The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Laos yesterday received a generous contribution of US$10 million, over the next three years, from the United States of America.
The contribution agreement was signed in March at the WFP’s Headquarters in Rome, Italy, and is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, according to WFP.
The three-year programme will ensure that more than 152,000 schoolchildren continue to receive a nutritious snack every day when they attend school. The food will help children in Phongsaly, Luang Namtha, Oudomxay, Saravan, Xekong and Attapeu provinces to pursue their education.
“We want children to be focused on their lessons, not on when they will get their next meal. I am pleased that this contribution will help thousands of Lao children to grow strong and healthy,” said US Ambassador to Laos Ms Karen B. Stewart.
“School meals have been shown to be an effective way to encourage parents to send their children – especially girls – to school,” said WFP Laos Deputy Country Director, Paul Howe.
“Education helps to break the cycle of under-nutrition. Educated children grow into men and women who produce and earn more, and are more likely to be able to provide enough of the right food to their own children.”
For 2011, the US contribution is delivered in the form of 1,610 metric tonnes of rice, 560 metric tonnes of vitamin and mineral fortified Super Cereal, and 110 metric tonnes of vegetable oil, with all transport costs covered by the donation.
The oil and Super Cereal will be used by village cooks to prepare daily snacks for schoolchildren, which will keep hunger at bay. The rice will be given to students who live far from the schools as a take-home ration and will benefit the entire family while providing an incentive for them to keep sending their children to school.
Over the next three years, WFP will use 10 percent of the US contribution – a total of US$1 million – to provide training and support to staff at the Ministry of Education and Sports as they gradually start to take over the implementation of school meal activities through a National School Meals Programme.
Every day at school, children receive a nutritious mid-morning snack that eases hunger and helps them concentrate on their lessons, the WFP reported.
Special support is given to over 2,200 informal boarders – children who live a long distance from school and have to make an extra effort to attend every day, with many of them either staying in boarding facilities or with relatives.
At the beginning and end of the school year, boarders receive take-home rations of rice to help them and their families continue on the path of education.
WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.
In 2010, WFP Laos provided close to 17,500 metric tonnes of food to 665,900 people throughout the country.
-- Edited by buckhumnoy on Tuesday 25th of October 2011 07:30:24 PM
U.S. supports supplement food for school kids in remote areas
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the World Food Progamme to Laos, donated US$ 10 million for pre-primary schools and primary schools in remote areas of Phongsaly, Luang Namtha, Oudomsay, Saravane, Sekong and Attapeu on October 17.
The monetary assistance is aimed at helping the beneficiaries buy supplemental food for their students to ensure the continuity of their education. The beneficiary schools are supposed to give supplemental food to their students every weekday.
Additionally, American government, through the World Food Progamme to the Lao PDR, has donated over 1,600 tonnes of rice and 560 tonnes of beans-cereals flakes to schools which they can prepare as supplemental food for their students, according to U.S. Ambassador to Laos, Karen Brevard Stewart.
The World Food Programme is materializing the policy of the Ministry of Education and Sports of Laos by encouraging awareness of parents on education for their children by ensuring their children, mostly females, gain an access to education, according to Deputy Country Director of WFP Lao PDR, Paul Howe.
