It's Hard to Learn When You're Hungry!

This month we feature school lunches provision in schools in Rwanda. This scheme is encouraging street children back into education. Street children in Rwanda are extremely deprived and have no one to care for them. They face hunger and starvation and have little option but to commit petty crime to survive. They receive no education and have a bleak future ahead with few employment prospects. The streets are perilous and present multiple threats to the children’s safety. Their dreadful situation typically results from family conflicts, abuse and poverty.

But help is at hand! As part of the scheme, the street children receive lunch and supper, seven days a week. This gets the children and young people off the streets and out of danger, and removes the impetus to commit crime in order to feed themselves. The provision of food brings them all together, encourages attendance and is proving to be a great success. By encouraging the children to attend school, the scheme is building a much brighter future for the children.

We have heard first hand from some of the children that have been helped at Muko school in Bugarama. They have shared stories about their lives before they were given this oportunity. Many of them had to turn to a life of crime, and they were in a downward spiral. Listening to their stories is inspiring, as they have chosen to turn their lives around. The small gesture that someone would be prepared to give them a meal and support them into school means so much. Please spare a few minutes to listen to their stories at the link provided with this update.

Many of the children look much older as they have never had the opportunity to go to school and are clearly delighted that they do so now.

Links:

• Testimony of street children, Rwanda