A group of students enjoying their midday lunch at the Shulinab Primary School, South Central Rupununi, Region Nine
By Samuel Sukhnandan
Several hinterland schools across the country are expected to further benefit from the Community-Based Hinterland School Feeding Programme (CBHSFP), as Gy$450 million has been allocated to meet the increasing demand in other regions.
Coordinator of the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (EFA/FTI), Edward Jarvis, in an interview with Guyana Times International, said the programme has proven to be a success and has helped to improve the lives of many school-aged children living in the hinterland regions of Guyana.
Jarvis told this newspaper that the money allocated for the programme this year will allow for the programme to be expanded to other schools. He noted that the aim is to have 20 more schools enlisted in the initiative this year. The programme has been in existence for six years now, and is funded by the World Bank and the Education Ministry.
Jarvis explained that poverty is widespread in hinterland communities, with children having to travel long distances by boat or on foot to get to school. These children are, in most cases, also not sent to school with proper meals. Sometimes, they have nothing at all to eat.
In response to this dilemma, the programme was initiated through the Education Ministry, and it now caters for some 16,000 school children in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine. The EFA/FTA coordinator explained that the schools in which the programme has been implemented are trained in preparing the meals, so as to ensure that each child receives a balanced diet. The training is usually provided by officials from the Ministry of Health. In addition to having the meals properly prepared, the programme promotes the use of traditional food items made in the community to which the school belongs.
“The cooks who prepare the meals are mostly parents and members of the community. The cooks are also trained to prepare the meals in order to help boost the children’s nutritional status; and the cooks themselves are required to have a food handlers certificate before they are employed in the school feeding programme,” he stated.
Jarvis disclosed that while the Health Ministry provides training for the cooks, the Education Ministry also provides training in project management and accounting to the school and community leaders. This, he said, is to ensure that funds allocated to each school are accounted for accurately.
Jarvis told Guyana Times International that the committees responsible for the programme in their respective areas are closely monitored, despite these communities being widespread, especially in Region Eight. “One hundred and seventy-five dollars is provided for each child daily through the programme…the money is provided on a monthly basis, but two months’ funding is usually given at the beginning, so that the school will have access to another month in order that the programme is not stopped for any reason,” he said. The money is usually provided to schools through the bank or through community offices.
Questioned on what would happen if, for some reason, the funds are delayed for a longer period despite the two months’ advance, Jarvis said that, in order to tackle that issue, communities have been encouraged to get involved in some small sustainability projects. He said it will help to keep the programme going until the necessary funds reach the school, but this eventuality has never happened before. “It is very important, because what we don’t want is for the children, one day, to turn up at school only to hear that they wouldn’t be getting a meal”, he noted.
Community benefit
Jarvis told Guyana Times International that the programme has helped not only to improve the lives of the children of these hinterland communities, but it has also helped to create job opportunities for the people living there. He said the community members have expressed their gratitude for the initiative. It has helped open markets to farmers and producers, especially of fruits and vegetables, since they provide the schools with the needed items for the continuation of the schools’ feeding programme.
Jarvis said, too, that all other community members who offer goods and services benefit equally, as not all goods are purchased at one producer or retailer. He said the programme also helps members of these communities in capacity building and management. The Community Based Hinterland School Feeding Programme (CBHSFP) has, so far, helped to boost the attendance rate of students in the hinterland region.
The Education Ministry also has two other programmes, one being the National School Feeding Programme, which currently benefit more than 51,000 learners at the nursery level and Grade Two at the primary level in Regions One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Ten, and in Georgetown.
Another initiative is a $30 million School Snack Programme in which peanut butter, cassava bread and fruit juices supplied by the Society for Sustainable Operational Strategies (SSOS), a non-governmental organisation, are distributed to students in Region Nine.
An estimated Gy$1.2 billion was spent on all the school feeding programmes last year, which also contributed to employment generation and building sustainable communities.
These school feeding programmes, along with the school uniform and text books initiatives, are part of a range of interventions initiated by the government in its quest to improve students’ attendance and performance in schools across all regions of Guyana.
