An estimated 150,000 people in Yemen will receive assistance under a "Global Food for Education" program, a one-year project to be implemented by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency.
An estimated 150,000 people in Yemen will receive assistance under a “Global Food for Education” program, a one-year project to be implemented by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency.
The program uses commodities supplied by the United States Department of Agriculture, acting through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), to provide a two-fold benefit: expanding female students’ access to primary education in Yemen, and increasing household income for needy families.
In an agreement signed with ADRA International in early August, the CCC will supply 5,000 metric tons of soybean oil and wheat flour. This will be packaged into take-home rations for distribution to 30,000 female students attending grades one through nine in the Taiz governorate. The take-home rations will provide support to families while their daughters are attending school. Worth more than $2.1 million, the commodities are expected to arrive in Yemen by the end of 2002.
“The take-home rations will contribute immediately to the household income as well as give status to the girl who is enhancing the family’s well-being in a very substantive way,” says Amy Willsey, bureau chief for planning at ADRA International. “In the long-term, this program will significantly impact the community as girls are allowed to continue their education beyond the age of 12 or 13 when traditionally they have assumed the adult roles of marriage and a workload.”
In the Taiz governorate, females comprise only 39 percent of the school enrollment. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the World Food Programme, ADRA Yemen will select beneficiaries in areas with the greatest need in the Taiz governorate.