In 2019 Heartbeat Africa established a partnership with a grassroots organisation called Transform Communities Initiative (TCI). TCI is involved with several community outreach programmes and oversees a porridge feeding programme within the Turkana region of Northern Kenya. This region of Kenya is badly affected by extreme poverty and drought and there is a desperate need for humanitarian aid and support.
Since 2019, Heartbeat Africa's Project Co-ordinator Chris Saunders has personally visited the feeding programme each year to carry out field visits to monitor the work being done and to strengthen the relationship with our local partner TCI.
Programme Expansion and Impact
The Porridge Feeding Programme continues to expand each year and currently has 32 centres with 8 of these developing into Early Learning Child Development Centres (ECDs) with classrooms and voluntary teachers. The Feeding Programme currently supports approximately 4,600 children. From this population of children, approx 1,100 have been enrolled into the 8 ECDs.
Heartbeat Africa currently provides daily porridge to the 600 children attending 5 of the Early Learning Child Development Centres. The provision of this daily porridge has had a significant impact through improving school attendance which will help towards the long term goal of breaking the poverty cycle in this region. Many of the children attending these schools are the first in their families to be accessing an education. School attendance is also helping to reduce and prevent the ongoing cultural practices of child marriage and FGM.
Turkana County Statistics
Key Challenges:
Turkana is an arid and semi-arid region located in north-west Kenya. Persistent droughts make cultivating the land extremely difficult, and these are becoming more frequent due to climate change. The majority of the population are nomadic pastoralists / herdsmen who often relocate in search of the most productive land, taking their livestock with them. The livestock are key to the survival of these communities however natural water sources are drying up and pastureland is diminishing.
Current Programme Statistics
Feeding Programme:
• 32 centres feeding over 4,600 children
• The number of children in each centre varies from 80 – 350
• 8 of the centres feed 1,100 children on a daily basis (6 days a week)
• The other 24 centres feed 3,500 children once a week every Sunday
• Heartbeat Africa is currently providing 8,820kg of porridge per year equivalent to 176,400 cups of porridge
Cost of Supporting the Project
Porridge Costs:
• 1kg of porridge (20 cups) = 0.53p
• To give one child one cup of porridge every day for 1 year = £11
• To feed one centre (200 children) once per week (10kg) costs: £275 approx per year
• To feed one centre (200 children) every day (10kg) costs £1,935 per year
Call to Action:
PLEASE CONSIDER BECOMING A MONTHLY SUPPORTER FOR OUR PORRIDGE FEEDING PROGRAMME TO ENABLE US TO IMPACT MANY MORE LIVES!
From the Field
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