One of President Barack Obama’s biggest foreign policy challenges is securing a stable democracy in Afghanistan. Obama stated, “There will be no lasting peace unless we expand spheres of opportunity for the people of Afghanistan.”
Without food and education, Afghan children will not find any opportunities awaiting them. This is why universal school feeding is desperately needed in Afghanistan.
The charity, World Vision, is helping by providing school meals to Afghan children. This initiative is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's McGovern-Dole Food for Education program. McGovern-Dole supports school meal initiatives in developing countries by providing funding to World Vision, the World Food Programme, Catholic Relief Services, and other organizations. However, low funding from Congress forces most McGovern-Dole applications to be denied.
The World Vision program in Afghanistan is one of the great McGovern-Dole success stories. Lara Evans, A Global Food Program officer for World Vision, discusses school feeding in Afghanistan.
How many children are benefiting from the World Vision school feeding program in Afghanistan?
World Vision Afghanistan’s Food-for-Education program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), finished its fifth successive year in December 2008.
In 2003, before the program began, the Afghanistan Ministry of Education reported that fewer than 9,000 girls and only 27,000 boys attended school the western provinces of Badghis and Ghor. As a result of the program, school attendance has grown incrementally to 80,807 students in 266 schools.
One of the program’s greatest successes has been the increase in the number of girls attending school. In 2007, more than 23,000 girls were attending schools participating in World Vision Afghanistan’s Food for Education program – the highest number of girls attending school in Badghis and Ghor in the past 20 years.
Discuss what effect the meals have had on the children in terms of school attendance, performance and nutrition.
School attendance in Badghis and Ghor, particularly by girls, has improved significantly as a result of the Food for Education program. Enrollment has reached record levels and the program has encouraged regular attendance (as 70 percent attendance rates are required for students to receive take-home food parcels).
Food aid is the main contributing factor in the target provinces in successfully increasing school attendance for girls, which skyrocketed from zero to more than 23,000. As the need for food aid increases through drought conditions and severe winters, the extra food that these girl children bring home not only provides for their families, but also encourages parents to continue their daughters’ educations, protecting these children from early marriage or child labor situations.
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