About Us

Our Mission

To provide a daily food supplement to a thousand vulnerable children in rural Zimbabwe.

Our Story

In March 2015, Lesley Lysaght accompanied the St Alberts Mission Hospital outreach workers as they visited schools in rural northern Zimbabwe. The district is classified food insecure. None of the students they met that morning had eaten before walking long distances to school. The children appeared weak and lethargic. It triggered a response, and a partnership, that continues to the present.

What We Do

With the assistance of the hospital outreach team and the school principals, a supplementary feeding program was started at two impoverished rural schools, Sable Heights and Clearmorning Primary. Lesley and her friends in Sydney raised funds to cover the purchase of a product called mahewu, delivered from outlets in Harare each term. Every morning the school staff and volunteers mix the dry product with water and serve a nutritionally fortified liquid porridge to the children.

The Kids

Children in the food insecure region of northern Zimbabwe are typically malnourished, lethargic, unable to concentrate, and pass rates are dismally low. Absenteeism is high because often students don’t have the physical strength to walk the many kilometres to school. Many are stunted as a result of poor nutrition. Up to 30% are likely to be AIDS orphans who don’t want to take their ARV meds which make them nauseous if they haven’t eaten.

Our Partners

St Alberts Mission Hospital is a small rural hospital near the northern border with Mozambique. The hospital outreach workers organise the purchase of the mahewu product in Harare and distribute it to the schools. There are currently 3 schools in the program: Sable Heights Primary, Clearmorning Primary and Nyadevi Primary. The hospital outreach team, led by Sr Melania Nyamukura, visits and checks on each school throughout the term.

Our Results

The program has been very successful.

• Teachers report that many children come to school just to get mahewu, and
  over a thousand children are now being fed every morning.
• School results have improved, absenteeism has reduced, enrolments have
  risen and the children are healthier, happier and more energetic.
• It has been reported that the incidence of child marriage has reduced.
• Over the past 8 years the program has supplied over 1.6 million servings of
  mahewu to these vulnerable children.

Donations from supporters in Australia and funds raised by the fundraising Team’s annual Trivia Night, have ensured the continuation of the program.