First A-Level results, now GCSEs…

It’s a busy time for students in the UK.

Thousands of children will open those all-important envelopes to see what their hard work has brought them, knowing that they have their whole lives ahead of them, their future in their hands…

This is how it should be around the world – but sadly, that’s not the case.

 

How Is Afghanistan Missing Out?

Around 3.7 million children are out of school in Afghanistan – just under half the number of children in the whole country. What makes it worse is that this contributes to the already high illiteracy rate – with only 28% of the adult population being literate.

Just imagine you were a child in Afghanistan… 

You have a few friends who go to school, coming back with loads of stories about it. You dream of being successful, perhaps a doctor. You know you need to go to school to make your dream come true – but your parents just won’t let you.

How can they? 

They need the money you get from working on the street just to buy the family food. So, while your friends go to school and make the most of their opportunities, you’re stuck in the same old situation.

When you have children, you hope they can have a better life. But you’re so desperate for money, you can’t let them go to school either…

It’s just not possible to shake off the poverty – at least not without a helping hand. And that’s precisely why Charity Right have stepped in.

 

A Meal a Day Keeps the Tears Away

It’s a complex issue but it all boils down to this:

Parents rely on children working for much-needed income instead of going to school… but without education, they can’t get a better job to escape a life of poverty. 

But there’s one fix that has a domino effect that might help solve the problem – school meals.

Along with teachers and cooks, each child we support receives a hot, tasty and healthy meal every school day from Saturday to Thursday. We’re flexible with timings too to make sure everyone gets fed; the early-birds get their meal at 10am while the late-morning and afternoon students get theirs at 1pm.

But why does this work?

Sending their child to school means there’s one less mouth to feed – a bit of a no brainer, really. Instead of working 12 hours a day on the street in the hopes of food, children flock to school, excited to receive a healthy cooked meal every day. In other words, they come for the food but stay to learn.

And with nutritious food in their bellies, they are physically healthier and have improved concentration, so they learn and retain that much more! After all, no one can focus on an empty stomach.

And as word gets around the community that children are getting fed tasty and healthy meals and learning, schools see a spike in enrolment rates.

 

This Is Only Just the Beginning…

As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so let’s see what we’ve achieved so far in Afghanistan.

As of May 2022, we fed 25,671 meals to a total of 1975 beneficiaries – a huge success! But it didn’t end there… Just a month later in June 2022, this shot up to feeding 42,265 meals to 1981 beneficiaries! This just shows how all it takes is the promise of a meal to get kids into school.

While this is such a promising start, it’s only just the beginning. 

With more meals and better nutrition, these children can develop physically and mentally. That means they’re able to stay in education longer, which in turn reduces illiteracy levels and improves their earning potential.

And it all starts with school meals.

 

Be Part of the Solution

‘Relieving parents from having to budget for lunches, [school feeding programmes] boost incomes and help to alleviate poverty.’ [World Food Programme, 2020]

Do you know how much it costs us to feed a child for a month?

You could buy a couple of tickets to the cinema and enjoy yourself for a few hours… or you could spend the same amount to keep a child in school for a whole month! 

And while you might forget about the movie you went to see, that child won’t forget their month of education. We’ve got to know first-hand how much this means to these children, and believe us, they appreciate it more than you can ever imagine.