Fight against hunger
Haiti is not only the poorest country of the American continent but together with many African countries it is in the last positions of the Human Development Index. Over half of the population still lives below the national poverty line. The conditions of underage youth is particularly concerning and that of disabled children is even more critical. Being a child in Haiti is not easy: in the last decade natural disasters, epidemics and poverty have left lots of children without parental care.
Most families live in extreme poverty and slums do not stop growing. Thousands of Haitians live in the USA, Canada or France and can somehow support the local economy, which is mainly based on the sale of essential goods, by sending remittances to Haiti.
École la Providence de Sibert has 650 students from 4 to 12 years old. For most children the meal offered by the school canteen is the only one of the day. It is generally made of rice and beans, tomatoes and dried herrings, which provides the proper amount of carbohydrates and proteins, fundamental for the children’s mental and physical wellbeing.
The local community benefits from the project as well. Mothers are indeed less concerned knowing their children can eat regularly and they make sure more consciously that their children go to school. Children attending the canteen means also conveying behavioral norms towards a better community life and correct basic health care practices. Children learn to wait in line for their turn, wash their hands before eating, waiting for everyone to finish their meal before leaving the canteen and go back to class. The elders cooperate in cleaning the room and washing the dishes.
With this kind of intervention, we are fighting against child malnutrition, through educational processes and by implementing school canteen services. This is aimed at improving nutritional intake to the underaged living as marginalised and vulnerable in high nutritional unsafety or emergency contexts.
