Help Feed Disabled Children in Africa

I am a clinical psychologist who spent some time in Africa working with disabled children, their teachers, and their parents. I made a friend, an incredibly dedicated and honest teacher, who devoted her energy to learning how to help the children in her charge. Now, she is begging me for help.

She has been made the head teacher at a school for children with disabilities in a very poor district. Her budget last year, to feed 70 children for 9 months, was $5,400. That's about 2 cents per child per day. The children must board to receive the specialized education they need, and many of their parents can't afford the $150 per year for boarding fees, but she doesn't turn them away because education is essential for them.

One-third did not pay their boarding fees, making her small budget stretch.

Her well is broken and would take thousands to repair, so she must buy water from water merchants during the dry months. Last year, she spent $500 on water alone for the school, sometimes having to pay out of her meager government salary.

She is agonizing over not being able to feed the children a healthy diet. Last year, they survived for the three school terms on nothing but beans and grains such as rice, fried bread, and maize. I said I would try to help.

Why am I not giving you the specifics of her name and school? Because she is a government employee and would be fired for letting others know how dire her situation is. And the money would be seized and put to other uses.

American dollars are so strong in other countries--she needs money to buy fruit, eggs, meat, milk for tea, and bread and margarine, fortified with vitamins. $7 will buy a piece of fruit for each student for a day. $12 will buy one egg each for the whole school. $28 will feed 70 kids a piece of meat. $17 would provide tea with milk and bread with margarine fortified with vitamins. These are foods she cannot afford to feed them, but she knows they need these nutrients. It is hard to imagine that $64 will add all these nutrients, if only once, to an entire school for one week.

Any amount of money will help these kids eat a healthier diet. Even pennies count! Please help me help my friend feed her students. Every cent would go to buy food or water. Nothing else. No transfer charges, no taxes, no one with access to the donations but my honest friend herself. Please, please help.

If enough donations come in to give the children a healthy diet, we can try to solve some of the problems, get new water tanks that would solve the water crisis she faces, plant fruit trees and vegetable plots on the school grounds, maybe even fix the well. If there is any left over, it can reinforce her food budget for next year. But the first priority is to FEED HUNGRY CHILDREN!