L’ESPEME, a post-baccalaureate school of the EDHEC group, is a partner in this project and supports the actions of the CSES association, participating each year in the large friendly football tournament at the Palestre.
In nomadic areas, children’s school attendance is disrupted by external factors such as drought, which causes a food deficit for the populations and their livestock, as is the case this year in Niger.
The students are forced to leave school to follow their parents, who move around in search of pastures for the livestock and food for themselves. This disrupts the functioning of schools and leads to significant dropout rates.
Thus, this school canteen project addresses 3 of the 8 Millennium Goals: ensuring education for all, combating the scourge of malnutrition, and promoting gender equality between men and women.
Why these school canteens? To fight against hunger that deprives children of a normal education, to encourage children to go to school by promising them breakfast and lunch, to urge parents to send their children to school since they will have 2 meals, at least, per child per day, guaranteed.
A budget of one euro per day, for 2 meals provided by the school canteen, helps increase school attendance rates and combat child malnutrition.
Latest news from the small village of Bir Tiddeye: The canteen is operational! Two meals per day have been served to 30 enrolled children since classes resumed on January 15, 2014. The villagers and children received training in gardening, and the construction of the school vegetable garden is underway.
Future considerations include the construction, with permanent materials, of the dining hall, the second classroom, the dormitory, and the infirmary.
