Rotary Corner: Mary’s Meals - feeding the hungry for more than 20 years
Mary’s Meals was established by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow who, ten years earlier, had made a visit to Bosnia Herzegovina during the conflict of 1992, writes Rotarian Clive Doubleday.
Over the next decade their charitable relief work spread to supporting building homes for abandoned children in Romania, helping returning refugees in Liberia by setting up mobile clinics and continuing to deliver material aid to Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina, as well funding many additional projects.
The Mary’s Meals campaign was born in 2002 when Magnus visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS. When Magnus asked her eldest son Edward what his dreams were in life, he replied simply, “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.”
That moment was a key part of the inspiration which led to the founding of Mary’s Meals which began by feeding just 200 children in Malawi in 2002. Today the charity feeds 2,429,182 hungry children every school day across 17 different countries. The charity is named in honour of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who brought up her children in poverty.
Mary’s Meals can feed a child for a whole school year for as little as £19.15, as each meal costs approximately 10p, which really makes a difference.
The Rotary Club of Peterborough Ortons recently raised over £1,000 for the charity in order that they can feed more children. Their donation is supporting the feeding programme at Kasupe Primary School in Zambia and will provide for 50 children at their place of education for the entire year, supplying 10,000 meals!
The donation was as a result of fellow Rotarian Roger Neuberg’s presentation to the club in Peterborough, and only goes to show that in the west, where often take food so much for granted, a little goes a long way in feeding many children who are desperate for good nutritional food and healthy education in order that they can become better and stronger citizens within their communities.
BBC Radio 4 are currently running an appeal for Mary’s Meals with actress Sophie Thompson, in order to raise more funds. If you would like to find out more about Mary’s Meals you can visit their website www.marysmeals.org.uk