Improving Nutrition of Refugee Children in Uganda

Amref Health Africa in Uganda, with support from Amref Health Africa in Germany and funding from Sternstunden, has started a supplementary school feeding program for refugee children hosted in the Adjumani district of Uganda.

The project started following the high influx of refugees from South Sudan into Adjumani district which is currently hosting nearly 225,251 nationals and 215,312 refugees of whom 61% are children. Adjumani has 35 primary schools with an enrolment of 45,000 pupils whose age range is 6 to 17 years. The students attend three school terms a year consisting of 66 days per term. On average, each of the students has one meal in the morning, if at all, and doesn’t eat again until evening when they return home. Anecdotal data show that children experiencing hunger lose concentration in class or skip school altogether leading to poor learning and ultimately poor educational outcomes.

Amref Health Africa is responding through a supplementary school feeding program in Adjumani District to improve attendance, retention of children (6-17 years) in school and improve academic performance among refugee and host communities. The project is also aiming to improve food diversity at the community level, and to identify malnourished children at the household level and refer them to health services.

Through the project, Amref Health Africa is:
1) providing a hot meal to 12,000 students in 10 primary schools in Adjumani District;
2) building skills, and knowledge among community health workers;
3) conducting household screening for and referral of severely malnourished children for management;
4) promoting backyard gardening.

The project is being implemented in partnership with the Adjumani District local government health, agricultural and education departments, the district nutrition sector working group, UNHCR, OPM, 10 schools, and refugee and host communities.

The funding is provided by Sternstunden (https://www.sternstunden.de/ ) through Amref Health Africa in Germany.