Education for girls under threat as school meals dry up in Liberia

Currently it is lounge bell of Iranba public school near the center of the town of Sacredpie, Nimba County, Liberia, at 11 am. Students with books will run out of class, but they will not stay within the school premises. A lot of people are going home to find out what to eat. Most of them, especially girls, are expected to contribute to the family table, so they will not come back.

As part of the pilot program of the school lunch program in the area that the Liberian government and its partners started, students eat at school here every day. The funds are depleted and food stops coming out of the kitchen.

School principal, Lucy K. Miapa, says: "Without meals, many people will go home soon."

School lunch is a powerful tool to encourage children to go to school on a regular basis. They promote basic education and human resources development and improve admission, attendance, retention, attention and academic performance

Miapah is sitting in her small office where there is an academic poster on the wall, and Miapah local school meals allow girls to flow into school, 7 out of 9 girls in the 2016/2017 academic year People say they will contribute.

"In countries where it is known that girls' enrollment is a top priority, feeding is helping them to bring them here," Miapah said.

Liberia's restricted school lunch fundraising means that these plans have almost completely stopped. The World Food Program is a major partner of the government and a key provider of intervention in social and productive safety nets through school meals. Government agencies need two million dollars to avoid closing projects to help 127,000 children in the least secure region of Liberian food

The school meal program funded by the family gradually replaces the traditional national school meal program, promoting food production, supplying nutrition to students and injecting income into the regional economy is stagnant .

At the Mehnpa public school outside Saclepea, students remember not to leave their campus if they saw smoke in the kitchen. Many people want to make local cuisine using yam, cassava, potato, palm oil, smoked fish.

Grace Saye, a 3rd grade student at Mehnpa, says: When I have food, I am here until 3 pm, but it may be difficult when there is no food. "

In the civil war of 14 years, many girls in Liberia had no opportunity to attend school or start school in their teens. More than 40% of girls aged 10 to 14 have never received formal education. Girl Up focuses on providing literacy and math courses for girls who do not go to school by mobilizing parents, teachers, preferential trade agreements to register girls, offer uniforms and textbooks, We support the UN program. Malawi is one of the countries with the highest level of education and poverty in the world. Many girls are unable to pay their tuition fees and are forced to drop out of school because they need to earn income and cause complications of premature marriage and premature birth. Together with the United Nations, Girl Up gives girls the opportunity to learn how to read and write. Girl Up also guarantees that risky girls have funds to pay for tuition and uniforms.

UNICEF's assistance staff explained the story that she recently encountered in the rural area of ​​Liberia. School principal - man - broke school confusion between girls and boys. He blames girls - "Girls will not fight" - but they are not boys. The girl saw him and said, "Principal, please spend some time talking to me, please do not forget that the woman is the president." "I know that I am expressing women's wishes and expectations," she said. "Because I am always under the microscope, this is an unbelievable responsibility," she added, "Since the door is open, women are running in search of a political position throughout the African continent I will.

The donor and the government of Afghanistan emphasize that girls' education is a success story and today that millions of girls attend school instead of schools under the Taliban. However, the established goal of registering all girls is far from achieving, and the proportion of girls and students is currently decreasing in some parts of the country. According to the government, 3.5 million children do not go to school, 85% of them are girls. Compared to 66% of teenagers, only 37% of girls can read and write.