Majengo Central Kitchen - Moshi, Tanzania

Tuesday 16th June 2009

A community in the village of Majengo in the Kilimanjaro region of Northern

Tanzania approached COCO to ask for assistance with feeding children at the local nursery schools, as many were travelling long distances to arrive at school with an empty stomach and a full day ahead of them without food. As a result of a field study, COCO is establishing a central kitchen at Majengo, which will provide food for six nursery schools located in the area. The establishment of this kitchen will help a total of 449 children from poor families to access a meal a day each year. A community survey showed that most of the children were from very poor families who could not afford to provide them with a meal before school. Some families could only afford to provide one small meal per day and this was given to the child in the evening, so that they did not go to bed hungry.

The main reason for the level of poverty in this area is largely because many of these children have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS and malaria and are living with primarily female extended family members such as aunties or grand mothers. Within these extended family networks, there are often children from other families as well, so there is more than the average number of mouths to feed. Many families choose not to send their children to school as they are perceived as being more use to them at home assisting with agricultural and domestic chores. However, the promise of a meal should encourage families to send their child to school, as it is one less mouth for them to feed. As education is not always valued by older generations, it is not regarded as a high priority, because of this, the kitchen is not only going to provide food but it is also going to facilitate the provision of education to these children.

The objective of the project is predominantly to improve the lives of nursery-aged children in Majengo through the provision of food at school. There are several outcomes that COCO will strive to achieve and use to measure the success of this project. These are…

- Increase the number of children attending school

in Majengo

-Improve the academic performance reached by

the children

-Reduce child labour in the area

-Improve the levels of nutrition in each child; all meals are served with vegetables and fruits.

-Enhance the learning capacity of the students

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