Over 11 000 vulnerable children are starving because of the shutdown of 650 soup kitchens in eSwatini due to the coronavirus, an anonymous official from the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office has alleged to APA on Tuesday.
The children who benefitted from soup kitchens located in 650 neighbourhood care points countrywide used to enjoy two meals per day which were provided by the government through the assistance of international donors.
According to statistics from the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, the 20-day lockdown which ends on Thursday has left these children, most of whom are orphans, with nowhere to eat breakfast and dinner.
“The situation has been worsened by the fact that schools are also closed yet most of the children would not receive free lunch from schools under the schools feeding scheme” the official from the DPM’s office said.
When the country went on lockdown there were only eight cases of COVID-19, but now they have risen to 15, with the youngest patient being a 14-year-old boy who got it through local transmission.
NSM/APA