Illovo Sugar Plc invests K109m in adopting 4 primary schools in Chikwawa in partnership with Mary’s Meals

* Good health is vital for every child’s growth and development—MD Lekani Katandula

* It has been proven that there is a strong link between nutrition and academic performance

* There is a correlation between malnourished children and poor performance

* Children who lack nutrition also lack proper cognitive and social skills and are more susceptible to illnesses

By Duncan Mlanjira

Illovo Sugar Plc has committed a total of K109,925,400 in adopting 4 primary schools in Chikwawa District in partnership with Mary’s Meals school feeding program.

The schools are Chimbiya, Nambesa, Mwanza and Namicheni in Nchalo catering to 4,954 learners for a period of 12 months — which translates to 979,878 meals.

The partnership was sealed on Friday at Illovo’s head office in Limbe between Mary’s Meals’ Country Director, Angela Chipeta-Khonje and Managing Director Lekani Katandula.

Katandula emphasized that providing access to education and nutrition is essential if Illovo is to succeed in creating thriving communities — which is the slogan for its corporate social responsibility (CSR).

He said the promotion of healthy nutrition and education is precisely the same that the company has been providing when it invested over K8 billion in vitamin A fortification in sugar from 2014 to date — with a total of K915.226 million spent in 2022/23 financial year alone.

“These efforts are part of the businesses’ drive to reduce malnutrition, especially among children,” Katandula said. Additionally, we continue to provide support to schools that are located within our estates and surrounding communities in Nchalo and Dwangwa.

“These efforts include providing housing to teachers including provision of water, sanitation, and electricity. The business has spent K44 million in support of schools surrounding our Dwangwa operations this financial year.

“This support included renovation of a school block at Central Primary School and the construction of fence at Nkhunga Community Day Secondary School.”

He further said Illovo is also cognisant of the numerous global organisations — such as the UN, WHO, UNICEF, WFP and others — who have emphasised that nutrition and education are fundamental rights that should be accessible to all.

“Good health is vital for every child’s growth and development, and it has been proven that there is a strong link between nutrition and academic performance.

“Furthermore, there is a correlation between malnourished children and poor performance. Children who lack nutrition also lack proper cognitive and social skills and are more susceptible to illnesses.

“On the other hand, healthy and well-nourished children are more likely to attend school regularly, perform well academically, have high energy levels, and exhibit positive behaviour traits.”

He thus described Mary’s Meals programme as a noble initiative having be appraised that it feeds over 1.1 million children in over 1,000 schools across the country thereby meeting the children’s immediate needs for food.

He then appealed to other corporate companies as well as individual wellwishers to consider that supporting “this noble initiative that costs them around K22,100 per child per school year”.

“Mary’s Meals vision that every child receives one daily meal in their place of education — and that all those who have more than they need, share with those who lack even the most basic things — is aligned to Illovo’s belief that a business cannot thrive when its surrounding community is failing.

“Therefore, Illovo did not hesitate to respond positively when approached by Mary’s Meals with an appeal for assistance [because] this school feeding program, just like our own sugar fortification program, also seeks to improve the nutritional status of children — thereby increasing their chances of doing well in their schooling.

“The children who will benefit from this support will be able to attend school with the assurance of at least one nutritious meal a day thereby reducing dropout rates among children who cannot afford a meal at home.

Katandula stressed that malnourished children face many challenges and quoted Mary’s Meals’ slogan that says: “It is up to those who have more to share with those who lack”.

“The Mary’s Meals feeding program requires K22,100 to feed a child for a school year and we hope to inspire other companies and the public to get more involved in promoting education and nutrition in underprivileged communities.

“It is only when we work together that we can achieve sustainable positive change. We believe that a healthy and well-nourished population is essential for economic growth and sustainable development.”

He thus assured that Illovo is committed to ensuring that the future generations of the country’s society “have a chance to thrive and contribute positively to the wider community” and accentuated the appeal to more well-wishers to join the company “in this cause and help ensure that we achieve our purpose of creating a thriving community through the provision of affordable food and energy”.

“Promoting healthy nutrition and education among underprivileged members of our society is a step on this journey.”

In her vote of thanks, Chipeta-Khonje applauded Illovo for its positive response to the appeal for sponsorship, emphasizing that costs of nutritious porridge ingredients have gone up tremendously that has slowed them down since there are over 3 million children who need to be reached out across the country.

“Illovo has joined us in our objective of contributing towards the country’s human capital development through education,” she said. “The 5,000 learners that you will reach out to in Nchalo have been given hope for a better tomorrow and a brighter future.

“Be assured that Through Mary’s Meals school feeding program, enrolled has increased, school dropouts has decreased as every child looks forward to attending classes with enthusiasm having the assurance that they receive a nutritious porridge.”

Accompanied by members of her staff, she appraised the gathering of Illovo staff and journalists that being a global movement, Mary’s Meals is carrying out its services in 18 countries in its objective of ending hunger and helping towards human capital development through education.

“We feed over 2.4 million school children globally and Malawi being the largest program we are attending to over 1.1 million, a huge leap from the initial 200 when the initiative was rolled out in the country in 2002.”

Responding to her Managing Director’s appeal, Illovo’s Katandula’s appeal, Illovo’s Communications & Stakeholder Relations Manager, Olive Kawelama — who was director of ceremonies at the signing event — pledged to adopt a child’s feeding needs Through Mary’s Meals.

The international organization opened its operation in Malawi 21 years ago when its Founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow visited the country during a famine and met a child, who — when he had asked him what his dreams were in life — he replied that he wished he had enough food to eat in order to go to school.

The school feeding programme initially aimed at feeding around 200 children in two Malawian schools in 2002 and what is of note is that the charity had humble beginnings as a one-off good deed from a shed in the Highlands of Scotland that eventually led to a small school feeding programme in Malawi.

The Founder, MacFarlane-Barrow wrote a bestselling book about the programme entitled: ‘The Shed That Fed A Million Children’ — which was written after Mary’s Meals reached out to over one million children.

When schools closed because of the CoVID-19 pandemic, Mary’s Meals continued to reach out to almost every child enrolled in its school feeding programmes through community distributions of food parcels and essential hygiene items.

This was to ensure that its work wasn’t interrupted during this challenging time by enabling parents or guardians to cook daily meals for the children at home, in their temporary place of education and reduced household hunger and fear.