About 174 children from Gava village in the Mpungu constituency in the Kavango West region are being provided with meals three times a week at the Gava drought response soup kitchen centre.
The regional coordinator for Catholic AIDS Action, Kakuru Servantius, says the soup kitchen programme was started in March by Catholic AIDS Action in collaboration with the UN World Food Programme.
It caters for children from six months to nine years who are vulnerable or struggle with malnutrition.
“Imagine if the child comes from school at 13h00 or later, goes home and there is no food, how will one feel? But passing by the soup kitchen at least they get something to eat even though sometimes it’s not enough,” Servantius says.
Servantius adds that there are some children who are not registered but they are part of the community and also vulnerable, and are thus catered for.
“There is no way we could send those unregistered children away, so we find ourselves having a shortage of food before the end of the month when we expect to receive food supplies again.”
He says the demand is high to do more for the children.
“We also encounter challenges of children who sometimes do not turn up for two to three days, so we find it difficult to track them to see why they did not show up because the parents don’t bother to come and report why the child did not come to eat,” he notes.
Servantius appeals to the government to support such programmes so that the children continue or start eating five days a week.
Fatima Mununga (29) a community member of Gava whose two children benefit from the project told her story.
“I have four children and two are registered with the soup kitchen,” she says.
Mununga says she survives by working on people’s fields in exchange for food.
“The soup kitchen has taken a huge responsibility off me with my two small children. My baby of 18 months was diagnosed as malnourished in 2024 and the other one is in Grade 2,” she says.
“After school my child goes straight for a meal at the centre before going home, which I am grateful for, at least she will have a meal within the course of the day and I don’t have to worry much,” she notes.
Mununga says her daily struggle is to find a job for a steady income to put food on the table for her family.
They do receive drought relief food, however, this is too little for the family of nine in the house.
“I am thankful for all support, especially from the kitchen that feeds our children healthy foods that help them overcome
malnutrition,” says the mother.
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