WFP to stop feeding school children in arid areas

The World Food Programme (WFP) will halt funding for a programme that has been supplying meals to over 1.5 million school children in arid and semi-arid areas, a move that puts the pupils at risk of dropping out of school.

WFP deputy country director Paul Turnbull has said the project, known as the Home Grown School Meals Programme, was being gradually handed over to the government and that the UN agency will fully dissociate itself from it in two years.

The State, through the Ministry of Education, will then take over feeding of vulnerable pupils.

Since the 1980s, WFP has been feeding millions of children across the country by providing funding for lunch through various countries and organisations.

The agency blames a shortage of funds for its decision to discontinue the programme, saying it has lately been unable to sustain provision of meals.

"We are gradually handing over the programme to the government county by county especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Samburu and Isiolo have already been handed over with Taita Taveta being next," Mr Turnbull said.

WFP is however still expected to support the programme in Turkana for the current second school term.

Turkana County Director of Education Pius Ng’oma confirmed that high absenteeism rate reported in many schools in the region was contributed by an acute lack of food for learners in schools.

“When there is no food in schools the attendance is very low. Schools that have food always witness a unique trend where children flock to school around lunch time just to get their share of food and go back home,” he said.

Mr Ng’oma said that in Turkana porridge should be given to the children in the morning to improve class attendance and in the evening to improve on their retention for the next day.