DILI, 11 august 2022 (TATOLI)- The non-governmental organization (NGO) PARCIC has produced the nutritious food “KOHA KAHUR” to support the government’s response to the school feeding program in the Dili and Ermera.
PARCIC Country Director Junko ITO said earlier in 2019 PARCIC and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) had signed an agreement to include ‘KOHA KAHUR’ food in the government’s school feeding program for three years 2019-2022, but its implementation was held up due to COVID-19.
“Currently we are waiting for a decision from the Government Ministry of Education to implement this program,” She said.
PARCIC nutritious food ‘KOHA KAHUR’ is produced to provide nutrition for Timorese children because children need to consume nutritious food.
“KOHA KAHUR consists of fish and moringa, which is produced by a Japanese NGO together with a Timor-Leste women’s group, to supplement nutrition for children,” Junko ITO told TATOLI at her office, in Audi’an, this Thursday.
According to the previous plan, PARCIC was supposed to promote “KOHA KAHUR” food in two municipalities including the municipalities of DILI and Ermera.
In the same place, Junko ITO explained that this program is an initiative program from PARCIC that aims to improve children’s health through the government’s school feeding program and at the same time increase the knowledge of rural women about the production of local nutritious food.
“Parcic considers the nutritious food distributed to students to be so limited in the number that Parcic intends to train 200 local women in Atauro to produce ‘KOHA KAHUR’ to support the government’s school feeding program, and improve children’s health”
After attending the training, PERCIC together with ten local women has produced one tonne of ‘KOHA KAHUR’ for distribution in the municipalities of Dili, Atauro, and Ermera.
The PARCIC program is funded by the Government of Japan with an annual budget of 240,000.
It is planned that PARCIC will expand this program to five other municipalities including Baucau, Ainaro, Bobonaro, Suai, and Liquica.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia Borges
