Tharparkar is one of the most malnourished and poorest regions in the world. Most of the region is desert land, with the majority of inhabitants depending on seasonal rainfall. 50 percent of children below 5 years old are stunted and 19 percent are severely malnourished. The region’s intense food insecurity stems from lack of investment in the infrastructure and population coupled with the flood that hit Sindh especially hard.
Our programme in the Thar Desert provides 14 schools with daily school meals. That’s 1700 students who’ll receive over 400,000 hot school meals by the end of 2020.
Because of the drought, families were in constant migration in search of food. For the minority that could afford to send their children to school, moving meant children never had the chance to complete their studies.
Now that we guarantee schoolchildren a daily meal, families can settle in one place, and parents encourage their children to attend school.
On our trip we will be visiting schoolchildren in Thar. We’ll also be visiting the Charity Right School Feeding programme in Karachi.