Clean Water, WASH & Nutrition for 500 Muslim Girls

Poverty, hunger, communal violence and limited public health plague Muslim Mindanao, Philippines. Lanao del Sur Provionce now has  more than 250 internally displaced people from fierce fighting raging between Islamic extremists and the Philippine military.  Some 500 miles south of Lanao, Sulu Province remains near the bottom of the UN's worldwide Human Development Index. The entire region remains undewr martial law. In Sulu, a school-aged population of some 350,000 children are mostly impoverished and are suffering from hunger. Female students are often most affected. With the new scholl year now uderway for 2017-18, Asia America Initiative is seeking your support to provide clean water, soaps for hygiene and nutritious fresh foods for daily lumches to assist 3 schools with a total of 500 girls and 500 boys to build clean water systems,

WASH facilities and adequate nutrition essential for improved health and education can be built inexpensively.  Adequate nutrition through school lunches cooked by volunteer mothers and grandmothers  are essential for improved health and education. With improved water delivery at each school, we will continue tto encourage the expansion of school-based gardens to provide fresh foods at each school.

A 6th grade teacher, Nash, at Bunot Elementary says, "Some parents asked me about feeding program in Bunot.  They said, " Did Prof Santoli give us for feeding like last year?"  It means so much to them. Most of our students’ parents are migrated from the other barangays [villages] and municipalities, to find land to work on as part-time farmers. Many hav e been displaced becauses of violence.  Others were deported from Sabah, Malaysia because they have no passport to live there as day laborers."

This school year, once again we seek your support for these wonderful children.  It is part of the partnership between AAI and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Department of Education plan for "Peace Zones" around each school.  Especially, during a period of martial law and intensive efforts by extremist groups to recruit children into their terror ranks, the ability to keep them in school through humane conditions and enough to eat is essential.  We need your help more than ever!

Links:

• Asia America Initiative Web Site