BREWERVILLE, Montserrado County - United States Ambassador to Liberia, Michael McCarthy has urged the government of Liberia to strive to ensure that Liberian children are food secure, healthy and during school hours.
Ambassador McCarthy also said study conducted by the World Food Program (WFP) shows that most insecurity situation has worsened. According to him, the WFP assessment shows that 40 percent of households in Liberia today are food insecure.
Amb McCarthy made the statement at a ceremony marking the launch of phase two of the Mary Meals' school feeding program that is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Mary Meal school feeding program will provide hot meals to more than 45,000 children in 241 schools in four counties. They include, Montserrado, Bong Bomi and Gbarpolu Counties. The program will run up to 2024.
According to him, because of challenges faced by parents to get enough food to meet the daily nutritional needs of their kids in school, the USAID support to Mary's Meal feeding program will support future initiative intended to support Liberia's agricultural sector and break the visual circle of poverty and hunger.
He maintained that the program will address chronic hunger and make a difference for students from vulnerable Liberian families.
Said Amb. McCarthy, "These students have the assurance of a nutritional school meal and also a better incentive to enroll and regularly attend school. Schools that provide critical needed social protection for Liberia's poorest families, especially doing this challenging era of global food insecurity and shortages.
"Over the long term, the best solution to food insecurity in Liberia is to develop a productive agricultural sector. Liberia has everything it takes, a conducive climax, good soil for production, and hardworking entrepreneurs."
"We must now all work together to ensure Liberia takes advantage of the resources to increase agricultural activities, for security and nutrients as the Liberia government work toward the long-term goal to eliminate school fees."
He urged Ministry of Education to allocate resources to schools to implement short-term measures to reduce financial barriers on parents who cannot afford school fees.
He stressed the need to prioritize procuring food supply from local producers in a way to incentivize local food production and encourage farmers to grow more food to generate income to support their families.
"We are working with the government and we strongly encouraged the government and Ministry of Education to do whatever they can do to eliminate the school fees in the long run," he encouraged.
"We need to support families so that they don't have to choose a school for survival and education that can provide a path out of poverty for their children."
Making a brief remark, the Country Director of Mary's Meals Liberia, Paula Nawrocki thanked the US government for its support in providing daily nutritious meals for children in their place of education.
According to Madam Nawrocki, the two-year program will not just help to address the immediate needs of hunger but will contribute to the long-term development of communities and food insecurity.
Nawrocki said, "This latest support will make such a huge difference to children, families, and communities across Liberia,
"The food the children receive is sometimes the first meal of the day and it helps them to satisfy their hunger or the ache or hunger and gives them the energy to concentrate, participate in lessons, and make the most of their time in school.
"In enabling them to continue with their education, it also offers hope for a more prosperous future for the children which, in turn, allows Liberia to work more positively towards achieving its development goals."
"At Mary's Meals, we have an over-arching theme around our work which is "Food Changes the Story and that is certainly the case here in Liberia."Together for the Children of Liberia and in partnership with USAID it requires Everyone's input and efforts to fulfill our promise -that every child receives one daily meal in their place of education.
"We rely on close, collaborative partnerships with organizations who share our values, vision, and hope for the future. We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have forged such relationships with USAID, with the Liberian Government/Ministry of Education, and, of course, with the wonderful communities, we serve. We are all in this together and - for your unwavering support and constant cooperation."
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Also speaking, Deputy Minister for Instructions at the Ministry for Education, Alexander Duopu said the program is intended to alleviate short-term hunger in order improve learning capacity of children.
He also stated that the program will promote a paradigm shift in the attitude of agriculture through interventions such as school gardens and a curriculum that provide agricultural awareness, knowledge, and skills.
He indicated that the program will contribute to social equity and address gender and social inequalities in education through communities, parents, and teachers.
"The significance of the school feeding program for school children in Liberia is to motivate students to
attend school regularly, help students to concentrate well in the lessons, thereby enabling them also to perform well in their lessons," he said.
