Sadly, for many REACH children and their families, living in poverty and going without food is a way of life. In desperation, this sometimes means taking the children out of school to assist the family in collecting rubbish as a means of income to provide minimal rations. This is among the many obstacles children face to attend school as well as enrolment fees, legal documentation, school uniform, study resources, and a bicycle to travel many kilometres from the village.

Whilst all our families believe in the benefits of education (both public school and REACH), food is an overwhelming priority for survival. To combat starvation for all REACH families, we have developed our Rice Rewards Program.

The Rice Rewards program is designed as an incentive-based program to encourage families to send each of their children regularly to both the public school and to REACH, whilst also providing nutritional support to the parents and their families as a whole.

Every month, students who achieve high attendance at public school & at REACH will each receive 10 kg of rice & other nutritional supplements.

This tangible nutritional support helps to alleviate financial pressure and stress for parents and further discourages them from removing their children from school and sending them to work or beg. This program encourages guardians to value education and allows REACH to monitor and support each family as required. Through regular attendance reviews, we are able to identify illness’ within the families and flag challenges that all students face. Children who maintain regular Rice Rewards are then prioritised for our Youth Pathways program.