A teacher’s hope – that every child can learn without hunger

My name is Petro Chipoka. I’m the head teacher at Thunga Primary School in Malawi. We face a lot of challenges in the school and the community [including] assisting parents to source learning materials and school uniforms for their children, and learners that come late or dropout from school due to hunger when they come [to school] without eating food. 

Hunger is common among the children here at the school just because most of the families have problems in getting food to give to their children. This has an impact because learners do not concentrate at school and this makes it difficult for them to learn. 

“Hunger is common among the children” 

The challenges for children who are hungry at school is that they fall asleep during lessons and complain about [having a] headache or stomach ache because they haven't eaten anything in the morning. Most of these learners leave classes before 10am to search for something to eat in order to have energy. 

Teaching children who are hungry is really a challenge because they don't have a focus, which affects their performance in class. And teachers know that these learners are not following the lesson because when we ask them a question to check their understanding, they give you the wrong answer. It really is a challenge. Therefore, really, it's not good to teach a child who is hungry. 

As the head teacher, I feel bad teaching children who have the challenge of hunger because if they don’t concentrate in class, they are not going to fulfil their goals.

“The community really needs Mary’s Meals” 

Here at Thunga Primary School, Mary’s Meals is needed just because most of the children who attend the school are coming from parents who face challenges to get food. 

The coming of the school feeding programme will encourage children to come to school and assist learners to concentrate and improve their performances. It will also assist the school to have improved attendance and reduce dropout rates. The community really needs the school feeding programme provided by Mary’s Meals. 

Thanks to generous supporters and local community volunteers who believe in the power of daily school meals, Mary’s Meals was able to launch a programme at Thunga Primary earlier this year. Before school feeding began, we interviewed pupils, staff, and parents about their current situation and their hopes about how nutritious daily meals would improve their lives. 

It costs just €22 (EUR) / $25.20 USD / £19.15 (GBP) to provide a child with nutritious school meals for a whole school year. Make a donation this Christmas and fuel a child’s learning in school.