Food for Education

Introducing TPRF guest blogger, eighth-grader Subina Tamang from Nepal:

TPRF’s model Food for People program has transformed the lives of children living in impoverished villages in India and Nepal. Subina Tamang is one of them. Ms. Tamang lives near the FFP center established in 2009 in the mountainous Dhading District of Nepal and attends Adarsha Secondary School. Below is her first blog post, a letter of thanks for FFP, with a promise of more to come.

Since our country and society are poor, our school is obviously poor.

We have a tradition of giving birth to too many children in our villages. When parents give birth to children, they should give them the education and skills. But due to ignorance, they gave birth to too many children like us and could not give education to us, could not manage to take proper care of us. When we went to school, they could not prepare the food in time to feed us. We had to go to school without food. We used to go to school just to play and then come back. Teachers used to tell us to study well, but sometimes we had enough food and other times not. We had a lot of trouble.

It took me three years to pass the exam at the end of grade one. Then I realized that I should study. My older brothers stepped up to higher classes, but I remained in lower ones. I would also have gone to higher classes if I had had the chance to study regularly.

Now I am in grade eight, and I am able to study because you (Premsagar Foundation and TPRF) have helped us. In such a remote place, the Foundation’s FFP has been established. Prem Rawat could have established it elsewhere, but it was established here in this village, and it has proved to be good luck for us. I am proud of it. We have chance to come and take food in such a beautiful and clean place. This has been like home for us. After eating here, we can go to school and acquire education.