Providing school lunches to kids in Mozambique

This year, severe flooding during the month of January in Gaza Province, Mozambique (right where the Mozambique School Lunch Initiative works) created major challenges for the start of the school year. This flooding was caused by heavy rainfall throughout southern Africa, which led to unmanageable rises in the Limpopo River and its tributaries, which burst their banks and flooded surrounding areas. Whole communities were submerged under water, as the Limpopo River burst its banks and flooded huge areas of low-lying lands. Other communities were left stranded, as roads were destroyed and cut-off. This caused substantial damage to infrastructure, farms, and homes throughout the area. Our entire team had to evacuate from their owns for several weeks as they waited for the waters to recede. You can read more about the flooding here:

https://clubofmozambique.com/news/flooding-worsens-in-southern-mozambique-aim-report/

https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-mozambique-flooding-weather-1e22c38611b1c8aba3ce4f9cf37ab9df

In response, the Government of Mozambique delayed the start of the school year by one month nationally. Whereas the school year normally starts during the first week of February, this year it was delayed until March 3rd. Our goal was to ensure that the school lunch program started again as soon as possible, as we knew that kids would be going hungry especially with the flooding disaster. While access to some schools is still quite challenging due to damaged roads and lingering waters, the MSLI team worked hard to deliver food to all the schools, and our school cooks started preparing meals right on March 3rd as planned. Thankfully, students are now back and in school, and with your support, we are ensuring that they have the nutrition they need to grow and learn. 

This is a reminder of how school lunch programs can play an important role as a safety net, both in "normal" times, as well as following natural disasters. It's a simple solution, with a big impact. Thank you for your support!