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A Diverse Diet Helps Ematokisoa Focus on His Schoolwork

on  July 26, 2023

In a small village in Ampanihy, Madagascar, 10-year-old Ematokisoa lives in a drought-prone area that causes severe food insecurity challenges. Ematokisoa attends the 8th grade at a local school, which is one of the 103 schools in the Ampanihy district that participates in ADRA Madagascar’s school feeding initiative supported by Rise Against Hunger. Across the 103 schools, 18,000 students receive nutritious meals, consisting of rice, beans, onions, salt and oil. Rise Against Hunger supports the initiative by providing cash grants to ADRA Madagascar for the local and regional procurement of nutritious food that is then distributed to the students at the participating school.Many of the children at the schools, including Ematokisoa, previously did not have enough nutritious food to make it through the school day and would have trouble concentrating on their schoolwork. Ndiene, the school cook, shares that the school meals help the children focus. For Ematokisoa, the nourishing school meal is his one complete meal per day where he feels full, eats a diverse diet and continues studying. Njarasoa, a meal assistant working with the school, adds that the project has been very beneficial for the entire district. The 103 schools have all benefited from the “education, wash, nutrition and agricultural components.” She said, “Parents of the students are very active in supporting the students. They try to contribute to the school feeding program despite their limited resources.  For example, during the tomato and watercress harvests, the parents donated part of the harvest to the school.”Ematokisoa soon hopes to pass his Certificate of Elementary Primary Studies exam, the official exam that will enable him to begin secondary school. The school meals, helping to keep him feeling full and focused throughout the day, support his educational dreams.It starts with a meal, and it starts with you. You – Hunger Champions – have made this impact possible alongside Rise Against Hunger. We invite you to help even more children like Ematokisoa by growing the movement to end hunger with a $25 gift in honor of our 25th anniversary. Give now to change a child’s future today! 

About the Author

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.