A Meal a Day

Off to the right of muddy dirt road some twenty-thirty minutes from down town Masaka, a white sign welcomed us to the Butale Mixed Primary School.  Beyond the natural guardians of a handful of banana trees and a mango tree robust with baby mangoes sat the public school.  Chances are when you hear ‘public school’ you very well might imagine the school you attended as a child; however, I assure you, it is not a replica.  Instead, before my eyes, a long brown-stained building stood with open doors and windows; a metal roof latched onto the top and parts of it were rusted.  Inside faired no better: the walls were bare concrete with wooden benches and desks that sat two or three students at a time.  This is a public, government school.  I hear private schools are better in Uganda. 

 

The School at Butale

Yet despite its unhealthy appearance, eager Ugandan children with their chocolate skin and deep brown eyes poured out of the classrooms with white smiles.  These children or at least many of these children are orphans.  Some walked a considerable distance from their ‘homes’ to come to school.  So why were they so happy? 

Could it be the visit of a ‘white person’?  Perhaps, but something more was afoot. 

We arrived at the Butale School shortly before lunchtime.  Classes were dismissed and the children walked and some ran down a grassy slope in back of the school towards a small, brick, square building that (if I remember correctly) had no roof on it.  This was the kitchen.  Inside the kitchen, a few people stirred a cauldron of bubbling white stuff.  What potion were they mixing to feed four hundred plus children? 

Porridge.  Porridge made of corn meal, perhaps a little sugar, and water.  This was their school meal, and for many the only meal they received a day.  These four hundred plus children lined up with a colorful array of bowls or cups to receive what looked like thick milk.  And they were grateful! 

A line full of Ugandan children waiting for food

 

In a translated interview with Moses K., the children shared their thankfulness for a single meal at school because they could then concentrate on their studies.  Talking with the principal.  And indeed, since Little Hands of Hope started to feed the children at this school, much has improved.  In a type written letter from the Head Teacher (what I would call a principal), a list of the ‘situation before’ verses the situation after Little Hands of Hope started to feed the children lunches went like this:

Before:

1) Pupils used to dodge classes because they were hungry

2) We had a high rate of dropouts

3) Children used to be sickly all the time

4) Children with HIV/AIDs and were on ARVs used to find it hard to study without lunch

5) Education performance was very low characterized with failures in the school

 

“The positive impacts of [your] intervention of lunch program into our school”

1) Pupils are no-longer dodging classes

2) Pupils are no-longer drop out i.e. from 320 pupils to 440 now in the school

3) Sickly and HIV/AIDS children are now living positively in the school and learning is now real to them

4) Education achievement has improved from 30% passing children to 82% of this year.

 

This is the ordinary power of a simple meal and a full belly.  A meal a day = health, concentration, a desire to be in school, passing grades, and in due time receptiveness to the gospel because they will see love in action. For more information about Little Hands of Hope click here.

Ugandan Children at the School