Medical Crisis Threatens to End Children’s Education
“One of the best things to happen to me and my family is the SHI school feeding program. There is nothing more assuring for a parent than to wake up and never have to worry about what your children would eat before going to school.” – Iddrisu
Iddrisu is a proud husband to Sawdatu and father to their five children. He worked very hard to provide for his family. He started off as a cab driver driving someone else’s vehicle, and little by little, he saved up enough money to buy his own personal cab. As he earned more from his own cab, he even started a second business selling recharge cards in his rural community of Timeabu. He was able to provide for his wife and children. He had big dreams that his children would finish school and become responsible adults. Life was good.
But one fateful day, something terrible happened and he lost everything. Iddrisu was in a motor accident and because he had no health insurance, he had to sell all of his property to cover his medical bills – including his cab, his family’s primary means of income. The family was left to rely on their one acre farm for both food and income. Feeding all seven family members became very difficult.
In cases such as Iddrisu’s, it is quite common to pull children out of school to help on the farm, particularly older children, as Iddrisu couldn’t engage in vigorous farm activities and also lacked the financial resources to hire the needed manpower. This is where Self-Help stepped in.
Self-help’s feeding program provides breakfasts to schools like the one Iddrisu’s children attend. Luckily, because of the school breakfasts, Iddrisu and Sawdatu have been able to keep all five children in school after the accident, instead of pulling them out to help work to provide enough food to go around. The boys do help on the family farm, but only during weekends and holidays so they don’t fall behind in school.
Your support of Self-Help’s school feeding program has helped Iddrisu and Sawdatu’s children stay in school and better nourished during this tumultuous time. According to Iddrisu, “One of the best things to happen to me and my family is the SHI school feeding program. There is nothing more assuring for a parent than to wake up and never have to worry about what your children would eat before going to school.”
To help make ends meet, Sawudatu has been linked to Self-Help’s micro-credit program, so she can access training and micro-loans to start a trading business. As a micro-credit beneficiary, she will be able to access Ghana’s national health insurance to protect the family against future major medical bills.
Thank you for your generous gift to end child hunger, which is helping families like Iddrisu and Sawdatu’s help themselves.
