By Munira Hirwani | Program Officer
COVID19 may limit their movement but not their nutrition
It has now been two full months since COVID-19 shut down our schools and put the whole world in lockdown. Our first worry was fulfilling the nutritional needs of our students who depend on the daily breakfast served at our schools. With no economic activity, many families struggled to put even two full meals on the table let alone the kind of wholesome nutritious meals required for the healthy growth of young children. The pandemic exacerbated the need to support the nutrition of these students, many of whom come from families who were already unable to provide them with any kind of breakfast in pre-COVID times.
In early to mid March, we conducted a household survey to gauge the needs of our students, asking their parents about the number of meals they were eating, whether they required food rations to survive the lockdown, and what kind of access to technology they had at home to be able to consume educational content. Based on the findings of the survey, care packages were put together containing food and hygiene essentials as well as learning materials including art and activity worksheets with colour pencils. The Food Essentials included: 10 Kg flour, 3 kg of daal and chana (lentils and beans), 2 kg of rice, 3 litres of cooking oil as well as tea, dairy tea whitener and sugar. Care Packages were sent to the homes of 118 students enrolled in the breakfast program at Khatoon-e-Pakistan Government Girls School (KPS) and 151 students at SMB Fatima Jinnah Government Girls School (SMB).
During and post the process of distribution of care packages, several parents have called their children’s teachers and expressing their gratitude for not only taking care of their immediate needs but also for morally supporting them in these uncertain and difficult times.
Pre-Corona Menu
Before the schools closed down in March, our schools were running their winter menu. 250 students at KPS and 300 students at SMB were served a menu rotating among the following: boiled eggs, potato and spinach with chapati, vegetable soup, khagina (scrambled eggs, onions and potatoes) with chapati, mashed potatoes with cucumber and carrot sticks, boiled moong daal (lentils) with diced tomatoes and capsicum. These were either served with a glass of milk, chikoo milk shake or seasonal fruits like bananas or oranges. The students had started enjoying breakfast so much that they started demanding the same at home and many mothers have come to the school to learn these recipes.
Donate!
We thank you for your support in the past and urge you to make a donation today to support nutritious meals for children in these uncertain times!
Links:
By Sana Zaidi and Nighat Fatima | Project Manager and Early Childhood Education Lead
By Sana Zaidi (Project Manager) | Nighat Fatima (Early Childhood Education Lead)
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
