Dear Seibo Supporters,
Welcome to the 5th Seibo Activity Report tracking the progress of school feeding at primary schools in the north & nursery schools in the south of Malawi. Malawi has been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late with the highest number of people facing severe hunger in all of Southern Africa. Your donations are therefore much needed & have enabled us to grow to 40 nursery schools and put plans in place to feed at more primary schools for the beginning of the new school semester.
The World Food Programme has announced that Malawi will require the “largest humanitarian response ever in the country’s history”. We thank you for being part of that response with Seibo.
Nursery School Updates:
Feeding Shelters Stationed at 40 x Nurseries
In addition to the 34 nurseries announced previously August saw an additional 308 children being offered the safety net of a hot meal at school. The nurseries are profiled on our website and are; Tawina CBCC, Kachimera CBCC, Misuku CBCC, Makapwa CBCC, Atamandike 1 and Atamandike 2 nursery schools.
See: https://www.seibojapan.or.jp/news/?la=en
The Seibo Kids
To date 43 Seibo Kids receive nursery care completely free of charge and many are orphans or particularly vulnerable children. Meet the latest recruit to join the Bachi Nursery!
Name
Mayamiko Mwanyula
Age
4.5 years
Month
Weight
Height
MUAC
29th July’16
19kg
106.6cm
16.1cm
Primary School Updates:
Kaphuta Zone Primary Schools
The school term for primary school students begins on the 5th of September. As of the 18th of August the Kazomba Primary School which we have been involved with since April still has a stock of Japanese rice flour amounting to 3,548 kgs. For the new primary schools to be added in September however we had to pre-deliver all that was needed in August including the fuel-efficient rocket stoves, mugs, food in the form of “phala”, hand-washing drums, basins, stock-books, etc. All of this is made possible by your kindness!
The schools & communities in question have built feeding shelters during the summer break in anticipation of feeding starting and include Kabuku, Matewu and Cham’ngulube Primary Schools.
Kabuku Primary School
580 kgs of food (phala) was delivered in August to feed an estimated 360 children plus at this primary school. Kabuku’s kitchen shelter was erected by the school and its surrounding community. We look forward to sending you updates!
Monthly Milestones
6 new nurseries in Chilomoni were added to operations in August, making a total of 40 Seibo nurseries in southern Malawi reaching approx 1,600 under-6 year olds
Preparations put in place to establish school kitchens at 3 x primary schools in the northern Malawi’s Mzimba District namely Kabuku, Matewu & Cham’ngulube schools
Messages
About Kabuku Primary School “The school has a good kitchen now and a store room too… also water is not far”
– Fiskani Mbale
Future Challenges
Water Quality
With your donations we have expanded our reach into more rural areas of Malawi.
As a result we have encountered the challenge of ensuring schools and nurseries not only have access to water but also ensure that the water used in cooking is safe.
In some areas this has resulted in our staff handing out extra buckets to facilitate cook-volunteers getting water from a safe location. In some rare instances we have also had to hand-out Water Guard, a chlorine water treatment product, to ensure the water safety.
As conditions in Malawi continue to create new challenges we look to you for continued support in ensuring we continue to provide hot meals to the most needy.
Concluding Notes
One in three people in Malawi are living with hunger in what are unprecedented times. Sadly in these times it is common for people to take their children out of school or for young girls to marry early due to societal pressures. A simple school meal can reduce the burden of raising children and can be the difference between a child staying in school or otherwise. It is vital we meet the immediate hunger need and through educating the youth break the cycle of food insecurity.
Your donations are helping to create this change. Thank You!
Dear Seibo Supporters,
Welcome to the 5th Seibo Activity Report showing exactly how your donations are spent and the difference being made to young lives in Malawi through the provision of school feeding.
Following is a summary of Seibo’s operations in July- a month in which the scale of the challenges facing Malawi became clear and a month in which our partners in Malawi announced the real need to feed at least 10,000 children within this year. It’s a huge challenge for which we will need all your help and support.
Nursery School Updates:
A Pause for Evaluation
Seibo paused its expansion to the nurseries in Chilomoni in the month of July. Operations to add a new 6 nursery schools to the existing 34 will go ahead in August- funding permitting. Meanwhile, a huge Seibo nursery partner meeting was held on 1st July to clarify Seibo’s activities in the southern and northern regions of Malawi, and to share and gather information to inform the direction of future growth.
The partner meeting allowed the Seibo Team in Malawi to share the overview of Seibo’s activities in Malawi whilst also affording an opportunity to provide valuable information on hygiene & food storage issues which had been requested by our local partners.
Meet Bertha Mandevu!
A New Seibo Kid
Attending Watipa Nursery
1.5 years of age!
Month
Weight
Height
MUAC
July 2016
10.1kg
76.3cm
14.8cm
Primary School New Addition
Kabuku Primary School
Kazomba School became a Seibo school in April when Seibo took over from JOCA’s and the Kabuku school is several kms to the east. Kabuku Primary School previously served as Kazomba School’s ‘control’ school for comparative data purposes.
For several years the Principal of Kabuku provided data pertaining to his students for no reward- a true example of the “Warm Heart of Africa”. However hunger was an issue and in preparation for future feeding the school built a kitchen in hope. On the 11th of July on your behalf we delivered the following to the Kabuku school transforming the hopes of the teachers and students into reality;
2 x 120L Rocket Stoves 2 Basins 417 Cups 4 Serving Mugs 3 Water Buckets 3 Buckets with Lids 2 Cooking Sticks 40 KG of Likuni Phala
A small ceremony took place at the school following a demonstration on how to use the Rocket Stoves to the volunteer cooks,
While the cooks cooked the likuni phala in the kitchen shelter erected by the community at the beginning of July the community sang and everyone welcomed the programme.
“We should go to school to have porridge; there will be no hunger here. Thank you Seibo.”
Monthly Milestones
Seibo launched at Kabuku Primary School on 12th July adding an additional 363 children on top of the 819 children at the neighbouring Kazomba Primary School.
In month 5, your donations enabled us to feed over 1,300 under-6 year olds in the south of Malawi, and 1,182 children in primary schools in north Malawi.
Testimonials
““There is no such thing as free lunch. Your initiative is not for Seibo but for the children.”
Mrs. Sawako Nevin, Seibo Director
The sustainability of the programme in Mzimba depends on community effort. Seibo has given community members the opportunity to participate in the running of the feeding programme to increase the probability of success.
The Names of the 12 Schools in the “Kaphuta Zone” are;
Kazomba
Kabuku
Matewu
Cham’ngulube
Chabele
Machelechete
Kanyerere
Davy
St Paul’s
Mzimba LEA
Kaphuta LEA
Kazengo LEA
– Fiskani Mbale
A Japan- Malawi Community Effort!
As Seibo Director Sawako Nevin, pictured above, said at the recent ceremony- “There is no such thing as a free lunch”. In truth the Kabuku school built their own shelter and the school management committee ensure each village surrounding the school contribute 1 ox-cart of firewood and a bag of maize each month. In addition two volunteers are assigned every day to cook the meal of “likuni phala”.
While the community in Mzimba is wholly participatory in the Seibo Programme more needs to be done to ensure a weather-proof kitchen is in place to ensure year-round school feeding.
Seibo aims to work with the community to enable the building of a brick shelter to replace the current temporary shelter at Kabuku school and the other new schools to be added to the feeding programme in 2016. A kitchen shelter for a school the size of Kabuku will cost just over Malawian Kwacha 300,000 or over USD 4,000.
With your help we plan to continue providing a lifeline to the children who attend school in this zone/area. Making plans is not without risk but with your help we plan to add 2 more schools in September, 3 in October and 3 in November with the final 2 schools to be added in December. Donations are vital.
“Seibo will help in reducing hunger in children living in poverty, increasing access in primary education, improving the health of children as well as improving community involvement in school meals implementation thereby promoting ownership of the program. In addition, the meals received at school also help to improve their nutritional status, promote physical growth and cognitive development which are crucial in the development of a productive workforce that the country needs for its development.”
Ministry of Education. Mr Saka
