(English) Mayor Praises Children’s Meals Initiative

Miala tsiny fa tsy mbola misy amin’ny teny malagasy ity lahatsoratra ity.

A Money for Madagascar partnership initiative which gives nutritious meals to youngsters has won praise for its positive impact on education.

A MALAGASY Mayor has praised the effects and impact of a Money for Madagascar-led project in schools and childcare centres, which he says have helped children in his area achieve the best exam results in their region.

As part of our Education for Life (EfL) and Protecting and Enabling Vulnerable Children (PEVC) programmes, we work with the international organisation Mary’s Meals, to ensure every one of the children we work with and for receives at least one hot meal per day.

In the Arivonimamo II education zone, EfL works with 31 schools, including the Betafo EPP (primary school) and PEVC with six children’s centres, including Akany Avoko Ambohidratrimo centre (AAA) which provides care, shelter, food (through Mary’s Meals) and access to education for vulnerable, often formerly homeless, children.

In both cases, the aim – to ensure children and young people receive nourishing food on a regular basis – is right, and vital.

Lack of access to food is a serious challenge to Malagasy people, 79.9 per cent of whom live on or below the global poverty baseline of £1.73 per day, and 1.94 million suffer from acute food insecurity, just one step from starvation.

More than 50 per cent of Malagasy children suffer stunting caused by malnutrition, and one in ten do not reach their tenth birthday.

Providing food to children and young people who have too little is a moral duty: it is also one which builds a better future for all.

Because every child needs and deserves a decent education, and getting one in a way that ensures they fulfil their potential not only benefits them, but every single person they live close to – their entire community.

But hunger plays a part in preventing that access and fulfilment, because lack of food damages health, keeping children out of school, and incessant hunger makes it extremely difficult for children to concentrate on their schoolwork. At present, four in ten children in Madagascar do not complete primary school, because of hunger and ill-health.

Mary’s Meals, with Money for Madagascar and our implementing partner the Miarintsoa Association (AMI), provides lunch to 134 children and six teachers at Betafo EPP, every school day, and lunches every day to 149 children and babies at the AAA centre.

To review the effects of the initiative, Mary’s Meals International’s Head of Programmes Relationship Management Kathryn Gemmel, visited the AAA centre on Tuesday 3, and Betafo EPP on Thursday 4, June, accompanied by the centre and school’s directors and staff, volunteer cooks, the AMI and Money for Madagascar teams and Armand Rabearivelo, Mayor of the Arivonimamo II commune.

In his speech, the Mayor expressed his deep gratitude to Mary’s Meals, AMI, and MfM, highlighting the project’s significant impact on academic success in his commune:

‘Since the school canteen project arrived in Arivonimamo II, academic results have continued to improve. Our municipality ranked first within the Arivonimamo CISCO for the official CEPE exam results, with 13 out of 31 schools achieving a 100% success rate. This project is a valuable source of motivation and attendance for our students, and we all thank Mary’s Meals, the Miarintsoa Association and Money for Madagascar.’