Food and Education

The mission of Her Star Scholars is to send girls to school. However, feeding the children is the second part of our mission. Studies have shown that children who are malnourished can suffer permanent brain damage making it harder for them to learn. Common sense tells us that a child with an empty stomach is going to have a harder time concentrating in school. 

Thank you for caring enough to help us feed these little ones! 

Feeding station for the Nursery Children.

Feeding station for the elementary kids in the Philippines.

Meals in the Philippines usually include meat, vegetables, soup, rice and fruit,

The children in Burkina Faso receive rice and beans to take home to their families.

In Guatemala the children are given a nourishing meal at the end of the school day. 

Teacher Flor

In the Philippines our pre-school teacher is Teacher Flor. She is an excellent educator and the children just love her. I think they sense how much she cares about each and every one of them.

During the summer, Teacher Flor offers free tutoring to children who need help catching up before they enter the next grade level. She takes her responsibilities to the children very seriously. If a child arrives and is hungry, she'll find food for them. If a child misses classes, she'll check up on them to be certain they aren't sick or experiencing a family difficulty.

Honey is 7 years old, but she has never been to school. Fortunately this year she has found a sponsor and will be starting first grade in May. Teacher Flor has been working with her regularly to help her learn the basic skills she will need for entering school.

There was some concern that due to severe malnutrition learning might be hard for her, but hard work with Teacher Flor has paid off. After only several days she is learning her letters.

Here Honey receives a home visit for some extra tutoring.






Thank you to Teacher Flor for all she does for the children!

Ninos con Bendicion Christmas Party Pictures

Program Success!

One Meal at a Time

We started off the school year in the Philippines with 50% of the pre-school girls classified as malnourished. As of yesterday, the most recent medical exam shows no malnutrition among the girls who started class in June.

Thank you to everyone who has made this possible!

Distributing Food in Burkina Faso

Pascal helped Biba with the distribution.

In early October the children in Burkina Faso each received a 50 pound bag of beans and rice for their families. The children and their families wore their best clothes to come and pick up their food donations.

Pascal

Samiritou

Samiritou also received  her bicycle

Sephora

Fousseina

Issa

Beans

Ida

Food distribution in Burkina Faso

This past weekend the families in Burkina Faso were able to pick up their sacks of beans and rice.

Samiratou, who is in high school, received a bicycle. She had been walking over an hour each way to school.

Lessons in Sharing

This sister and brother are Ruella Joy and Mark. On days when lunch is served they choose not to finish all the food they receive so that they can take some home for their siblings. When they were asked about who would eat the food they were saving, Mark said that his younger siblings will be the one who will eat it, because they have no rice to cook at home. 

This was a decision Mark and Ruella Joy made together. No one had to tell them to do this.

Lunch Time in the Philippines

3 days a week all of children of the Her Star Scholars in the Philippines gather together for a full and nutritious lunch with soup, rice, fruits, meats, and vegetables. When possible we add vitamin enriched milk or fruit juice to the menu. Many of the children bring siblings with them or bring boxes or bags to take left-overs home to them.

Filipinos are very generous. Part of their culture is too share food with family, friends, and neighbors in need, even if they don't have enough food for themselves. We make sure that there is more than enough food for the Little Star Scholars with some to take home.

We had hoped to spread the budget far enough to feed the children daily, but the decision was made that 3 highly nourishing meals were ultimately better than 5 filling, but less nutritious meals. Weight and height of the children are taken on the first day of each month to help us judge whether or not the daily meals are making an impact. So far they seem to be!

For $400 dollars a month, which is $10 per child, we can continue with the 3 day a week lunches. Imagine,  just $5 will provide 6 nourishing meals!  If we can increase the monthly budget to $550 a month, we will be able to provide daily meals. Please consider making a donation to the Philippines Lunch Fund. You can designate on PayPal or on your check.

Our Program in the Philippines - Butuan

Butuan City in the northern region of Agusan del Norte, on Mindanao island in the Philippines. It is one of the poorest 20 regions in a poor country. We are working in the two poorest communities in Butuan where each and every family lives beneath the poverty threshold. In the Philippines the poverty line for a family of 6 is US$ 179 per month. The majority of our families make less than a third of that. 

For these families it is a challenge to feed their children every day. Many of these children are malnourished and it is not unusual for some children to receive only one small meal a day. One mother talks about how she encourages her children to drink a lot of water so that their stomachs will feel filled. 

There is universal public education in the Philippines so it would seem that scholarship help wouldn’t be necessary. However, there are costs associated with the “free” public education. There are registration costs, required uniforms, a need for shoes, transportation, and school supplies like pencils and notebooks. 

Additionally meals aren’t provided in school. It is not unusual for children to miss school because they are too hungry to attend. Teachers will also tell you that children with empty stomachs find it very hard to pay attention and succeed at their lessons. 

Many thanks to our September Donor!

We had an generous donor step forward and pay for lunch for the children in the Philippines for the month of September! Many thanks to this donor and all of the others that are helping to educate and feed and make a difference in the lives of the children of the Her Star Scholars program.

Celebrating Nutrition: Go, Grow, Glow

Opening Routine

Our Little Stars in the Philippines just completed a month long study of nutrition. It ended with a program for parents with a play, singing, and dancing. This year's theme was Go, Grow, Glow!

Grow

Children dancing with gulay - vegetables.

Glow

42 cents a day

Schools in the US have long offered reduced price or free breakfasts and lunches to children. It's clear that children who are well-nourished perform better in the educational setting. Yet most of our scholars in the Philippines are lucky to have one nutritious meal per day.

Last year we were able to serve our children lunch 3 days a week for several months. This year we would like to be able to serve the children lunch every school day. One filling and nutritious lunch can be had for only  42 cents per child, per day.

Skipping one large drink per week at a coffee shop could provide 10 days worth of lunches.


Skipping 2 large drinks a month could feed a child for 4 weeks.

Her Star Scholars needs US$500 a month to feed all of our children in the Philippines. In the right hand column of our blog you will see the word DONATE. Remember that $8.40 will feed one child lunch for a month.

These pictures are from last year because we haven't had the budget for food yet this year.

Parents come and prepare the meals.

The children do have to stand to eat because we haven't been able to purchase chairs yet.

We do try to provide extras for siblings who are there at lunch time.

Our programs focus on educating girls, but we don't let little boys go hungry.

Malnutrition in the Philippines

Many of the children in our program in the Philippines are malnourished. We hope to fund a daily lunch program that will ensure all of the children one healthy meal each day. Donations to the food budget are always welcome.

Meanwhile, we try attempt to supply the families of the most seriously malnourished children with daily vitamins and nutrient rich formula prescribed by a local pediatrician. It's hard to only help a small handful of children with these extra nutrients, but we work within our budget to make the most impact we can.