A Twinkle in the Eyes for a Cup of Porridge

Wednesday, 8 May, 2019

My name is Amoko Joseph. I am 13yrs old and I am a pupil at Unna Primary School.

I am a refugee from South Sudan and my village back home was called Kerapi Village in Payaum District.

I came to Uganda during the war, three years ago. I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters.
My school is receiving one porridge meal every day. At school, we receive one porridge meal, every day.

This porridge is very nice and I can now stay in school without having to walk home every day to have a meal. Many times, before the feeding program started, I would get a meal only when my mother was able to get the food but most days I wasn’t even able to get food at home.

My mother passed away during the killings in my home land and my father married again. My stepmother tries her best to feed us but we are too many. We are now seven and have an extended family which includes my grandmother and my mother’s grandmother.

Today, because we receive porridge that we take during lunchtime, I am a happy boy and so are my brothers and sister who also study at Unna Primary School. I don’t have to stay hungry and because of this, my performance has improved.

At mealtime, we sit together as friends and enjoy our porridge. I have more friends now and children no longer fight a lot at school. They used to fight because they were hungry.

However, my elder sister is in another school that does not have this program. I wish Amref could provide more of this porridge to other schools that do not have it.