Gen.Education Minister Awut Achuil poses for picture with Canadian Officials/Photo by Charles Wote

The Canadian government has contributed over 4 million US dollars to support the school feeding programs in three states in South Sudan.

The 5.5 million Canadian dollars which is equivalent to $4.1 million  shall be implemented by World Food Programs in 79 schools in Bentiu, Unity State;  Kuajok in Warrap State and Rumbek in Lakes State.

Julius Egbeyemi, the Chargé d’ Affaires at the Canadian Embassy in South Sudan said the funding is part of his government’s support towards improving quality education in the country.

“Canada is very pleased to be able to support World Food Programs in South Sudan and Somalia with 11.2 million of which half of it, 5.5 million will contribute directly to the school feeding programs in South Sudan”, he said.

“This contribution is well aligned with Canada’s existing contribution of over 40 million in education programming to improve quality education and school attendance especially for girls,” he added.

For her part, the Minister of General Education and Instruction welcomed the support saying, it will help in the retention of children in school.

According to Awut Deng Achuil, a data from the 2021 education census indicated many schools under feeding program had good attendance.

“Therefore, if we want to address the problem of 2.8 million out of school children in South Sudan, We must provide feeding in schools to retain our children and especially those who are vulnerable.

School feeding program is a strategy designed to improve school attendance and enhance the production and purchases of food within the country.

The program was suspended in April, 2022 due to funding shortfalls where about 178,000 children were affected.

According to the Ministry of General Education and the children-agency, UNICEF,  there are about 2.8 million children out of school across South Sudan.