"Most of our students are from very poor homes... We have a lot of single parents and grandmothers who raise children because the mother or father has died or gone away to look for work.

“Some parents aren’t able to feed their children properly so at school we try our best to provide for our students at lunchtime and sometimes they even take their lunch home for younger siblings as there is no food where they live. Children are inevitably affected by these problems but when they are at school we support them to forget their worries.

Growing brighter futures

“These families need to be assisted in many ways and one way is through income generating projects like Farm Africa’s school gardening one. Farm Africa has built a greenhouse and shown us how to run it. They have also taught us how to set up and look after beehives, such as by planting flowers that will provide nectar for the bees, so we can produce honey to sell.

“We are now growing a wide range of things, including spinach, cabbage tomatoes, sweet potatoes, maize and beans, which the children can eat for lunch. The school gardening project is also helping families in our community financially by generating income. Students, teachers and parents can all come here to be trained for free, learning new skills about growing produce which they can then put into practise in their own home.”

Make a donation today and you could support our work with schools like Rehael's, helping young people to learn vital farming skills and grow up healthy and strong.