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Food Rations Allow Children to Stay in School
FrontLines - March 2010
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Naz Gul sits outside school in the village of Chaghai with the monthly ration of wheat for her family
received from USAID.
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The recent economic recession and
drought brought poor communities to their
knees in rural western Pakistan. Families
stopped sending their children to school,
and instead put them to work to help pay
for their evening bread. The least fortunate
took to the streets to become beggars.
Naz Gul, a fourth grade student
in a government primary
school in Chaghai village in Baluchistan,
was one such child.
Despite her wish to stay in
school, circumstance led her to
beg for bread every day in the
surrounding communities.
“My parents were extremely
poor and could not afford to buy
food, so I had to quit and work
with my mother in the fields,”
said Naz. “In the evening I had
to beg for food.”
A year later, Naz, now 12,
was back in school. Her parents
had learned that a USAID program
was distributing wheat and
cooking oil to schoolchildren of
Chaghai. Soon after they reenrolled
Naz, she brought home
a 50-kilogram sack of wheat and
a quart of cooking oil, enough to
feed her family for a month.
The Increasing Food Security
program is a three-year, $22.3
million USAID program carried
out by the U.N.’s World Food
Program. The program encourages
children to attend school by
providing food every three
months to more than 2 million
students in three provinces. The
donation helps each family save
1,200 to 2,000 rupees (U.S. $12-
$24) per month, enough to purchase
an additional sack of
wheat. Parents come to school
on distribution day to participate
in health and hygiene sessions.
“I felt terrible about having to
take my daughter out of school
because it is important to educate
girls,” said Naz’s father. “With the
food she brings home now, we can
make sure she is well fed when she
attends classes every day.”
Since the start of the program,
the Chaghai primary
school has seen a 43 percent
increase in enrollment. Parents
who had given up on their children’s
education found a way to
send them back to school in the
hope of improving their lives.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
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