School Feeding Programs
Many primary schools in Maasailand have low enrollment and attendance rates due to hunger. Massai children routinely walk five to ten kilometers each way to get to school. They seldom bring food with them and cannot walk home during the lunch hour. As a result, Massai children often either avoid school altogether or have difficulty concentrating on their lessons due to hunger. Where staple foods are provided for by the government or foreign aid organization, they often fall below acceptable levels of a “balanced diet.” Moreover, due to geographic isolation, many schools in Maasailand are unable to gain access to distribution centers where free food is supplied.
In 2006 MCI began a pilot project at two primary schools—Enkongu Narok (in Kajiado), and Ngosuani School (in Narok). MCI’s role has been to provide quality food to supplement government efforts and encourage other institutions and stakeholders to play a similar supporting role. To realize our goal, MCI:
- Purchases bulk supplies of locally grown food at local markets;
- Transports food in an MCI truck from the market or distribution center to the school;
- Hires village women to prepare and serve the food to the school children.
Our feeding program began in 2005 at one school and currently serves four schools. At each school where we have implemented a feeding program, student enrollment has more than doubled. Currently, MCI supports programs feeding over 750 children daily. Besides improved child nutrition, school attendance and learning, our program provides economic empowerment to the village women who cook the food and encourages them to send their own children to school.
The Fred Baron School
The Fred Baron Maasai Girls’ School, established in March 2008, is located on the northern border of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Southern Kenya. The school provides educational opportunities for 150 Maasai girls between the ages 5 and 12. Since first opening, the school has grown to include six classrooms, a kitchen and two teachers’ cottages.
Njanga Olo Losgero School
Njanga Olo Losgero School, in the Talek region, has had an active feeding program since the fall of 2007. Since the program was established, school enrollment has more than doubled and the school has expanded from two buildings to four.
El Kurot School
El Kurot School was a very primitive school that began three years ago with the shade of one tree serving as a classroom. Today students learn in a two-room schoolhouse with dirt floors and benches. The tree still serves as a classroom for the youngest students.
Enkongu Narok Village School
At the Enkongu Narok Village School, in the heart of the Amboseli National Park, teachers connect the ages-old Maasai culture to a contemporary curriculum. The school had a single classroom in 2007 when MCI began its feeding program, and has since grown to four.