The economic crisis has brought home many harsh truths. The harshest truth is just how many Sri Lankans struggle to feed themselves and their families, not just in terms of three square meals a day, but in terms of feeding themselves at all.
However, with harsh truths also come silver linings and one silver lining that has helped countless people through these tough times is the Lankan generosity of spirit and commitment to helping those in need whenever possible.
This week, The Sunday Morning Brunch sat down with Michael David and Dinesh Gardiarachchige, two remarkable individuals who, since the onset of the economic crisis, have been working to fight malnutrition in children through their Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) – the Affinity Foundation.
David and Gardiarachchige started their journey to what would eventually become the Affinity Foundation by working with other charity organisations to set up and conduct community kitchens islandwide over the past year in response to the economic crisis, with people unable to afford basic nutrition due to the increasing costs of goods and services.
Apart from that, the pair also set out with a group of friends into tight-knit communities such as Roxy Gardens, Sedawatta, etc. to showcase the benefits of resource sharing through a community kitchen concept road show. In this manner, they helped provide over 20,000 meals across 10 such locations.
The decision to form the Affinity Foundation came from a desire to make a stronger impact in the long term. “We realised the economic crisis will take a minimum of five to 10 years to recover from,” David explained, noting: “If we formalise, we are able to reach out to people abroad, other NGOs, and charities and multiply our reach.”
The rising epidemic of child malnutrition
Sri Lanka’s school systems have seen untold stress over the last few years. The pandemic completely disrupted how the school system works and though we have the distinction of saying we were able to take education online through various channels, (Zoom learning, educational TV channels, and so on), the fact remains that there is a huge percentage of our population (and their children) who does not have access to technology. The result is a growing gap in skills among our younger generation on an educational level.
That aside, our economic crisis has further compounded the problem of our disadvantaged being able to send their children to school. In addition to the high cost of stationery and other goods (already an often prohibitive factor to sending kids to school), the food shortage and economic crisis has seen more children unable to go to school.
In a bid to encourage children to return to the classroom, the Affinity Foundation started providing meals in schools, which saw an increase in school attendance and classroom participation and higher test scores. As of December 2022, Affinity has concluded meals programmes in 10 schools across the island, providing over 30,000 meals. Moreover, nearly 8,000 meals have been provided from January to date.
“Currently, people are saying we need a change and yes, policies and bureaucracies need to change. But promptly, we can only do so much change. As a whole, it takes time,” Gardiarachchige shared. “Through formalising the Affinity Foundation, we’re becoming more transparent and doing things in a much more systematic way. This is more of a long-term plan. We look at children’s growth.”
Child malnutrition in Sri Lanka occurs in many stages – from pregnancy to the first 1,000 days, one to five years (kindergarten/preschool), and primary and secondary education. However, the stage where malnutrition has the biggest long-term impact on the course of a child’s life are those formative primary school years (from ages five to 10). This is where the highest growth rate takes place and the need for nutrients rises. This is the age range that Affinity focuses on supporting.
“The five to 10 year age range is where a lot of spontaneous growth happens, so providing proper nutrition here has the biggest impact,” David explained, adding that working within the school system was doubly important to Affinity because of all the other risks children faced when they were not in school at that age.
“If the child is not attending school, there are lots of other factors that come in, such as being exposed to exploitation, domestic and sexual abuse, grooming, and neglect. Society seems to mould them into troubled individuals and they are highly impressionable at that age.”
How Affinity steps in
By getting these children back into school, Affinity Foundation not only has the chance to provide them with basic nutrition, but children are also able to receive their basic education as well as be in a safer environment.
Working hand in hand with the zonal education office and the divisional education director, Affinity Foundation is able to identify the schools most in need of assistance. Through this network, Affinity visits the school and meets with the principal and teaching staff as they play the most important role in ensuring the children receive a nutritious meal.
A parent from the student body is selected to cook the meals (preference given to single or low-income parents), for which Affinity Foundation provides a reasonable remuneration not exceeding Rs. 1,500. A separate budget of Rs. 150 per meal is allocated per child, based on which a five-day menu, which provides variety as well as a highly nutritious diet utilising locally-available produce, is then provided for the children.
To ensure that the meals provided have the desired effect, Affinity has adopted a three-pronged approach to child nutrition to ensure the available donor funds and resources are best utilised.
This approach looks at children’s growth (a three-month concentrated high protein meal programme that monitors student BMI at the onset, mid-way, and end, enabling everyone to monitor the child’s physical growth), education (Affinity monitors children’s test scores and if the nutrition the meal provides is sufficient to give the child the necessary energy to be an active participant in the classroom,ensuring mental growth), and attendance, in order to encourage children who have dropped out to return to school and monitor student attendance.
Affinity’s efforts to stave off child malnutrition while boosting children staying in school is a strategy David and Gardiarachchige hope will lay the groundwork for stronger Sri Lankan youth. Apart from breaking the generational curse of malnutrition that contributes to childhood wasting, stunted growth, impaired cognitive abilities, and a society dependent on medicines, providing a meal in schools in these formative years encourages parents to send their children to school.
“Malnutrition is a silent devil that will come back in 20 years to haunt us with people dependent on the health system and unable to work,” David said.
The next steps
Affinity is currently placing its full focus on empowering young school children through its meal programme. Now as a formal foundation, Affinity is funded entirely by private donations (unlike conventional charity organisations, 100% of the funds raised by Affinity are donations), which are utilised to help those in need.
“We would love for corporates and even other entities that have funding available to join us or partner with us. The demand is high. We’ve personally been told of another 10 schools in great need of programmes like the one Affinity can offer,” David said, noting that the Government’s similar support of meals in schools was out of date, not just in the Rs. 85 allowance per meal provided, but also in terms of the list of schools supported by the programme not having been reviewed or updated in approximately 15 years: “From a rural standpoint especially, we can definitely see the need is growing.”
Learn more about Affinity Foundation or get involved with its efforts:
Instagram: @affinityfoundationlk
Facebook: Affinity Foundation
Email: affinityreach@gmail.com