Our first activity in the Baclayan community was a needs analysis/community assessment, which showed that less than 25% of children registered in the local elementary school attended on a regular basis. The entire community pointed to one reason for the low attendance, which is lack of food. Very few families would have regular meals, so the children would simply hang out around the house hoping for some food to appear, or they would themselves be out searching for root crops, fruits or any other sustenance to take them through the day.
Since the start of the feeding program in January 2011, the average number of children attending school has increased from around 20 to 30 students to 196 between July and October 2018. In January 2014, we began to offer breakfast as well as lunch. This increased the number of students showing up in time for their early classes, improved their attention and retention ability during the pre-lunch classes, and of course further added to the children’s overall improved health: at the end of the 2017/ 2018 school year, there were no cases of malnourished or severely malnourished children. To help sustain the feeding program and to make it a community program, the parents must contribute by volunteering their help in the food preparation, whilst the children themselves are responsible for delivering dry firewood for the stoves.