European Ambassador's Visit EU-Funded WFP
School Feeding Project In Upper Egypt
By : Mohamed Adel
CAIRO –The
ambassadors of Belgium and the Kingdom of the Netherlands concluded a-two-day
visit to community schools in the Governorates of Sohag and Luxor in Upper
Egypt, where the World Food Programme (WFP) is providing school feeding through
a European Union (EU) funded project .
The Belgian
Ambassador to Egypt, Gilles Heyvaert, and the Dutch Ambassador to Egypt, Gerard
Steeghs, visited community schools funded by the EU through a four-year
project, covering 2014-2017, that combats child labour and helps vulnerable
children, especially girls, get an education.
“We are proud to be part of helping children
–particularly young girls – to pursue their education and maintain their
rights, in addition to their family members who will benefit from the project
interventions. Through the financing of this programme with a 60 Million Euro
grant, the EU is contributing to the ongoing efforts to tackle some of the most
critical issues affecting Egypt’s poorest children: under nutrition, access to
(quality) primary education, and child labour.” said Ambassador James Moran,
Head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt.
“No child should be deprived of
the right to go to school,” Moran added
WFP is
implementing the EU-funded project – Enhancing Access of Children to Education
and Fighting Child Labour – in community schools in 16 of the most vulnerable
governorates in Egypt. A community school is a one-classroom school often
located in extremely remote areas.
A total of
100,000 children, mostly girls, who were previously working or are at risk of
entering the labour market and 400,000 of family members benefit from the EU
funded project. Children receive a snack at school which covers 25 percent of a
child’s daily nutrition needs. Their families are also provided with a monthly
take-home ration of 10 kg of rice and 1 litre of vitamin-enriched oil. The take-home
rations compensate for the wage a child would have earned if sent to work
instead of school.
“We want to encourage parents to send their children to
school and we also need to make sure that they stay in school; the take-home
ration is a strong incentive for parents to keep sending their children to
school every day,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Egypt, Lubna
Alaman. “Tying the take-home ration to the attendance rate has proven to be
very successful in the past; families know they need to send the child to
school if they want to receive the ration at the end of each month,” she said.
The
ambassadors visited Banaweet School in Sohag where more than 18 children
receive a daily nutritious in-school snack; date bars enriched with minerals
and micronutrients. During the visit they spoke with children and their
families about the project’s impact on their lives.
On the second
day of their field mission, the ambassadors visited Gad El Kareem School in the
Governorate of Luxor, 720 km south of the capital city of Cairo, where more
than 54 children are benefitting from the project.
WFP is the
world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food
assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and
build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80
countries.
0 التعليقات:
إرسال تعليق