Food For Knowledge

Children received a school meal daily

meals served during 2019

Volunteer cooks were trained in child nutrition and health

ADPP is implementing the project in Maputo province, covering the districts of Manhiça, Matutuine, Moamba and Magude. The project direct benefits almost 90,000 children through interventions in 7 programme areas, namely: School Feeding, Literacy, School Gardens and School Farms, Water and Sanitation, Nutrition Education, Construction and Extra-Curricular Activities.

School feeding is at the heart of the FFK project, and a critical aspect of the program’s school health, nutrition and literacy initiatives. FFK distributed 12,528,265 school meals to 87,453 students of which half are girls. Combined with deworming, a primary benefit of school feeding is improving school attendance. Attendance, punctuality and retention numbers have subsequently improved significantly in schools benefiting from the project. At the end of this reporting period, 99% of all enrolled students attended class regularly.

Key Results 2019: FFK trained 557 primary school teachers of 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade on methods of teaching literacy in local languages and Portuguese. This resulted in significant gains in aspects of teaching in mother tongue. Students participating in local language instruction in Xirhonga and Xichangana performed significantly better in letter sound recognition, overall reading ability, reading comprehension, and dictation writing compared to those receiving Portuguese instruction.

To date, the project has also successfully facilitated access to drinking water sources for all the 271 schools. This was achieved through the installation of water collection systems, 24 boreholes and 20 additional water tanks, bringing the total number of water tanks installed under the programme to 315.

The project provided nutrition education to teachers, volunteers and students, using the nutrition education curriculum and materials it developed. These trainings allowed the transfer of knowledge to students and the communities where they work, thus expanding the results of the project. For example, 3,228 volunteer cooks were trained in child nutrition and health, equipping them with the skills to improve child health outcomes in schools, as well as in their communities.

The project also supported the training of Primary School teachers in the 11 ADPP Teacher Training Colleges.