TPRF Opens Third Food For People Program for School Children

New center in village outside Accra, Ghana, is first in Africa

LOS ANGELES, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After months of construction and preparation, The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) officially opened its first Food for People (FFP) program on the African continent this month in the village of Otinibi, near Accra, Ghana.

The center, the third for TPRF, was developed in cooperation with the Ghana-based foundation PREMBAF. Similar programs have been in operation in Bantoli, India since 2006 and also in Dhading District, Nepal since 2009.

The centers provide school children hot meals and clean water daily and also teach them about hygiene. Meals are nutritionally balanced and are based on traditional local recipes. Based on the evidence from the facilities in India and Nepal, when children are guaranteed at least one good meal a day parents make every effort to send them to school. School attendance rises and absenteeism decreases. Children advance to higher grades, and parents are able to spend more time earning money for the family. The result: the local economy improves and the youth of a community learn valuable skills that bode well for their future. 

The FFP program was launched last year in Ghana with a TPRF grant of US$250,000. "These centers represent the foundation's quest to fulfill a vision by TPRF Founder Prem Rawat," said Linda Pascotto, president of TPRF. "His wish is to help people in a way that respects their culture, treats them with dignity and guides them toward self-sufficiency."

Opening-day ceremonies at the new center on May 15 were led by Otinibi Village Chief Nii Adjei Kweidzamansah III, who provided the land for the facility.

Grace Ninsaw, one of the speakers at the ceremony, said the center provided a much-needed relief for teachers and students. "Let me mention," said Ninsaw, head teacher of the Otinibi D/A Basic School, "the great relief this laudable project has brought to the teachers of this school, who had to feed pupils who were found sleeping in the classroom as a result of hunger and no money to buy food."

At the Otinibi center, about 500 meals will be served each weekday to students from the village and surrounding communities. In addition, about 100 ailing adults will be given a hot lunch on Saturdays.

Opening day festivities were attended by a number of officials and dignitaries, including the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Djanmah Vanderpuye, who represented the Greater Accra Regional Minister Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo and District Mayor John Kwao Sackey. Both thanked TPRF for its efforts.

"I am overwhelmingly impressed," Sackey said. "There is no doubt that this facility will impact positively on the life of Ghanaian school children."

About The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF)

The Prem Rawat Foundation promotes Prem Rawat's message of peace and his vision of addressing fundamental human needs so that people everywhere can live with dignity, peace, and prosperity. For more information, visit: www.tprf.org.

SOURCE The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF)