Reclaiming a child’s potential

It’s hard to imagine growing up like Billy. Every morning, his mother, Dieulene, watches him proudly as he sets off down the dirt road towards school. Nowadays, Billy is known to his teachers for his love of learning and to his friends for the creative ways he makes the whole class laugh. But just a few years ago, his potential for a bright future looked like it may be lost forever. Every day as the morning sun rises and as calls of birds fill the air, Dieulene takes some time to remember just how far they have come.

Haiti’s turmoil: a context for transformation

A few years ago, Billy was a happy-go-lucky kid. Then, one day, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. His parents rushed him to the doctor. Before they had time to think, they suddenly had to find money to pay for two emergency surgeries. Billy rapidly lost a lot of weight and Dieulene, already stretched to capacity, struggled to make ends meet. Then, tragedy struck, when Billy’s father passed away. Dieulene no longer had any certainty that she could put food on the table. Like all children, Billy needed food to be able to focus on his studies, but in the context of his own health struggles, he desperately needed good nutrition.

Throughout that difficult time, Mary’s Meals continued to provide daily meals to all students at Billy’s school. According to Dieulene, our program has been the key to his health and her peace of mind. She says: “Instead of spending the whole day not eating, he knew that he would get a meal at school.”

Having a supply of food at school when there was no other support has been so important to Dieulene, and she does not think she’s alone, saying: “Having daily meals at Cholete [his primary school] has helped motivate the community to make sure all kids are in school.”

Billy has a simple explanation for the difference a daily meal makes. He says: “It keeps me from being hungry. And it is much easier to follow the teacher and be active in class.”

Today, Billy is healthy and at the top of his class. He is defying the odds that face so many of his peers – shockingly, 60% of students in Haiti will abandon school before 6th grade, just 1% reach university. The fact that Billy has overcome his health challenges and become a consistent student with a love of learning shows the significant impact that simple plate of Mary’s Meals can have. With your support, Mary’s Meals has helped Billy to navigate this crucial period of his life and start to steer his future in a positive direction.

Experiencing extreme poverty and instability, without any support, it would be easy for a child’s future to fall onto a perilous path. A colleague from Summits Education, one of the partners that helps to deliver our school feeding program in Haiti, explains:

“The situation in Haiti is deteriorating rapidly with increasing violence and insecurity. But by keeping students in school and learning during these challenging times, students and their communities will reap the positive impact education has on mitigating violence, paving the way for a peaceful future in the Central Plateau and Haiti.”

Engineering change for children in India

In India, Pankaj faced a dilemma back in 2008. Like Billy, he knew that his future was on the line. He was trying his best to study, but his parents lacked the income to offer a full meal every day for him and his four siblings. He was beginning to wonder if he might be better dropping out of school to work and earn money for the family. However, the provision of Mary’s Meals kept him and his siblings fed and crucially, in education.

Today, Pankaj is 23 years old and is working as a mechanical engineer. Just like Billy, Mary’s Meals arrived at a critical juncture in Pankaj’s school career. He says: “After Mary’s Meals, life and studies both became easier for me. It was like a silver lining.”

With regular school meals Pankaj was able to concentrate and participate, and the food – combined with his own hard work and dedication – started a domino effect of positive outcomes. By the time his tenth-grade exams came along, he excelled. When he was finished school, he won admission to an engineering college. After performing well in college, he was recruited by a steel manufacturer in Maharashtra immediately after graduation. He has just completed his first six months in the job.

Pankaj suspects he is an inspiration for his siblings, who are also receiving Mary’s Meals, yet he remains incredibly humble. He says: “I got help from a lot of people to become an engineer, as well as in getting a job so soon after my studies. In the future, I too want to help people get their education. At present I don’t know how to support the needy, but once I became financially stable, I will find a way.”

Pankaj’s story is a great example of the positive ripple effects from our program. Through the simple provision of school meals, Pankaj was able to gain an education, which is having an impact on his entire family. Pankaj’s mother and father always encouraged their children to study hard, but the burden of food insecurity was often too great for them to provide the meals their children needed. Thanks to consistent school feeding, Pankaj has had a chance to realise his potential and now has great hope for the future.

Investing in futures and unlocking potential

The ending is not yet written for the children we serve or those still waiting and – in the context of great need across the countries where we work – our school feeding program is more crucial than ever before. With your support, we are helping children experiencing poverty and hunger to change the trajectories of their lives – right now, and for years to come.

Pankaj’s story helps to show the generational change that can be created when we help individuals to overcome daily struggles and support them to discover their strengths and realize their potential.