Brightlingsea-based charity Porridge and Pens has launched an emergency appeal for funds to help feed the 500 children and young people it supports in Ghana.
The charity says soaring inflation of nearly 70% in Ghana has meant that its feeding programmes – which often provide the only daily meal for some of the pupils at its Brightlingsea Academy – are under threat.
“We have reached crisis point and have exhausted all other methods to mitigate this problem,” says the charity, which has had to replace meals of dried fish, eggs and beans with a small bowl of rice and a tomato-based stew.
Food prices in Ghana have risen dramatically, not helped by poor local harvests, a depreciating currency and the cost of imported fertilisers more than doubling. The result is that the charity’s food bill has trebled and funds are having to be diverted from other work to try and keep up with the rising prices.
The charity’s other project, Girl Power, which supports older high school students, has also been affected. “Some Girl Power students will sleep at the Girl Power Centre rather than return home to their families purely for regular meals,” says the charity. An emergency food bank at the project is now in danger of running out of supplies.
Launching its appeal to raise an additional £20,000 to help the children and families it supports, the charity says: “The feeding programmes are central to the work we do at Brightlingsea Academy and Girl Power. No child should go to school or to sleep hungry. No child should become malnourished or get ill from lack of food.”
Donations to the emergency hunger appeal can be made online at https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/appeal/hunger
