Welcome to Part Two of our blog post series on our Eat So They Can causes and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. If you’d like to read more about why the MDGs matter to Eat So They Can, please read Lydia’s blog post from last week.
This week, we’re looking at Orphaned and Vulnerable Children. This cause ties in with the following MDGs:
Universal Education – this goals aims to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger – aims to half the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day and halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and achieve full and productive employment for all, including women and young people.
Reduce Child Mortality – aims to reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
So why is this cause important? UNICEF says:
“Because reducing poverty starts with children. Helping children reach their full potential is also investing in the very progress of humanity. For it is in the crucial first years that interventions make the biggest difference in a child’s physical, intellectual and emotional development. And investing in children means achieving development goals faster, as children constitute a large percentage of the world’s poor.”
Our Orphaned and Vulnerable Children cause was established as important part of helping to break the cycle of poverty. By assisting such a vulnerable sector of society, we aim to give children the opportunities to allow them to create a brighter future for themselves and their family. This is integral to the Millennium Development Goals as six of the eight goals directly link to improving the wellbeing of the world’s most vulnerable children.
How does Eat So They Can help?
Eat So They Can believes in good education, health and nutrition for children. We support a number of projects around the world such as schools, orphanages and an IDP camp where our assistance directly benefits children.
Every year, we are able to provide orphanages with funds to go towards the general running costs of the centre. Orphanages are not always happy and supportive places for children to be, but we strive to make sure our partner orphanages are able to provide the best environment for the children who live there.
In addition to this, we support a few breakfast and lunch programs in Africa and South America. In Kenya, a porridge program was established in 2010 in an internally displaced persons camp. Every morning, the children of the camp are supplied with a meal of porridge to ensure every child is fed at least one nutritious meal a day. For some, this may be the only meal they receive for the day.
In Peru, the Lamay School in Sacred Heart Valley are able to provide breakfast to all 360 primary school students every day. This is something Eat So They Can is very proud to support as it ensures the children are happily fed and able to enjoy and participate in their education.
We’re also interested in sustainable change for children. In 2010, a goat farm was established at a school in Uganda. This means the school have a new source of income to support themselves from. A higher income means more benefits for the children enrolled there. We hope this will improve the school experience for the kids who attend this school.
How can you help?
If you would like to donate to the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children cause, click here or to learn more about the eight MDGs check this out.
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| Breakfast time at Lamay School! |
- Fiona and ESTC Team
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