Wa-Teeka Free Lunch Program
When we started to recognize faces of children we knew in the trash looking for food, or at weddings waiting to scrape left overs off visitors plates, we knew we had to intervene somehow
We started off by serving 50 children a free lunch every school day. This year, the number has grown to 60. Our aim is to increase this number by 10 to 50 each year.
Another big update is, Wateeka shifted its base of operations. We moved the lunch program away from the school to our compound within the Grace Villa walls is for purposes of better monitoring and accountability.
The Grace Villa children had a lot of fun beautifying a temporary wooden structure, painting the outside of the new kitchenette from which the food will be served. I’m the mean time as we fundraised for s proper kitchen, we used firewood & 3 stones to cook, just like many of our grandparent’s did before us.
As lovely as it sounds, the reality is that firewood is expensive, smoky, slow cooking, environmentally unfriendly, and can be dangerous in regards to smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide poisoning, and danger from burns.
Contributors
We continue to be uplifted by the support that comes in to feed our children. Throughout the year, supporters created fundraising efforts over social media through which we received funding and food for Wateeka.
Supporters visit our home throughout the year bearing food. Still more opt to put sacks of posho, rice and other food marked for Grace Villa on buses. The local community too has embraced the lunch program.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Ms Joanita Bakeinaga, a clerk at Mpambara Cox Foundation who has given the home 5 liters of milk every single week day without fail for the last 3 years.
