Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-ir) -- Solaris, an NGO that has been working in Lambayeque, Peru and other cities in the country for seven years, has as one of its main objectives to provide children throughout Peru with the necessary energy and nutrition they need to study and carry out other academic tasks.

A total of 19 thousand 970 elementary school students, belonging to 31 schools in Chiclayo and ranging from the ages of 6 - 12, are provided with a daily serving of enriched milk and bread which has also been supplemented to provide the children with much needed nutrition.

Napoleón Castro de Cavalcanti, the coordinator for the Solaris project in Chiclayo, Peru explained that the project which provides the children with some of the nutrition they need is not only an effort being made by the NGO but an effort made by teachers and parents.

"Each school has a committee made up of the principal, a representative of the teachers and a representative of the parents - all of which are in charge of managing the operation, preparing the rations which are given to the school children, etcetera. These groups are trained by Solaris," explained Castro.

Apart from providing the children with a complement to their daily diet, the NGO also teaches the children good hygiene. For instance, the children have been taught and are required to wash their hands before they eat.