School Nutrition Initiative - Update from the field

I've finally made it to Liberia, and visited the Carolyn A. Miller school (CAMES) in Paynesville, a suburb of Monrovia, yesterday. The school is tuition-free, and provides one of the only alternatives for vulnerable children whose families cannot afford to send them to school otherwise.CAMES offers education from kindergarten to 10th grade - some students in the higher grades are young adults who never had a chance to complete their primary education during the war.

When I arrived yesterday, the cooking team was finishing up food preparations - I was shown around the school, and introduced to the students as Sis Pen, the nickname that has stuck with me since my first time at the Buduburam refugee settlement, nearly three years ago. I had a chance to check out the cooking, storage and feeding areas and was particularly impressed with how clean the cooking team is keeping these spaces. The training they received from Elsie, our nutritionist, on sanitation and hygiene, was obviously well absorbed. I was also touched by how genuinely committed the cooking team is to their work, and their attention to detail. When a boy dropped his spoon when he took his bowl of food, the cook took it from the ground put it in the dirty pile, and gave him a clean one.

I'll be posting regular updates, but for now, you can view some photos and videos on Flickr