A Nutritious Meal a Day Helps Keep This Family’s Worries Away
Meet Ismylove, a 15-year-old girl living in Tarasse, Haiti, with her mother and sister. Ismylove’s community has experienced a devastating drought, making it nearly impossible for many members of her community to feed and support their families. Coming from a single-parent household, this causes even greater difficulty for Ismylove’s mother when it comes to providing adequate food and nutrition for her two children.
Facing the effects of the drought, while living under the poverty line, Ismylove’s mother decided to switch her from her previous school, which didn’t provide meals, to the Institution Mixte Cherismond Delva. Her new school partners with Rise Against Hunger and Hearts and Hands for Haiti to provide daily nutritious meals for students through a school feeding program. Funds are also provided by this partnership for purchasing fresh produce and meats from local markets to add to the meals students receive.
Local Pastor and School Director, Cherismond Delva, is proud to serve his community by providing warm meals. He expresses how these meals alleviate some of the anxiety these young children face around nutrition and food due to the ongoing drought. Delva explains how he knows Ismylove’s mother tries her best to provide for her family, and with the help of these meals, obtaining nutritious food has become one less worry. Cherismond Delva wants to do even more for the community; he intends to contribute through services and projects, like building a well to provide water for the local gardens.
Since receiving meals, enrollment rates have skyrocketed at the school. Students, including Ismylove, look healthier, are able to focus on their studies more and have less worry about where their next meal is coming from. The parents express how thankful they are to have a school in their community that takes the opportunity to feed their students.
Rise Against Hunger, with the help of our impact partners, strives to provide everyone with access to a nutritious meal. Our work in educational settings provides nutritious meals to students, so they can receive what they came to school for — an education and an opportunity for a brighter future. That brighter future starts with a meal!
Join our movement today so that children like Ismylove, families just like hers and even entire communities like hers can continue on their journey out of hunger. Donate today!