Taita Taveta county has rolled out a full-year school feeding programme targeting the Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) learners.
The programme is among the interventions by the county’s education department to keep learners in school and boost enrolment in ECDE centres in the area.
Speaking while launching the initiative on Wednesday, Deputy Governor Christine Kilalo said, the Sh18 million programme will strengthen learning for children currently in PP1 and PP2 levels.
It targets to benefit more than 12,000 learners spread across 321 institutions in the four subcounties.
Kilalo said the programme is also set to address malnutrition among ECDE learners and promote school enrolment and attendance.
She said the county government will support the ECDE learning centres which play a key role in children’s early stages of education.
"Our government is committed to supporting our learning centres with the necessary resources and support required for early childhood development because this is a foundation towards building our future," she said.
The deputy governor said this is a move to eradicate diseases associated with starvation as it will cushion parents especially those from low-income households.
The feeding programme comes at a time when the region is slowly recovering from severe hunger as a result of a prolonged drought that had adversely affected food production.
Before the onset of El Nino rains in October last year, the region had recorded more than seven consecutive failed rain seasons, consequently rendering over 170,000 resident food insecure.
Starvation has been linked to the growing cases of malnutrition among children and school drop out in the area.
Data from the health department shows that more than 23 per cent of children under five years in the county are malnourished and with stunted growth.
It is attributed to poor dietary diversity, poor child feeding practices and reduced food intake at household level.
