School-based nutrition gets children back in school

A Plan study carried out in the Sissala area of Ghana’s Upper West Region found that food insecurity is a severe and chronic problem. Though it is widespread among the district’s population, pre-school children, school-age children and young mothers are the worst affected, and most vulnerable.

'Hunger gap'

Suffering from constant hunger not only prevents children from performing well at school, it also causes poor enrollment and attendance rates.

This is especially true during the ‘hunger gap’ from April to September each year, when children often go to school either without food or still hungry. Boys from the Fulani ethnic group would follow bulls into the bush so they could find fruit to eat instead of going to school.

So Plan piloted a project in Kupulima which would be managed by the community to feed children in schools, helping increase school enrollment, attendance and performance. Plan also organized community awareness raising meetings and trained partners to stress the importance of balanced nutrition and school attendance.

A balanced diet

After the awareness raising sessions, community members decided to build kitchens and provide benches, plates and cups for the children. The local women’s Village Savings and Loans Associations (VS&L) also offered to cook the meals, so Plan trained them on how to use local recipes to ensure children follow a balanced diet.

“We are now experienced in cooking good food…We now cook these types of food in our homes for our family members to eat,” said Ajara Sumani, a VS&L member in Kupulima. With the help of Plan and local NGO Green Sahara Organization, the community also established a 6 acre plot of land to replenish trees that had been chopped down for wood fuel used for cooking, and a school garden has been created to help produce food for the project.

The local Water User Association also provided fresh vegetables and grains from their farms as well as fish from the reservoir.

Improving attendance

Over 7 months, the project increased school enrollment by 27%, and the school attendance rate is now at just under 100%, up by around 20%.

“We are very happy for the school feeding project. We now stay longer at school and study. We do not think of food to eat after school any more and we do not go to the bush to search for fruit anymore whilst we are in school,” said school children from Kupulima.

Learn more about Plan's work in Ghana.