Thanks to our donors and Friends, the School Meal program expanded to 123 pupils since Jan 14, 2008. Only 40 children were enrolled in 2007.

The School started officially on Jan 08, 2008 and the first meal wasn't served until after a week. This is because the early days are usually dedicated to non-educational activities such as cleaning. Also, the school attendance is quite poor during this time.

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As seen on this Enlargeable chart, children in Class 5A and 5B (ideally aged 11) received 809 and 750 meals respectively whereas Class 6 totalled 789.

Unlike Class 5, children in the final year have an additional "catch-up" school day on Saturday.

The attendance of Class 5 pupils showed marked fluctuations whereas Class 6 saw an increase once children qualifying for a reseat got their National Test results.

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Interestingly, more children reported at school in the second month.

Again, as seen on this Enlargeable chart,, RSVP provided 823 meals to pupils in Class 5A, 813 for Class 5B and 878 for Class 6.

Overall, the attendance improved markedly. However, it is important to note that, during this time, classes were still welcoming new pupils and some children, deemed unfit to be in the final year, were moved back to class 5!

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During March, RSVP served 526 meals to P5A children, 522 meals to P5B children and 537 meals to finalist children.

Here, the total number is lower due to Revision time given to Children before their end of term examinations.

Due to poor reporting in the first month, the final class population was not known until mid-February.

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The caterer was thus expecting the number of children registered each previous day. This number was communicated to her by the Headmaster daily.

Once the class population became stable, the caterer, for fairness, then started to be paid according to the number of children "catered for". Since 87 meals weren't claimed for the 24 school days shown on this Enlargeable chart, a small proportion of the 123 children (3.6 pupils on average) are clearly still missing classes each day.

An improved data collection system involving 3 teachers - who accompany their pupils- and the caterer allow RSVP to get systematic daily meal records.

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Such daily records will be compared and contrasted to the attendance figures mandatorily kept by the school for the ministry of education.

It is clear that the number of unclaimed meals decreased during March 2008. Only 49 meals were unclaimed compared to 87 in the previous month.

Summary of figures and Statistics

Total served School Meals: During the first term of 2008 school year, RSVP provided 2,158 meals to 11 year olds in P5A; 2,085 meals to 11 year olds studying in P5B and 2,204 meals to our finalists.

Data accuracy: The figures collected by each teacher, independently, match those provided by the caterer except for 5 meals noted in the first month of the School Meal.

Extrapollation of the Absenteeism rate: During the first term, 136 meals out of 6,588 were UNCLAIMED, and this represent an absenteeism rate of 2.06%. Compared to this time last year when NO school meals were being served, this rate is about 1% lower.

NB: 168 meals were served to 3 teachers who accompagn their children for discipline and data collection. It is important to note that the above figures are consistent with the Rwanda and UK Accounts payment record.

Mar 08 Newsletter