[ Weki's Story]

One sunny morning inside an elementary-school classroom in West Sumatra's Pariaman district, a few dozen eager-looking students accepted bright yellow cartons handed out to them by their teachers.

Among the quiet bunch was 9-year-old Weki, a little boy wearing a black kopiah, a native Indonesian hat. He's one of 170,000 first, second and third graders who receive fortified soy milk three times a week from Mercy Corps' Sumatra Healthy Schools Program. The soy milk, along with regular de-worming treatments and parental nutrition classes, aims to fight chronic anemia and other diseases related to child malnutrition.

At home, Weki usually eats just rice, sometimes with vegetables. More often, children here are left to eat cheap, non-nutritious snacks sold by ubiquitous roadside vendors. Fortified soy milk is a decidedly healthier alternative.

As Weki shook the flattened carton with his tiny hands to ensure he had finished its content before throwing it away, he looked up and flashed a timid smile. Finishing his fortified soy milk is just a little gesture that symbolized the hope and possibilities for his future.