New School Kitchen and Meals for 100 Eswatini Kids

Ncamiso Dlamini is a 13-year-old boy, the sixth grade student at Mabhahhu Primary School who lives with his aunt and cousin. He is a double orphan because both of his parents died of HIV/AIDS years ago. However, his aunt’s family financial status is not that good.

“I think I am one of meal skipping children, and I did worry that I might be hungry after missing the school meal. Actually, I do rely on school meals as my primary source of nutrition. I am very grateful for TFCF assistance and all donors who support and help build the kitchen and alleviate our financial burden. I am looking forward to going to school after this summer vocation, and I believe all of students will be very happy to see our new kitchen after the school opens.

I want to study hard and hope I have the ability to help people like what you did for our school. Thank you very much!”

- Message from Ncamiso Dlamini, the project beneficiary

** Ncamiso Dlamini is the fake name due to the fact that the privacy and safety of individuals is respected.

Solve the problem and just do it!

At the beginning of the project, we encountered many challenges, such as the long procedure to get the approval and permission from the relevant ministries in order to construct the kitchen at the school. Due to the specific land condition, we had to modify several times and custom-made the kitchen structure plan in order to ensure the land will fit into the overall future planning for the kitchen area. The successful collaboration among the building consultant, the staffs of school and representatives of the construction committee resulted in reduced cost and higher efficiency. We have finally overcome all the challenges and they did smooth out our construction work afterwards. It has been a good experience to bring changes to a community and school in need. We are so thankful to you who support and donate in this project.

It has been a relatively 3 months since the beginning of the construction of the new kitchen at Mabhahhu. The major construction was completed on the 22nd July 2019 and we have done a final inspection of the structure on the 31st July 2019 by the building consultant, TFCF director, the principal of school and representatives of the construction committee. We are pleased with the condition of the kitchen and we are looking forward to seeing the positive impact for all children in the school. We believe what we have done will have big changes in both children nutrition and education performance in the school. Not only the construction, we are also pleased with the improvement of school daily meals. All children in school will be able to enjoy school meals in a safe, clean and secure environment. At the moment, all children are in mid- term break and we expect to run the trial cook by using the new kitchen when the school opens on the 10^th September 2019. We are happy to announce the official kitchen opening will be held on the 21^st September 2019. Thank you for your great support and let’s keep moving forward to assisting needy children together.

With gratitude,

Wen Hung

Links:

• TFCF Eswatini Facebook (In Chinese & English)
• Find all TFCF projects in GlobalGiving

Mabhahhu Primary School is located in the hilly mountains of Mbabane in the rural areas. It is surrounded by a few homesteads. There are 120 children in school this year including pre-school kids. Some of them walk over 3 km to school. Most of the children who attend Mabhahhu Primary School either are orphans or live with guardians who are relatives. The school is where the children get their breakfast and lunch. The problem is, they do not have a kitchen – they cook in an unenclosed shack.

“Ever since our school was donated by volunteers from Italy in 2009, we have had a large number of orphans and children who live with guardians. At the beginning of school built, there was no kitchen constructed for school meals cooking, but a shack only. For the past 10 years, we have been struggling to provide meals every day because of the poor condition of kitchen especially in a cold, rainy or windy day. We have applied and received the resource from the Ministry of Education to build a kitchen, however, it only offered E500.00 for each child which will not be enough to build a new kitchen for more than one 100 children. This budget will be allocated as the salaries of the cooks and the maintenance cost of the school kitchen. I'm grateful that TFCF have purchased food for school through the monthly sponsorship, and we would like to have a food storage room in order to secure food from stolen. This project is really important to our school and I am glad to see the kitchen is under construction now! I am looking forward to seeing clean and nutritious food in a hygienic and safe environment on a daily basis. I believe all uncooked food will also be stored safely which won't be stolen anymore. Your donation and support have changed our living tremendously in Eswatini. Thank you very much!”

- Message from the School Principal of Mabhahhu Catholic School

We are building a kitchen now!

I am glad to tell you that we are building the school kitchen now! We started to build a kitchen at Mabhahhu Catholic School on April 23, 2019 and the construction project is estimated to take 3 months to complete based on the preliminary schedule. According to the construction timeline, we have done the excavation and reinforcement of foundation at the first month. Currently, we are going to build the roof of school kitchen soon by the end of this week and the date of construction completion will be July 22, 2019.

Thank you for your trust and support at the beginning of the project launched. I believe that you also agree to give the core needs of school children in Eswatini. We will ensure to build a school kitchen and are going to improve the sanitation environment, preserve food, and keep children healthy through this project. Even resources are limited, we will keep doing the right thing with you. Thank you for your support and let’s bring new hope to needy children together.

With gratitude,

Wen Hung

Links:

• TFCF Eswatini Facebook (In Chinese & English)
• Find all TFCF projects in GlobalGiving