School feeding programme saves Kenya’s children from drought

Schools in parts of drought stricken Kenya have managed to stay open, providing crucial meals for young children. The drought that has hit various region of the country has created serious food shortages, putting more than one million Kenyans at risk of hunger, the UN has warned. The lack of rains has caused crops to fail and cattle-herders are also struggling to keep their animals alive. The World Food Programme (WFP) called the crisis as a "very difficult situation" and has appealed to other countries for donations.

Some of the worst affected areas are in the country's semi-arid south east regions as well as some parts of central Kenya. But providing breakfast porridge and lunch for children in pre-primary school has, helped the schools in the south stay open - and even enroll new pupils. "We are concerned about the current drought and hunger," said Ibrahim Mohamed, the district's early childhood education officer. "It is severe - the worst in recent years, he told the United Nations news service. “Both children and parents are affected but the education sector is most affected," Mohammed added. Moses Mwangi, district education officer, said school-feeding programmes had enabled 24 primary schools in Wajir South, with more than 5,000 pupils to run at full capacity.

In Kenya’s desert-like regions, school feeding programmes like the one in Wajir, have prevented pupils dying from starvation. "It is important for such children to stay in school and benefit from the feeding programme because the country is hard-hit not only by drought but also high food prices," said Gabrielle Menezes, information officer for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Kenya. The WFP is feeding at least 900,000 children during the school holiday month of August. “School children in urban areas such as slums in Nairobi and Mombasa are not covered in this programme because we are using funding for our emergency operations," Menezes explained.

At the moment, 3.2 million people are receiving emergency food aid in Kenya, but the effect of the drought has meant that a further 1.3 million now also need and the World Food Programme is asking for more donors to contribute so it doesn't have to cut the food rations. The government was supposed to have built up a stock of maize but, after allegations of a corruption scandal, it only has enough to last another six weeks, the BBC reported. Many subsistence farmers are reported to be abandoning rural areas - where they rely on aid - and moving into already over-congested slums in the towns and cities.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children