In May 2015, we visited the Twabuka school, in the Sinde district of Livingstone, as we did every year, but we found the small canteen closed. We inquired and the director, Mrs. Reginah, told us that the funds had been suddenly cut so that the children were left without meals during school hours. We then verified that many young students remained without lunch until 5 p.m., others returned home to eat (often several miles away from school) without returning to class in the afternoon, others ate the little food the families were able to collect daily. The school had thus lost several dozen students.

We then had meetings with the teachers, with the director and Kelly, who lives and works in Livinsgtone and helps us locally: together we have prepared a budget for a menu (certainly simple but better than nothing: we try to give to all a portion of nshima, the local polenta, with vegetables or beans and sometimes eggs, fish or chicken). In 2015, there were 234 school children and covering the costs for everyone seemed like a bet perhaps above our means. Instead, step by step, and thanks to the great generosity of everyone, we are continuing to cover the costs of the table even today. Two cooks (Mrs. Wanga and Mrs. Bridget) were hired to prepare meals for the five days of school per week during the nine months of the school year.

Since September 2015, the results of the reopening have been evident and tangible: there are now 70 more children at school, which has thus exceeded 300 units and also the profit is significantly improved bringing Twabuka to be one of the best performing schools in the District, very rare for a rural structure. Finally, since January 2017, the new eighth grade class is working, which means that the children of the area can study a year more before going to work! One more year of childhood and education.