The first day of the feeding programme
Take Care Nursery School has a roll of one hundred and ninety children aged three to seven. The School session begins at 8.30am and ends at 1.00pm. At 11.00am, there is a thirty minutes break. During this period children in possession of money buy food like bread, cassava, groundnuts, oranges and so on. Unfortunately, many children cannot buy anything to eat because they have nothing. So they become hungry and passive before the end of the session.
This unfortunate circumstance has, frankly speaking, played a negative impact on the daily attendance of the School as many of the children refused to go to school without money to buy something to eat. We therefore thought that having a feeding programme will surely remedy the situation as it would give every child the opportunity to eat in the school and remain active through the session.
Upon our request, funds were provided by Friends of Take Care Nursery School for the commencement of the feeding programme (one day in a week) which was on Monday 25th February 2008. The first day of the feeding programme was one of the happiest days in the history of the school.
Three days before the day, a Parent/Teachers meeting was held to inform the parents about the good news concerning the feeding programme.
While I was in bed around 6:30am on Monday 25th. Feb.2008, I heard a knock on my front door with a feminine voice calling ‘Kujabi’. When I opened the door I found one of the cooks who came to collect the key to June’s Kitchen from me. They were told to start early so as to finish before break. In about an hour later I heard noise at the School. When I opened my back door facing the School, I saw a group of children running about happily in the school while others were playing on the slide, swings and seesaws. It was unusual for children to be at School so early.
At 11:00, the bell rang for break and the children were arranged in queues and led by their teachers to the Roundhill Hall for them to have their food. It was very interesting to see the children sitting in rows with their plates of fried rice and fish and a cup of strawberry juice.
Before the children started eating, there we prayed with some committee members for the sustenance of the feeding programme, the children, staff and the sponsors.
The roll is now on the increase.