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JAM assists in reducing the 6 million
children dying of poor nutrition and actively contributes to
achieving the UN Millennium Development goals;
United Nations Childrens Fund recently reported that 5.6
million children die every year as a result of poor
nutrition. This is a number that is staggering for us to
understand. Can you imagine the impact on 6 million mothers
around the world who will loose a child this year, not
because they don’t care, or because they don’t love their
children the same way you and I love ours, but simply
because they have an inability to provide one of the most
basic needs ….. a balanced meal, once a day.
‘I have often said that if we want to truly be effective in
our daily work, we should be working at the things that keep
us awake at night. 5.6 million children dying, many of them
African children each year, is what keeps the staff at JAM
awake. This is why we, as an African organisation, made up
of people who love and care for our fellow Africans, have
committed ourselves to using every penny provided by our
donors to achieve maximum results and contribute to the
overall achievement of the United Nations Millennium
Development goals’ Isak Pretorius, JAM Executive Director
JAM continues to expand its nutritional feeding activities
in Africa with a strong focus on school feeding. These
programmes are directly contributing to 5 of the 8 Millennium
Development goals;
1)
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2) Achieve universal
primary education
3) Promote gender
equality and empower woman
4) Reduce child
mortality
5) Combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases
With support from donors around the world
and partnership programmes with the United Nations World Food Programme, JAM is currently implementing school feeding
programmes providing meals for more than 350 000 children in
4 African countries. The reason for basing these child
nutritional feeding programmes in the schools, is so that we
are not only eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and
reducing child mortality, but we are providing children with
an incentive and opportunity to receive primary education.
In certain areas we have seen an increase in female students
of 20 – 30%, thus empowering young woman in these
communities. JAM school feeding is not just about a meal a
day, it includes HIV/AIDS, nutrition and sanitation
education.
‘So we must start now. And we must more than double global
assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help
to achieve the goals (Millennium Development goals)’ Kofi A.
Annan UN Secretary General
This is a matter of urgency, which requires your action. We
as NGO’s, United Nations and donor governments around the
world, cannot achieve these goals without YOU. Mother Teresa
was once asked, ‘Is what you do for the poor not just a drop
in a bucket?’ She answered, ‘No, it is a drop in the ocean,
but if I do not do it, there will be one less drop.’ Your
contribution may seem like a drop in the ocean, in the ocean
of poverty, but that drop reflects the face and life of an
African child who deserves a second chance.
To feed and assist in the education of an African child
through the school feeding programmes of JAM
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