Inside the World Food Programme in Nicaragua
Mar 17th, 2009 by Jon Posted in Nicaragua News | 2 Comments
BlogCritics Magazine recently ran an interesting interview with William Hart the director of the World Food Programme in Nicaragua. The World Food Programme is a UN initiative that helps alleviate the suffering caused by hunger and food supply problems worldwide.
In Nicaragua, the WFP is focused on feeding school children who often go to class without a meal. With a well fed body, these children will learn better and someday help break the cycle of poverty thanks to a better education.
According to the interview, the WFP is able to provide a lunch for over 300,000 boys and girls in rural areas in Nicaragua. However, Mr. Hart admits that it “does not have enough funding to expand the coverage to all of municipalities, WFP´s program focuses on those municipalities with the highest rates of food insecurity and malnutrition“.
It’s important to note that the WFP in Nicaragua works through the Nicaraguan Government to get food to school children. As a result, private schools in Nicaragua like Verbo and many others are not eligible. As a result many private schools and children who have fallen through the cracks are struggling to find food.
For Verbo in Bluefields, they realize the importance of a feeding program and have taken ambitious steps to have enough food for one meal for needy children. With partners like OrphaNetwork and donations from individuals, Verbo is able to provide an afterschool feeding program (see here) and some meals for children who attend Verbo school.
Though Verbo is blessed with compassionate and generous help from others, they often struggle to make ends meet like many other schools in the Atlantic coast.
Please consider making a donation or give support to the following organizations working in Nicaragua:
March 18th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Thank you for the link to the Rainbow Network website. Your post clearly outlines the benefits of a successful feeding program. Thank you, from all of us at Rainbow Network, for the work you do.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Thank you Ryan. Rainbow is doing important work in Nicaragua and I hope to convey that work on this site more often.
My church has a team in Bluefields at the moment and I think they have a meeting set up with people from your organization. I look forward to seeing what emerges from that.