GOT MATAR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT GROUP FREE FEEDING PROGRAM Background Information

Got Matar Community, through their Co ordinator, Mrs. Grace Chien'g Andiki, is one of the communities that had requested Mr. Ha Sung Soo, President of the Korean Volunteer International Organization (KVO) International to assist them in achieving several development programs one of which was 뱓o come up with a program of feeding the primary and secondary school children, being that the majority of the families in this are can afford only one meal a day , i.e an evening meal� This program, in their own words, 뱖ould help the children concentrate and understand what they are being taught when they are in school.� Furthermore, the community felt that through this program, they will also be supporting the vulnerable widows, their children and majority of the children orphaned because of HIV/AIDS; many of whom drop out of school due to different kinds of hardship they are going through daily in the lives.

Got Matar community is in Yimbo/Bondo district region of Nyanza Province to the Western part of Kenya . It is in a sparsely populated area, an hour and a half's drive from Kisumu town and just a few kilometers from the fresh water Lake Victoria . It is only 18 kilometers to the west of Bondo their district headquarters and connected to the headquarters by a well tarmacked road. It is a rather dry and hot place most of the year round although it gets enough rains during the long rainy seasons, April to June, to be able to grow maize and other crops that can mature within three months, like groundnuts, millet, sweet potatoes etc. It has the great potential of producing more if better and improved methods of farming and irrigation could be introduced and applied, considering that it is also not too far from the fresh water lake.

The primary school does not have well built structures nor does it have good desks for the pupils although the secondary school which is very new and has just admitted its 1 st year students is currently under construction � thanks to the generosity of a United Kingdom of Great Britain based NGO as I have been informed � and is a very well constructed school. It would make sense if the primary school was to be built to a comparable standard, and as I can observe, two classrooms are being built in the primary section with the support of Constitutiency Development Fund, which is a Government of Kenya development fund program. I would only hope that all the classrooms will be constructed this way.

Establishing free feeding program in Got Matar Primary School Although, granted that the program had to start given the situation and considering that the children would appreciate any meal they can get, there is more that need to have been put down on the ground to ensure a good, nutritious and sanitary feeding program for a group as large as this one. Therefore, the ideal situation, as we observed and also discussed with Sr. Monica, would be to serve one meal per day to begin with - a lunch - as all these children go back to whatever they will call their respective homes in the evening.
But because of the funding situation as informed by the two sisters, and as well understood, the Community is appreciative but only able to start with a free feeding program of one meal per day (two times a week) for the primary school 340+50+ 10 teachers nursery school children, at a cost of 400 US dollars per month giving the very basic minimum meal of rice and beans.
As I hope Grace's report will later indicate, she had to purchase some, if not all, the cooking pots and some utensils which she required to start the feeding, though not all the things necessary, so I decided to add her 100 US dollars from the money I was given by the sisters.
The ideal basic estimated budget requirement for establishment of the program, as I continued consultations with Grace would then be as follows;
NOTED: There would also be a need to build a good kitchen that would meet health standards as is required by the Ministry of Health and the Board of Education. Otherwise, I fear that the program may not be allowed to continue, under the present circumstances as this is as a precautionary measure. I have requested Grace to explain the use of a temporary structure to the Board of Education as a stop gap but also give us a budget for this and or what the community can provide.