Untitled Document

FOOD FOR EDUCATION

Name: Dong and Mao

Aged: 9 and 7

Born: Cambodia

You smell the Stung Mean Chey dump on the outskirts of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, before you see it.

The air is thick with the stench of decomposing trash and the smoke from burning piles of waste. Over 400 metric tons of garbage - thrown away by Phnom Penh’'s one million residents - arrives here each day.

The ground feels soft and springy underfoot; one wrong step and what at first seems solid gives way, seeping a poisonous black liquid.

At the heart of this unnatural hillscape sit makeshift huts made of refuse and swarming with flies - the family homes of scavengers who live and work here.

Brothers Dong, aged 9, and Mao, 7, are among the
5,000 people in and around Stung Mean Chey for whom the dump represents both home and livelihood.

Each earns about 2,000 riels a day (US$0.50). "We work looking for plastic bottles and cans," says Dong. "We sell them to a Vietnamese recycling company."

To help kids from the dump get qualifications, non-governmental organisation For the Smile of a Child is running a school and training centre.

Some 831 children, all former scavengers, receive a WFP-supplied meal at the school while, in return, their parents receive additional food rations to compensate the loss of family earnings.

WFP's food for education or school feeding project means the scavengers of Stung Mean Chey will have a chance to see more of life than someone else's trash.

FOOD FOR EDUCATION

Press Pack

Global Hunger Factsheet

Washington Post Editorial

WFP IN CAMBODIA

Three decades of civil conflict have turned Cambodia into one of Asia's poorest nations.

Much of the infrastructure in the countryside has been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of hungry, poverty-stricken families rely on their children working to generate the income that pays for food. Many villagers have sent their children to the capital Phnom Penh to find jobs.

Today, 2.5 million Cambodian children work for their living. WFP school feeding projects offer the likes of Dong and Mao the chance to escape a working childhood.

Last year, almost 300,000 students in 565 primary schools - both in Cambodia's countryside and cities
- received a free breakfast of rice, canned fish and cooked vegetables in return for regularly attending class.

School feeding has also given the Ministry of Health a chance to eat into one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in Southeast Asia.

De-worming tablets are delivered to all students, teachers and cooks involved in the programme.

In addition to poverty and malnutrition, Cambodia's hunger is also a product of natural disasters. Every year, rural Cambodia suffers the twin curse of drought and floods.

In 116 villages, WFP is supporting disaster mitigation projects. Food aid frees farmers from the responsibility of providing for their familes, giving them time to build reservoirs and dams for irrigation.

"Water management is crucial to Cambodia's future. Through food aid we can give thousands of people in rural areas more command over their water supply," says Rebecca Hansen, WFP Country Director in Cambodia.

CAMBODIA COUNTRY BRIEF
For up-to-date information on WFP operations in Cambodia, useful contacts, facts & figures, history of food aid, click here

WFP FOOD FOR EDUCATION

Some 300 million poor children in the world today either do not attend school or do not receive a meal during the school day. Most are female

Yet research shows that basic education is the most effective investment to improve economies and create literate, self reliant and healthy societies
Providing nutritious food at school is a simple but effective way to improve literacy rates and help poor children break out of poverty

When school meals are offered, enrolment and attendance rates significantly increase. On a full stomach, a student’s ability to concentrate and learn is dramatically improved
For nearly 40 years, WFP has provided meals to schoolchildren in poor countries around the world. In 2001, the agency fed over 15 million children in 57 countries
In poor countries, where children are expected to work to add to the family income, school feeding often convinces parents to send their sons and daughters to class
WFP is one of the world leaders in promoting girls' education through its take-home rations programme

The agency gives a month's supply of food rations to the parents of girls who are enrolled in school and maintain a high attendance. In some cases, girls' enrolment can increase by 300 percent
In 2001, WFP launched an international effort to feed and educate millions of children the agency does not currently reach

The campaign's aim is to increase donor support and strengthen partnerships with others in the aid community