Improving their Health and Capacity for Learning: Daily Meals for School Children in Haiti
The joy in their eyes is unmistakable -- and infectious.
Before, their bellies were hollow; their minds were unfocused. Now, thanks to an ongoing partnership between Salesian Missions and USAID, close to 13,000 children and young adults in Haiti receive a hearty, nutritious meal, five days a week.
“They report that it is God Himself who sends the manna of heaven to them!” says Roland Muscade, logistics manager for the Rinaldi Foundation in Haiti.
The boys and girls benefitting from this new initiative attend one of six Salesian-run schools throughout the country: in Cap-Haitien, Fort Liberte, Les Cayes, Gressier, Gonaives and Port-au-Prince. Previously, many of them did not eat for days at a time; their parents are simply too poor to afford even basic necessities of life. Overcome by hunger, these students suffered from constant headaches, stomach pains and worse. In the best cases, they were unable to properly focus or learn; in the worst, they were forced to leave school altogether due to physical weakness and illnesses related to malnutrition.
“Leaving my home the other morning, my mother had nothing to give me,” explained one young man studying in Port-au-Prince. “She took a grain of salt, placed it under my tongue, and told me: ‘My boy, go for courage; one day the sun will rise on our home.’ And then she cried.”
Such sad realities perpetuate the cycle of poverty -- which is why Salesian missionaries are so committed to eliminating hunger in Haiti, one student at a time.
“Education is absolutely critical for the future of Haiti’s youth -- and the country as a whole,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions. “Daily meals not only encourage students to attend and remain in school -- they also support the actual learning process. As children in Haiti say, ‘an empty stomach has no ears.’”
Roland echoes this sentiment. “When I distributed the meals, children told me that they want to go to school -- but when they don’t have access to food, they prefer to work for a local merchant who sells ready-made meals so they can eat. Similarly, parents encourage their children to work so they can help feed the rest of the family. “This underscores the importance of our feeding programs,” he says.
Thanks to our many caring friends who help pay the shipping costs of donated meals, students in Haiti can remain in school, secure in the knowledge that they will no longer go hungry. Instead, they can eagerly participate in the classroom, and begin building the foundations they need for a much brighter future.
For these girls and boys, just a few dollars has truly been a miracle.
The Rinaldi Foundation is a member of the Don Bosco Network; together with Salesian Missions, they led country-wide relief efforts following Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010, as well as after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Both organizations continue to work together to address some of Haiti’s most pressing and ongoing needs, including chronic malnutrition.
Feeding the Hungry
She survived Sierra Leone’s devastating Ebola epidemic -- but her husband did not. Left alone with three young daughters and a son, with no one to earn money for the family, Veriocia fell rapidly into destitution. Suddenly, she could no longer afford to feed her children even one meal a day.
Desperate to nourish them, Veriocia begged her equally impoverished relatives for help. When they could no longer offer extra food, she gave up her own meals -- becoming so weak and ill that it appeared her children would soon be orphans.
Fortunately, Veriocia ended up at a Salesian-run hospital in her hometown of Lungi. There, missionaries learned of her story and began offering the family one large box of rice each week -- enough to fill their empty bellies and soothe their worried souls.
“For me and my family, the rice is a blessing and a joy,” Veriocia exclaims. “I do not know what would have happened without this help.”
Salesian missionaries in Lungi and several other communities in the northern provinces of Sierra Leone are able to offer such crucial food aid thanks to a long-standing partnership with other humanitarian organizations who donate the food. Thanks to the generosity of our many friends, Salesian Missions can ship this life-saving food to impoverished communities such as Lungi.
Veriocia and her children join 700 other residents of Lungi, Freetown and Bo who now benefit from the most recent shipment of meals. The Salesian community in Bo operates a feeding program at the St. Teresa Police School, where more than 100 impoverished students receive a daily meal. In Freeport and Lungi, Salesian missionaries distribute rice-meals to the community -- including young inmates (often illegally incarcerated) at Pademba prison, families fostering Ebola orphans and members of St. Augustine and Holy Cross parishes. Students in several Salesian-run schools also receive one daily meal, five days a week.
“So many people depend on Salesian programs in Sierra Leone,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions. “These donated meals remove one of the burdens of poverty; parents no longer need to worry about where their family’s next meal will come from, and children can go to school on a full stomach.”
We are grateful to the caring compassion of our donors, who make such miracles possible.
