Welcome to the 4th 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.
The month of June saw further expansion in Nursery School Feeding and by month-end your donations were helping to feed over 1,300 children in 34 nursery schools in the Chilomoni region of Southern Malawi.
Nursery School Updates:
6 More Nurseries Start School Feeding!
Seibo added another 6 new nursery schools to its operations in the month of June. The nurseries: Future Leaders, Abundant Life Academy, Tisangalare Nursery, Miracle Nursery, Nzeru Nursery and Mitsidi Nursery are added to the 28 nurseries reported on last month. With a combined total of 83 boys and 86 girls each of the above listed nurseries have their own cooking area complete with 50-litre rocket stove and in June we delivered 385 kgs of food in the form of Likuni Phala to these new nurseries. Across all nurseries we estimated a total consumption of 1,490 kgs of food in June
The Seibo Kids
The Seibo Kids receive nursery care completely free of charge and many are orphans or particularly vulnerable children. A full-time place in a nursery and a hot meal daily can make a big difference.
In June thanks to your ongoing support over 40 children received an education and a hot meal on this programme. Little Sarah Misomali (5) of the Ebeneza Nursery School who we introduced last month has progressed significantly since the start of feeding in February this year.
Name
Sarah Misomali
Age
5
Month
Weight
Height
MUAC
20 April 2016
14.4kg
102.5cm
14.1cm
24 May ‘16
14.4kg
102.6cm
14.3cm
30 June ‘16
14.9kg
102.6cm
14.3cm
Our next Seibo Kid is little Chisomo Mitunda (3) who was born in June 1st 2013 and now attends Bachi Nursery School as a Seibo Kid since June this year. Chisomo weighed in on the 25th June 2016 at 10.8 kgs but we hope to see her grow in leaps and bounds.
Name
Chisomo Mitunda
Age
3
Month
Weight
Height
MUAC
June 2016
10.8kg
78.7cm
13.4cm
Primary School Updates:
Kazomba Primary School
In Northern Malawi’s Mzimba region Seibo has a new Team Member; Fiskani Mbale.
Working as a field monitor, Fiskani is responsible for data collection in Kazomba School relating to food inventory and supplies and also oversees child attendance and cooking process.
Name
Fiskani Mbale hales
Place
Kazomba
Before working for Seibo, Fiskani trained in Sustainable Environmental Education for Development. He also worked as a facilitator/ teacher at Kazomba Youth Organization and at Walusungu Community Care Centre where he was responsible for a school feeding programme
Children Playing at Kazomba Primary School, Northern Malawi
Local Community Support is Vital to Our Success
Monthly Milestones
An Additional 6 Nursery Schools were added to the School Feeding Programme
Over 40 vulnerable and needy children are now accessing FREE pre-school education under the “Seibo Kids” programme.
In the Mzimba District in Northern Malawi an additional 819 children at the Kazomba Primary School received a Seibo meal in June.
Testimonials
“Seibo was interesting to me when I heard about it. It is being welcomed very much by the community in Mzimba… I was interested to assist Seibo in its actions as it will have a lot of positive impacts for the health, as well as education, of the children. I think it is a great way to encourage learning. The children will work hard in school if they have eaten a good meal.”
– Fiskani Mbale
“Seibo will have positive impacts for the following reasons:
More children have attended school since the program started …Seibo has already attracted or encouraged parents to send their children to school… They eat at school. They do not have food at home. On the health of children – this will be improved because of the food groups that children get from the porridge. This helps to prevent diseases associated with malnutrition”
– Fiskani Mbale
Future Challenges
Distance Between Feeding Programmes:
This year the President of Malawi declared a State of Emergency in 23 of Malawi’s 28 Districts affected by the dry weather that followed the heavy flooding of last year.
Seibo have responded on the ground in 2 of these districts bringing food to nursery children in the Blantyre Region in Southern Malawi and to Primary School children in the Mzimba District of Northern Malawi. They are almost 500 kilometres apart so optimal use is made of mobile communication apps such as Whats App for speedy transmission of information between the Seibo Feeding Supervisor and Field Monitors.
Perhaps less familiar to people in Japan is the ability to transfer money over a mobile platform whereby money charged onto a mobile phone can then be transferred as electronic money and cashed by the recipient. Popular services in Malawi include Airtel Malawi and TNM’s Mpamba.
Did You Know?
In June, the Ministry of Education in Malawi changed the Primary School timetable. Primary school education in Malawi is made up of 8 years- referred to as Standard 1 to Standard 8. The changes effect the time of school feeding which will be implemented as below for the next term.
The new timetable is as follows:
Standard 1: 7:30am- 10:40am- Feeding begins at 9:30am
Standard 2: 7:30am- 11:30 am- Feeding begins at 9:30am
Standard 3/4: 7:30am- 12:20- Feeding begins at 10:25am
Standard 5～8: 7:30- 13:40- Feeding begins at 10:25 am for Standard 5/6 and at 11:00am for Standard 7/8 students.
Concluding Notes
At the end of May we had only 5 nurseries earmarked for additional feeding in June. However having been approached by the Director of the Future Leaders nursery- home to 76 children at the time of writing- and given the Director, Ms. Theresa’s Nyirongo’s enthusiasm for knowledge relating to Early Childhood Training we had to act fast. One week after we met Theresa’s nursery, located in Nthukwa- had a safety wall, 120 kgs of food and plates and spoons in place for all 76 children. We could not and we did not do that without you- so again thank you from all of us at Seibo.
Seibo’s Feeding Programmes are going to make a difference in ways which will impact Malawi’s next generation, and generations to come. Efforts are paying off today. Please continue to support our activities and ensure that every hungry child in the world receives a hot meal at school. Thank You.
“There has certainly been improvement in our children since Seibo. Concentration is better and I can say it shocked me… these children must be hungry because you see the way they eat the phala every morning …they eat!” –
Ms Nyirongo
Seibo’s Feeding Programmes are going to make a difference in ways which will impact Malawi’s next generation, and generations to come. Efforts are paying off today. Please continue to support our activities and ensure that every hungry child in the world receives a hot meal at school. Thank You.
