“Things will be different for Skeva”

Skeva is a pupil at Chimulambe Primary School in Zambia. At just 7 years old, Skeva is enjoying school and the food that he eats there every school day. He loves to play football with his friends once his classes are over.

His mother, Theresa, explains that they don’t have enough to eat at home.

She says: “Sometimes I cannot provide the children with enough to eat. It pains me.”

She and her husband, who live with Skeva and his sister in a mud hut a short distance from the school, are subsistence farmers and they only grow enough for their own family. When the harvest is poor, it is a struggle to feed the family.

Theresa says: “The rainfall has been changing and it’s affecting my family. I fear for the future.”

Theresa has three other children, who live in Chipata with their grandmother. She explains that it was too much pressure on her and her husband to feed all their children from their small patch of land.

She says: “I wish I had been educated. I could have been a nurse or a teacher. Life would be better than the way I am living now.”

For Theresa, it makes a huge difference to know that Skeva will be fed each school day, and that he’s growing well and making the most of his education.

She says: “The children are more healthy since eating porridge. Many were malnourished before, but now they are more active. Now they can even take part in sports.”

Neither Theresa nor her husband can read or write, but they are determined that things will be different for Skeva. Theresa says: “I hope to see my children educated and to work as teachers or nurses.”