African Children’s Aid Education, the leading children’s rights protection organisation, and Development Foundation (ACAEDF), a non-governmental organisation in collaboration with the Embassy of Denmark in Nigeria to promote project School Farm for School Meal (SF4SM).
Program SF4SM is designed to create a sustainable food self-sufficiency model across Nigerian schools. The maiden edition of the project implementation took place on the 25th of April 2022 with four government schools in Akwa Ibom, to provide 70 percent of the school’s feeding needs for the first six months of the school’s academic session.
Project School Farm for School Meal (SF4SM) fully funded by the Embassy of Denmark in Nigeria under its sustainable development goals (SDGs) facility being implemented and managed by ACAEDF, in Nigeria.
Through the support of the government of Akwa Ibom State, all the needed approvals and licensing needed to kick-start the program in the state got approval. In 2021, according to the Global Hunger Index report, Nigeria ranks 103rd out of the 116 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2021 GHI scores, with a score of 28.3.
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”Project SF4SM is an invaluable program not just for students in Nigeria but also for parents and all stakeholders in a child’s life. Although our intervention started with government schools in Akwa Ibom, it is also pertinent to state that we hope to expand the project to other states in Nigeria,” David Umem, founder and executive director of ACAEDF,stated while speaking on the transformative and growth-driven nature of project SF4SM.
According to him, the project will kick start by feeding 2,000 children daily for two months in Akwa Ibom. “We are immensely grateful for the unquantifiable support of the Embassy of Denmark in Nigeria; they saw the vision with us and proactively supported the project. We also thank the Akwa Ibom State government for providing a conducive environment for the project; the State afforded and still affords us their support to ensure seamless project implementation.
“We would kick start by feeding 1,500 – 2,000 children daily for 65 days, this is approximately 97,500 meals prepared and distributed to the target children. Also, within the stated period, we would introduce aquaculture practice in primary schools and host knowledge transfer seminars targeting about 500 pupils within the select schools.
The Training models would also include impactful skill training for 30 fish farmers in sustainable feed harnessing, 40 teachers in improved school gardening techniques, aquaculture practice using improved child participatory techniques and 30 school cooks trained on improving dietary diversity and innovative nutrition,” Umem stated.
Poul Jacob Erikstrup, sector counsellor on Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, said the Embassy of Denmark in Nigeria is thrilled to be part of the School Farm for School Meal (SF4SM) project in Nigeria. He said that the collaboration further reiterates the Danish embassy’s commitment to Nigeria as a nation and its people.
“The SF4SM project aims to address the pressing challenge of lack of access to food and proper nutrition amongst young children. We focused on schools as education through the existing schooling structure allows for learning opportunities for children and to also be able to have access to the children for our school feeding program,” Erikstrup stated.
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