UN-Supported Programme Helps Orphans in Fight Against Hunger And AIDS/ (seeds?)

[Guest guest]

Africa: UN-Supported Programme Helps Orphans in Fight Against Hunger And AIDS19 January 2009A United Nations-backed scheme aimed at reducing hunger and the spreadof HIV/AIDS among young people in Kenya has brought hope to childrenfrom the ancestral homeland of United States President-Elect BarackObama.Nyanza Province, home to Mr. Obama's father, has the highest HIVprevalence in Kenya with about one in six people living with the fataldisease, leaving a legacy of thousands of orphans struggling for foodand to stay in school.In 2004, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) set up a pilotprogramme in four schools in the Bondo district of Nyanza, animpoverished province on the shores of Lake , to combat the lackof farming skills and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.Research that suggested parents across Africa have been dying of AIDSbefore passing on their agricultural know-how to the next generationinformed the FAO pilot scheme, called Junior Farmer Field and LifeSchool.Based on a "living classroom" method, students plant fruit and vegetablegardens in a corner of their schoolyard and break into groups threetimes a week to tend to the garden and monitor progress.The FAO scheme helps students gain confidence as well as crucialagricultural skills as they form and defend their own opinions about howto deal with pests or disease, for example, in open debate with theirpeers."There are so many things that have impressed me about the school," said Adhiambo Aloo, 16, who lost her mother when she was a baby, herfather in 2000 and her sister recently."I can make my own small garden. I know about drought-resistant cropslike millet, cassava and sorghum," added Ms. Aloo, who is now cared forby her aunt. "I think I'll be able to farm. My aunt is old but the landis there that I can use."Thanks to the new educational approach, she is also able to explain whatthe acronym AIDS stands for, how the disease is transmitted and how toprotect herself.Impressed by the results of the pilot, over 20 other schools in thedistrict have taken up the teaching method, but their gardens are lessproductive than those in the older established schemes, which arelocated near water sources."We started by ourselves because we were desperate. We're not assistedbut we hope for assistance," said Odero Walter, principal of a primaryschool where more than half of the student body are orphans. "We wantour children to get knowledge so they'll continue being farmers. Wedon't want them to beg."FAO's Junior Farmer Field and Life School approach now operates in 12African countries with more countries starting schools this year. Over17,000 orphans and other vulnerable children have graduated from theschools.

[Guest guest]

Africa: UN-Supported Programme Helps Orphans in Fight Against Hunger And AIDS19 January 2009A United Nations-backed scheme aimed at reducing hunger and the spreadof HIV/AIDS among young people in Kenya has brought hope to childrenfrom the ancestral homeland of United States President-Elect BarackObama.Nyanza Province, home to Mr. Obama's father, has the highest HIVprevalence in Kenya with about one in six people living with the fataldisease, leaving a legacy of thousands of orphans struggling for foodand to stay in school.In 2004, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) set up a pilotprogramme in four schools in the Bondo district of Nyanza, animpoverished province on the shores of Lake , to combat the lackof farming skills and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.Research that suggested parents across Africa have been dying of AIDSbefore passing on their agricultural know-how to the next generationinformed the FAO pilot scheme, called Junior Farmer Field and LifeSchool.Based on a "living classroom" method, students plant fruit and vegetablegardens in a corner of their schoolyard and break into groups threetimes a week to tend to the garden and monitor progress.The FAO scheme helps students gain confidence as well as crucialagricultural skills as they form and defend their own opinions about howto deal with pests or disease, for example, in open debate with theirpeers."There are so many things that have impressed me about the school," said Adhiambo Aloo, 16, who lost her mother when she was a baby, herfather in 2000 and her sister recently."I can make my own small garden. I know about drought-resistant cropslike millet, cassava and sorghum," added Ms. Aloo, who is now cared forby her aunt. "I think I'll be able to farm. My aunt is old but the landis there that I can use."Thanks to the new educational approach, she is also able to explain whatthe acronym AIDS stands for, how the disease is transmitted and how toprotect herself.Impressed by the results of the pilot, over 20 other schools in thedistrict have taken up the teaching method, but their gardens are lessproductive than those in the older established schemes, which arelocated near water sources."We started by ourselves because we were desperate. We're not assistedbut we hope for assistance," said Odero Walter, principal of a primaryschool where more than half of the student body are orphans. "We wantour children to get knowledge so they'll continue being farmers. Wedon't want them to beg."FAO's Junior Farmer Field and Life School approach now operates in 12African countries with more countries starting schools this year. Over17,000 orphans and other vulnerable children have graduated from theschools.