As part of their fervent desire to support and encourage children to have interest in going to school, Tamarap International Company Limited and Perceval and Knights Foundation, have, in partnership with the Plateau State Government, flagged off a mop up school feeding programme in two primary schools.
The programme tagged: “Keep The Kids In School Project” was mainly to revisit selected Non-Benefiting Public Schools from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) in the state to ensure zero tolerance to out-of-school challenges facing Nigerian children.
The flag off ceremony took place at LEA Primary School, Zot-Badin in Jos-South Local Government Area, the host school for the two recently benefiting schools, where stakeholders from both government and traditional sides graced the occasion recently.
Delivering his opening address, the Chief Operating Officer of Tamarap International Company Limited and the Coordinator of Keep The Kids In School Project, Andrew Otuhweroro, said the essence of the event was to let the people know that it was a project they envisaged to bring the children on the streets to keep them in schools to be better people in the society.
“We understand that most of the children that complain about health issues and are out of school are actually malnourished. So, we look at our Tom Brown Plus which is 100% whole grains product as useful in fighting undernourishment and one of things we want to do is to disseminate it, for other people to key in because it does not pay much to do it.
“So, we are in this aggressive campaign seeking for grants from non-government organisations (NGOs), international organisations, support from spirited individuals, government and well wishers to sustain this project in some of the schools that were not captured by the Federal Government’s NHGSFP across the state”, he appealed.
Otuhweroro disclosed the importance of the programme embarked upon by them to include creating job opportunities, promoting health of the children in schools, helping parents in reducing the cost of living and also encouraging children who were out of school to come back and be better people in future.
Flagging off the project, the Plateau State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, who was represented by Nanret Dimlong, commended Tamarap International and Perceval and Knights Foundation for taking it upon themselves to embark on this project and pledged the ministry’s readiness to key into the programme which has been government’s focus.
SUNDAY STANDARD reports that, LEA Primary School Zot-Badin of Jos-South LGA and LEA Primary School Kunyi Katse 1 of Jos-North LGA were part of the many public schools that were not captured by the Federal Government School Feeding Programme, hence the bold step taken by Tamarap International to complement the efforts by reaching them.
It was also discovered that apart from the feeding of these pupils with Tom Brown Plus Product as its First Phase Intervention, Tamarap International was into providing the schools with uniforms and school bags as its Second Phase Intervention.
There were words of commendations from stakeholders and community leaders who graced the occasion, amongst whom included: the State Acting Focal Person of the Federal Government Social Investment Programme, Aliyu Baba; Ward Head of Zot-Badin, Da Gyang Joshua; the representative of SUBEB, Ashom Eliya; Education Secretary of Jos-North, Ajiji Azi and that of Jos-South LGA, John M. Badung respectively.
Meanwhile, while the National Programme Manager of Home Grown Feeding Programme, Mrs. Rita Tajan Moltok, was leading the dignitaries to officially flag off the Keep The Kids In Schools Project, the Transition Committee Chairman of Jos-South LGA, Hon. Peter Dung Vwang, who was represented by Hon. Choji Abraham, promised to immediately construct toilet facilities in the school.
