Feed 200 Children Living in Kibera Slum

Talia is a 5-year-old girl at the Turning Point preschool programme. She joined the programme a few months ago. She appears smaller in size compared to her peers, and she is constantly tired and withdrawn.

Talia is the fourth born in a family of 6 siblings. Their mother, who is raising the children alone, is currently taking care of her youngest child who is 3 weeks old and therefore she cannot go out to look for work. This means that Talia and her siblings often have to go to bed hungry. Talia’s body weight has gone down drastically, and her skin is starting to appear pale. Like Talia, most children in the Kibera slum depend on food offered in school. One or two meals a day are insufficient to nourish their bodies and give them enough energy to concentrate in class.

The Turning Point Feeding Programme has partnered with Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) to monitor the growth of the children who attend the Turning Point education programmes. In the last monitoring exercise, SHOFCO reported that 7 out of 31 children in the preschool were malnourished. Talia was found to be extremely affected. SHOFCO immediately offered some fortified porridge flour to the parents of the affected children to help boost their nutrition.

The Feeding Programme then had to upgrade the diet at the school to include daily fortified porridge instead of tea for breakfast, an extra fruit for lunch and a glass of milk just before the children leave school for home. Moreover, the programme’s team has trained the parents on ways they can boost the nutrition of their children at home without having to spend much.

The SHOFCO team will be visiting the school soon for a follow-up monitoring of the growth of the children, and we are positive that they will see a huge difference in the children’s growth and health.