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Success Story
USAID provides monthly
rations to poor families
as an incentive to send
their children to school
Food For Thought
Photo: WFP
Naz Gul sits outside school in her village
of Chaghai with her monthly ration of
wheat for her family.
“I felt terrible about taking
my daughter out of school
because it is important
to educate girls. With the
food she now brings home,
we can make sure she is
well-fed when she attends
classes every day,” said Gul,
Naz Gul’s father.
In late 2007, economic recession combined with a regional 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. With few skills
or opportunities, 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 fi elds,”
said Naz. “In the evening I had to beg for food.”
A year later, 12-year-old Naz was back in school. Her parents
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 innovative USAID-supported program that Naz and her
family benefi t from encourages school enrollment and retention
by providing the food to more two million deprived students in 12
districts across three provinces. Contingent on attendance, students
receive the supplies every three months.
The donation helps each family save 1,200 to 2,000 rupees ($14-
24) per month, enough to purchase an additional sack of wheat.
Parents come to school on distribution day to participate in capacity
building session on health and hygiene.
“I felt terrible about having to take my daughter out of school
because it is important to educate girls,” said the girl’s father, Gul.
“With the food she brings home now, we can make sure she is wellfed
when she attends classes every day.”
Since the start of the program, the Chaghai primary school has
seen a remarkable 43 percent increase in enrollment. Parents who
had given up on their children’s education found a ray of hope for
their present and their future.
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