Saturday, April 03, 2004

Children in Africa will be much better off with a hot meal and an education than with your self-righteous indignation

Nicholas Kristof exposes the real impact of toughening international labor standards on developing countries.

More importantly, he offers an alternative for those in developed countries to make a difference.

Instead of keeping [them] from working, Westerners should channel their indignation into getting all children into school...and there is one way that could perhaps be achieved. It's bribery. The U.N. World Food Program runs a model foreign aid effort called the school feeding program. It offers free meals to children in poor schools (and an extra bribe of grain for girl students to take home to their families). Almost everywhere, providing food raises school attendance, particularly for girls. "If there were meals here, parents would send their kids," said Muhammad Adam, a teacher in Toukoultoukouli.
The World Food Program School Feeding Projects have been linked under Fighting the Good Fight

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