“Last year we had a lot of school dropout at the upper classes, but we are experiencing something different whereby many girls have joined the school from the nearby villages where there is no upper classes.”

Moses Choat
Head teacher at Akobo Boys Primary school

Nutritious food is essential not only for a child’s healthy growth, but for their academic performance as well. 

In Akobo East, school meals have significantly reduced school dropouts and is keeping the motivation to attend class very high among pupils. 

These meals enable children to continue their education and build a better future for themselves, their families, and communities.

Many children in Akobo East attend school on empty stomach facing hunger, fatigue and brain fog every day.  For many, a school meal is the only food they have each day.

Nyaduol Kier, a primary Eight Pupil at Akobo boys say school is much better these days because of the onsite meals provided to learners.

“Last year, I missed the school a lot because we sometime slept hungry at home. I walk for an hour to reach school and once there, I fail to concentrate. But now I’m so happy to be at school. This year I have never failed to come to school, except during the heatwave when schools were closed.” 

The 19-year-old mentioned that she wakes up very early in order to catch up with her lessons in time and there after enjoying her meal. "I wake up as early as 5am to start preparing myself for school. By 6.AM I’m already on my way. Once I arrive, I spend about 30mins to read because I don’t have a lamp to read at home. The school meals have given me so much motivation to always be at school on time. ,” she explained. 

Many young people have found going to school to be more fun now especially with the school feeding program where they get to enjoy nutritious meals after burning out a lot of calories while in class.

The Head teacher at Akobo Boys Primary school UN Moses Choat notes a significant increase in the number of pupils since the introduction of the school feeding program, especially the upper classes.

“Now the number of pupils in the whole school have greatly increased.  Before meals were introduced, we had a total of 1,199 pupils in the whole school but now we have 1,996” Moses explained.

Although the school is primarily for boys, many schools in the villages only go up to lower primary so now the school is allowing both boys and girls are enrolled at the same school.

“Last year we had a lot of school dropout at the upper classes, but we are experiencing something different whereby many girls have joined the school from the nearby villages where there is no upper classes. It is encouraging because the feeding program has contributed immensely to this increase” he added.

Oxfam with support from World Food Program is currently supporting the 23 school (15,000 school children) with feeding program.

Five of these schools are in Uror, 4 schools in Nyirol and 7 each in Akobo West and East. Children receive a daily hot meal which includes cereals, pulses, oil and salt throughout the school term. The strategic goal of this WFP funded school feeding project is to ensure improved enrolment, attendance, and address gender disparities of boys and girls in targeted schools in Jonglei state from February to December 2024.