Feature: Namibian school feeding program vital to combating malnutrition, stunting

Mennette Kamanya in grade 6 and her younger brother Josua in grade 4 said they miss school during this break because they are given food during lunch time.

The siblings attend Monte Christo Primary Project School in Havana informal settlement in Windhoek.

Although their family is one of many that benefited from the pilot food bank program, their mother Secilia Uushona said in a recent interview with Xinhua that the feeding program at the school has helped her to keep the children healthy.

"When I am broke, I leave the feeding to the school," Uushona, a food vendor, said.

Katrina, whose parents' shack is next to the Kamanyas', also attends Monte Christo Primary School. Her mother Reginaldt Iita is a security guard whose salary is not enough to last the family of three a whole month.

Just like Uushona, Iita said she is forever grateful to the government for introducing the school feeding program especially now when the drought has been ravaging the country for three years.

"We just hear about malnutrition. My daughter did not experience it. I was lucky because the school gives her food," Iita said.

Although Namibia still has a long way to go in eliminating malnutrition and stunting, the country has done quite well in reducing the prevalence, mostly because of the school feeding program.

Figures released by the UN Children's Fund during the visit to Namibia by the global child rights advocate Graca Machel last week showed a downward trend in cases of malnutrition, maternal deaths and stunting since the early 1990s.

Introduced in 1991 by the World Food Program (WFP), the school feeding program was then taken over by the government in 1996.

The program provides a daily hot meal to 330,000 learners in the morning in 1,400 primary schools throughout the country.

Namibia budgets 104 million Namibian dollars (about 7.6 million U.S dollars) for the schools feeding program per year. In 2015, 96 million Namibian dollars (about 6.9 million U.S dollars) was spent.

Education deputy minister Anna Nghipondoka said they plan to extend the feeding program to secondary schools because of the drought.

"Expanding the meals to secondary schools will also help boost the enrollment rate, which is currently at less than 60 percent," she said.

School meals, she further said, act as an incentive for learners to remain in school and that's important during this difficult time of drought.

WFP Representative in Namibia Jennifer Bitonde said where hunger is a problem, school meals can improve learners' health and nutrition.

Bitonde said the school feeding program provides multiple benefits such as improving learners' performance in class and contributes to government efforts towards ending hunger.

"WFP will continue providing technical assistance to the government to build upon accomplishments realized over the years," Bitonde said. Endit