Reach: School Lunch Program

The importance of a healthy learning environment is not limited to what happens inside of the classroom. Even when given the opportunity to learn in a classroom with paved floors, real desks, and windows that keep out dust, many Tanzanian students still face significant obstacles that often limit or even deter their attendance.

One of the biggest challenges that students face is trying to learn on an empty stomach, after walking miles to and from school each day. AfricAid has started a school lunch program at one school to help keep students in the classroom – and learning well while there!

Losinoni School Lunch Program

Where: Losinoni Village, Tanzania Grade Level: Primary School
Area of Focus: Providing a nutritious school lunch to enhance the quality of education at Losinoni Primary School
Sponsorship: $25 provides lunch to 750 students

Many of Losinoni’s 750 students walk several miles to and from school each day, while subsisting on only one meal of “ugali,” or corn porridge, in the evening. As a result, it can be difficult for the students to focus on their studies, and many decide to skip school. AfricAid has partnered with the mothers of the school’s children to create an innovative micro-credit arrangement - these “Maasai Mamas” craft beautifully beaded key chains and bracelets, which AfricAid then sells here in the U.S. to generate the funds for a school lunch program.
Since AfricAid started the school lunch program, daily attendance at Losinoni has increased by 30 percent. Additionally, graduation rates have jumped from 20 percent to 98 percent in just a few years!

Your contribution or purchase of a Losinoni bracelet or key chain for just $25 (plus $3 S/H) feeds the entire 750 student body with a lunch for one day!

Watch a video showing a day in the life of one Losinoni student, Mirishi, below!