, for their breakfast. These are children who used to absent themselves," Johannes Masilela, chairman of the Sobani Primary School committee, told IRIN. "The big problem before school feeding was children sleeping in class, or not paying attention. They were just so weak," teacher Sizwe Shabangu explained. "There was no liveliness in the class. Children were not acting like children, but like old folks or invalids. Now they are more attentive in class, and they are running like children in the playground." Sibonakaliso Myeni, 12, a sixth grader at the school, said: "My parents could not feed me and my brothers. I now live with my aunt. But the only time I have food is at school."