Kuychi Wasi: school lunches for malnourished children

Help us to keep running school lunches for the malnourished children from impoverished Andean community.

A year ago we began to run school lunches in the Villa Marcelo School in Urubamba, Peru. Bearing in mind that food aid is not sufficient by itself and the fact we won't always be there to feed the children, we aspired to self-sustainability of this project. Thus, we helped to establish a vegetable patch on the school ground, we taught the parents the basics of nutrition and gave workshops on how to cook a more nutritionally rich food for their kids, kids are being taught the basics of organic agriculture.

The idea is simple: parents and teachers bring seeds to the school; pupils supervised by an agronomist and a teacher plant the seeds and take care of the plants. Once harvested, vegetables make their way to the kitchen, where they are cooked into delicious lunch by parents. Children getting at least one nutritiously rich meal a day feel better, are stronger, are able to concentrate and have better memory, that eventually brings them better marks. This is how we work from seed to mouth, from food to better education.

This year the cancelled funding put the lunch program at risk, leaving 78 children aged 6 to 12 without very necessary single nutritious meal a day. Since the vegetable patch has started giving results, we will not be spending money on vegetables this year. Nevertheless, there are other products that do not grow on the patch but are essential for the lunch, such as rice, corn, beans, wheat flour and vegetable oil. The biggest expense however is meat: chicken or beef once or twice a week is essential for young person’s growth. These are the products we are asking money for.

Make a donation, help us to keep running the lunches:

US $7 buys 1 child a MONTH of lunches

US $35 feeds 1 child for HALF A YEAR       

US $70 enables us to give a child ONE YEAR of lunches

US $105 will feed a 15 pupil classroom for one month       

(US$ 546 will feed the entire Villa Marcelo School* for a month)

 * 78 children x US $7 a month x 10 months of studies = US$ 5460.

Donate. Your donation, it’s more than giving food. It’s about creating an opportunity to make the most of the studying. Education is strength, it gives you an opportunity to obtain a better job, to fight for justice and defend your rights, to combat crime fuelled by poverty, to make the most out of existing opportunities and treat wisely natural environment.

Education is a prerequisite for a better life. Better life for impoverished communities is what we want.

 We are a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to sustainable development among the impoverished communities in Peru.