There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. -Mahatma Gandhi

eduKenya exists to help children and their families in the Mathare slum of Kenya break the cycle of poverty, and we do this primarily through educating children. What you may not know is that our school doubles as a feeding center. Each of the nearly 200 children are provided nutritious breakfast and lunch meals every day. For many children, these meals comprise the majority of what they will eat for the day.Most families in Mathare live in a state of food insecurity, as they subsist on an average of less than $2 per day. They are able to eat one day, but don’t have the money to eat the next. Child development, health and learning outcomes are all negatively impacted by malnutrition.[caption id="attachment_424" align="alignleft" width="300"]

The Kwa Watoto School Kitchen[/caption]Living in a state of food insecurity leads to poor academic performance, as children have diminished capacity to concentrate, impaired cognitive functioning and physical ailments such as headaches and stomachaches. Malnutrition additionally impairs the body’s ability to resist infection, leading to increased absenteeism from school.A 2012 study on malnutrition among children living in informal urban slums in Nairobi showed that maternal education is a strong predictor for malnutrition and especially for child stunting, which is arrested growth that occurs if a child doesn’t receive adequate nourishment the first two years of life. Teaching health knowledge to girls in school is a primary way to help ensure that they will be equipped with the right knowledge and practices to prevent their future children from being malnourished and/or stunted.We are committed to feeding our students nutritious meals that keep their bellies full so they can focus on learning, including critical health information. The stunning reality is that it costs less than $8 to feed one child for a month in our feeding program! That includes the cost of food and paying our cooking staff.Will you help us? Our feeding program is in need of essential cooking equipment, including an energy-saving stove to reduce charcoal expenses and increase cooking efficiency, and a freezer to enable inexpensive purchase of vegetables in bulk during the wet season to be frozen for later use. Visit Pure Charity today to make a tax deductible donation to purchase these and other basic supplies for the school, or sign up on Pure Charity to have a percentage of your regular online shopping automatically support this project.To visit Pure Charity: https://www.purecharity.com/educate-kenyan-children-in-the-mathare-slumReference:Abuya, B.A., Ciera, J. and Kimani-Murage, E. Effect of mother's education on child's nutritional status in the slums of Nairobi. BMC Pediatrics 2012, 12:80.