JUBA, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday signed an agreement with South Sudan that will see it provide meals to more than 530,000 children in 1,100 schools across the ten states for a period of 19 months.
Adeyinka Badejo, WFP deputy country director for South Sudan, said the MoU signed with the Ministry of General Education and Instruction is aimed at increasing enrollment as well as encouraging parents to keep children in school.
"We will be focusing on schools which are in more vulnerable areas where the level of food insecurity is high and where participation in education is low and where nutrition rates are concerning," Badejo told journalists in Juba.
Kuyok Abol Kuyok, Undersecretary in the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, said that the project will enable them to provide school meals to over half a million children in school across the country.
"This program is one of the strategies we have to improve education in South Sudan and we are very grateful to the World Food Program and donors," said Kuyok.
The school feeding program was introduced in the then Southern Sudan in 2003 prior to independence from Sudan in 2011, with the aim of enhancing access to food. Enditem