Daily meals unlock Kabir’s potential

Five-year-old Kabir is an exuberant, playful kindergartener at the Ashraya Initiative for Children (AIC) Pre-Primary School in Pune, India. Kabir’s father works as a part-time caddy at a golf course near the family’s slum community, earning about 2,500 rupees ($50) per month, and his mother stays at home with Kabir and his three sisters.

Kabir’s mother is believed to be mildly mentally challenged, and often struggles to be an attentive, engaged mother, leaving many of the childcare tasks to her oldest daughter, Neha, age seven. For this reason, receiving daily meals at the AIC Education Outreach Centre has made a huge difference for Kabir’s growth and development. These meals include chapati (flat bread), bhaji (cooked vegetables), boiled eggs, fresh seasonal fruit, yogurt, milk and several other items, ensuring that Kabir’s nutritional needs are met. With the nutritional supplementation he receives through this program, Kabir has started to flourish academically and socially in his kindergarten class, and his teachers are very excited to see where he goes from here. Thank you all for providing Kabir with a year of meals at AIC!