Some 10,000 vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugee children received the schools meals in March, the UN World Food Programme announced, allowing them energy to focus more on their studies.
“By providing children with daily, nutritious meals at school, WFP can ensure improved nutritional intake for these children as well as encouraging their parents to send them to school regularly,” said WFP Lebanon Country Director Dominik Heinrich.
He added that “education is vital to equip the youth of Lebanon and Syria with the tools they will need to contribute to a region that is going through such turmoil and difficulty.”
Over the past five years, more than one million Syrian refugees have attended Lebanon’s public schools. In response, more than 250 public schools have introduced a double shirt system, to allow the enrolment of additional students.
The WFP school meals programme is funded by the Italian Development Cooperation, and is being carried out in close coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
In addition, WFP assists 600,000 Syrian refugees across Lebanon with monthly food vouchers useable at local markets.
Photo: WFP/Dina El Kassaby
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
