THE BATTLE AGAINST CHILD MALNUTRITION IN SCHOOLS

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Women and Child Affairs Ministry estimates malnutrition rate could be well over 20% amidst the worst economic crisis.  It has been revealed that 127,000 of 570,000 kids below five years are malnourished as of mid-2021.  Meanwhile, the increase to 12% in the poverty level implies more complexities in the future. Over 26,000 children bellow 18 years reach out for assistance. Under this situation, we did our pilot study at a local school in Athurugiriya, Sri Lanka.  We spoke to the Principal and teachers to identify the students that don’t have food to consume during the interval.   It came to our awareness that countless had been food deprived for 10-15 hours and that numerous students had no promise of when their next meal would be.  After considering our budget, we decided to provide nutritious meals to 6 students as a starter until we get the opportunity to raise funds externally.   When the responsible body of the school got back to us with the student information, we found out that the number had multiplied up to 22 students that were missing out on meals. The expenses were beyond our reach thus subjecting us to pause the project back then. However, we have decided to resume the project by raising funds and awareness. We often asked ourselves whether the children would be too shy to accept a meal.  After our research, it became more apparent to us that numerous children are desperate that they counter their shyness.