[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1040-H1041]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    McGOVERN-DOLE FOOD FOR EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, currently there are more than 300 million 
chronically hungry children in the world. Around 130 million of these 
children, mainly girls, do not attend school. The rest go to school 
hungry, severely limiting their ability to learn. The U.S. Department 
of Agriculture's McGovern-Dole International Food for Education Program 
is helping to change this grim reality. One exciting example of this 
program is taking place in Afghanistan where World Vision is making a 
difference in the lives of 37,000 children.
  In Afghanistan, 52 percent of children under 5 are malnourished. 
Access to education is extremely limited, and the quality of education, 
when available, is poor. The Taliban largely excluded girls from formal 
education, and women were prohibited from teaching. The World Bank 
estimates the primary

[[Page H1041]]

school enrollment rate at 39 percent for boys and 3 percent for girls. 
In the current environment, the demand for education opportunities far 
outstrip supply. Schools run multiple shifts, and many classes meet 
outside with the barest minimum of basic material, teachers, and 
facilities.
  This particular McGovern-Dole International Food Program is being 
implemented in 115 schools in the remote provinces of Badghis and Ghore 
in the western region of Afghanistan. In this area, out of a school-
aged population of 60,000, only 23,000 students were enrolled in 
schools last year; and just some 3,400 were girls.
  World Vision is providing 37,000 students with a monthly ration of 
wheat, rice, lentils and vegetable oil for attending school, which also 
serves as an incentive for poor Afghan families to send both their sons 
and their daughters to class. These commodity are provided by hard-
working farmers in Washington State, California, Tennessee, Wisconsin, 
and Minnesota. In the most remote areas, World Vision is using donkey 
trains to transport the food to the schools.
  In each of the 115 schools, World Vision trains community volunteers 
to help identify pressing needs and will provide all 37,000 students 
with a student kit including notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, 
sharpeners, shoes, a book bag, and a cloth wrap for girls so they are 
not excluded from education in conservative areas due to cultural 
taboos.
  World Vision also works with community volunteers to make sure that 
the school is a proper learning environment for the children and will 
be supplying each school with chalkboards and chalk, desks, tables, 
cabinets, maps, books, water systems, and latrines.
  World Vision is building nine schools over the course of the next 
year in the Jarwand district, where there are only six schools covering 
just 4 percent of the total school population. While nine schools 
cannot address all of this need, it will allow another 3,600 students 
to attend classes. These schools will replace and greatly expand four 
temporary schools set up last year under UNICEF plastic tents. Five of 
these schools are being constructed with McGovern-Dole funding, and the 
other four are being built with private resources raised by World 
Vision.
  World Vision is working with local councils so some of these schools 
will be set up exclusively for girls. World Vision's agronomists are 
also helping each school set up its own garden to raise cucumbers, 
tomatoes, eggplants, okra, onions, carrots, spinach, hot peppers, 
turnips and watermelon, which will complement the U.S.-grown 
commodities with the micronutrients that vegetables can supply. These 
garden projects also teach improved agricultural techniques to students 
and interested community members which they can use in their own family 
farming; and they help the schools establish a microenterprise, selling 
the excess production and using the funds to defray the schools' cost.
  World Vision is training 675 teachers in the new ministry of 
education curriculum, designed by UNICEF to replace the Taliban's 
restrictive system. It is also complementing teachers' meager salaries 
with food baskets so they can dedicate their full time to teaching 
instead of taking on jobs outside the schools.
  This support comes at a critical time in Afghanistan's transition as 
the new government struggles to reestablish infrastructure in these 
remote areas.
  Originally, World Vision's Afghanistan program was designed as a 2-
year program; and in the second year it would have greatly expanded 
benefits to additional communities, students, and teachers. 
Unfortunately, President Bush severely cut funding for the McGovern-
Dole International Food for Education Program, and this Congress failed 
to protect the program in the appropriations process. Sadly, many 
projects have been cut back to 1 year.
  Mr. Speaker, I call on the leadership of this House to significantly 
increase funding for the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education 
Program so its many worthy projects like the World Vision program in 
Afghanistan can reach even more needy children and communities.

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