By Emmanual Ofumbi
ofumbiz@gmail.com

“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”
Psalm 107:8, 9

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As the Children are Our Future……..…we are their Present and Future

At Papoli Community Development Foundation-PACODEF, we understand the joy of giving generously. Through the generosity of friends like you, we are able to provide gifts that fulfill the most basic of human needs. Where hunger reigns in a small village of Papoli in Uganda-Africa, where children go to school without breakfast, having gone to bed on half stomach. We provide porridge to preschool and primary school kids, white corn mixed with soya beans is ground to flour.

Benefits realized from the porridge for Papoli project:

O Providing a meal at school is a simple but concrete way to give poor children a chance to learn and thrive, school feeding helps keep children in school, they report to school in time, there is minimal absenteeism; teachers have noticed a dramatic improvement in student performance.

O The daily meals given at the school motivate parents to enroll their children, there has been great rise in numbers of kids in lower primary as children who were just staying at home in villages or going to hunt or scare monkeys, baboons and birds in plantain and grain fields have come to school. The lower classes instead of the optimum class number of 60 students have gone out of the way and enrolled 130-160- students since the porridge feeding started.

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O The benefits are also felt by poor households that are now relieved of having to scratch for food. When kids get home, they no longer press their mothers for food, it is also reported that some children often take part of their porridge to share with siblings back at home or even sick parents who are bed ridden.

O The mothers who are customarily the bread winners and providers for households now don’t have to worry about leaving their field work and rushing back home to scratch around for lunch for the kids. They have more time for their own work and less worries about finding money and food for their breakfast and lunch.

O In addition to boosting student nutrition and providing peasant farmers with a local market, the initiative is improving the economic welfare of local community members. Some have jobs processing and cooking food for the students.

O The students bring fire wood in class turns, wash utensils and assist the cooks in serving porridge.

FACTS:
Over 40,000 children die every day from:
• Malnutrition
• Starvation
• Hunger-related diseases
“More than 840 million people in the world are malnourished – 799 million of them are from the developing world. More than 153 million of them are under the age of five. 6 million children under the age of 5 die every year as a result of hunger.” from the Bread for the World Institute website

“As simple as it sounds, food is essential in the global fight against HIV and AIDS. Nutritious food can prolong the lives of people suffering with HIV and AIDS. Food and good nutrition can also allow them to continue to earn income and feed their families.” from the United Nations World Food Program website

Porridge in Papoli Project:

For $33 a day 1200 children in the schools of this small community can be fed. For $660 a month all of these children can be fed.

Whatever gift you choose to give, we thank you for generously loving the children we serve.

Village Council members:
1. Emmanuel Ofumbi.
2. Difas Yoga.
3. Charles Obbo Opendi.
4. Engineer Geoffrey Okoth