Kivumu Canteen Project

Novembre 29th, 2008
Posted in Kivumu Primary School Canteen Project

Fixed contribution: 500 € every month for food; 12,000 € for the building of the hall.
The purpose is to give concrete and immediate help (1 meal, seeds for planting, food) to the children of Kivumu Primary School and their families specially children who are suffering from severe malnutrition.

Our aim is to reduce the level of absenteeism and improve health levels through better nutrition as guaranteed by the Canteen Project.

The school has 1635 students, sorted into 30 classes. Levels of premature school leaving is very high.
Children stay at school from 8.00 a.m. to 16.00 p.m., with a lunch-break from 12.15 to 13.45.
336 Children are not able to bring lunch to school.

The Canteen Project started in 2007, and now has 36 children. 2 pupils from the 6th form are chosen to accompany the smaller ones. Those two children are “head of households”, which means that they live alone with their younger brothers whom they take care of.

Prior to the start of the project, the Headmistress held a meeting with all the parents in order to explain the project to them and the importance of following up their children’s diet.
Together with Sister Thérèse we fixed a monthly budget of 475,200 RWF for meals for the 36 children, the breakdown of which is as follows:

36 daily meals for 36 children at 600 RWF per meal for 22 days each month = 475,200 RWF.

The Cook’s salary is 7,000 RWF per month.
Firewood for the wood oven= 15,000 RWF every month.
Purchase of utensils: dishes, cups and pots= 46,000 RWF.
Total for one month is 497,000 RWF.

Together with the Headmistress, we decided to buy seeds for the 336 children’s families. The teachers are to give the seeds to the families and explain to them how to about growing them. They will moreover visit the families once a week in order to supervise the said planting.

The teachers and Headmistress are very interested in the project and in collaborating with us. They have also asked us, if possible, to find a school in Italy that would be willing to twin with Kivumu Primary School.
We’re looking forward in the future to extending the newly-built hall for the purposes of welcoming the Canteen project, the Twizerane association as well as the street kids.