A Daily Meal Can Change the Future

“When I graduate, I will pay my cousins’ school fees.”

Pemphero – Rumphi District, Malawi

Pemphero wakes up at 5:30 every morning. She lights the fire, sweeps the yard, and makes her breakfast: black tea and a scone from the grocery.

Then she walks from the village in Malawi’s Rumphi District, where she was born, to Mhuju Community Secondary School. At 15, she’s in her first year of secondary school. Her favorite subject is biology, and she dreams of becoming a community nurse in a government hospital.

Her journey to this classroom began when she was three. Then, at the community childcare center in Mhuju, Pemphero and the other small children of the village received a bowl of nutrient-rich VitaMeal™ porridge from Feed the Children every day.

Her mother, Beatrice, has no doubt about what those meals did. “She has never repeated a class,” Beatrice says. “Her intelligence can be mainly attributed to the VitaMeal™ she received.”

Pemphero started primary school at six. But after few years, she nearly stopped.

“At first, I didn’t like going to school and attending classes,” she says. “I didn’t have writing materials and notebooks.”

Her father, Genabu, farms tobacco on a small plot and sells it at auction. In lean years, the family’s situation meant notebooks and pens were more than they could manage.

Then Feed the Children stepped in. “When Feed the Children started supporting me with school supplies and a backpack, I thought I could work hard in class,” she says.

And so she did. Pemphero passed her national examinations and graduated to secondary school. Her two older sisters attend boarding school now, so she’s the one at home. After classes, she helps her parents cure the tobacco, then helps her mother cook dinner: a traditional dish called nsima with stewed vegetables and bean stew. Before bed, her father helps with her homework.

During school holidays, Pemphero seeks out old friends from primary school who didn’t continue. She talks with them about returning to their studies.

Ask about her future, and her answer isn’t just concerned with herself.

“When I graduate from college, I will work hard to support my family,” she says. “I will also pay school fees for my younger cousins.”

Twelve years later, the girl who was fed porridge when she was three now plans to send others to school. That’s what providing food and essentials can do. A daily meal and a backpack full of school supplies can help a child grow, learn, and lift others up.

Every child deserves to grow and thrive this holiday season. Join our global movement, and let’s end holiday hunger for children everywhere.