extra e-magazine formary’s meals supportersIssue no 11 - Nov 2011

Welcome

For those Mary’s Meals supporters we have recently started communicating with email as a way of keeping our mailing costs down, it may be the fi rst time you have seen this publication. We hope that you fi nd it a useful resource and choose to keep hold of your copy or pass it on to others (feel free to photocopy, use, or republish any of the contents).

If you are interested in hearing more about our news between issues, you can visit our website - www.marysmeals.org or also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at www.facebook.com/marysmeals and www.twitter.com/marysmeals

In this issueOur East Africa Emergency Appeal has been helping children and families affected in northern Kenya and famine-hit Somalia. In this issue, we share with you stories and pictures of our work in East Africa – the cost of us to provide one meal is just pennies.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, who recently visited Somalia to help with the distribution of our food to Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, gives a personal account of his experience and the desperate situation faced by those affected. You can read Magnus’ story on page 6

Key fi guresThe number of children we are able to feed continues to grow – and that is only possible because of the amazing support we receive from around the world. Our key fi gures opposite contains an overview of the number of children we are feeding, where we work, and the costs to feed a child for a whole school year.

Sponsor a SchoolSupport for our Sponsor a School project continues to grow and through this we are able to expand the Mary’s Meals school feeding programme, reaching so many more hungry children. The Sponsor A School scheme has a wide appeal and all sorts of groups and individuals participate from churches, schools, businesses, families, and work colleagues. For more information and pictures about our work in this area, please go to page 12.

Number of children receivinga daily meal in their

place of education in 2011

Albania* Benin - 430 Bosnia – 24

Burma – 281Ecuador – 188Haiti – 18,417India – 4,170

Kenya – 18,243Liberia – 39,664

Malawi – 489,633Philippines – 2,000

Sudan – 166South Sudan –3,250

Thailand – 677Uganda – 3,651

Ukraine – 524

*Mary’s Meals currently runs a winter school feeding project in Albania, which takes place

from November to January.

Total – 581,318

Total number of children receiving a daily meal in school = 581,318

Average cost of Mary’s Meals per child per year = £9.40 / €11 / $15

Cost of Mary’s Meals per child, per year in Malawi = £6.15/€7.20/$10

Worldwide cost per meal = 4 pence / 5 cents (Euros) and 6.5 cents (US)

Cost per meal in Malawi= 3 pence / 3.5 cents(Euros) and 5 cents (US)

Number of backpackssent overseas in 2011= 46,567

Key Figures

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Photo: Children open backpacks in Uganda

New Mary’s Meals projectMary’s Meals has started a new school feeding project in Africa. We are now feeding 430 primary children in Benin, thanks to support from our Mary’s Meals support group in Croatia.

The children of Ecole primaire de Hondji will receive a daily meal of potatoes, rice, beans, vegetables and meat, to attract them to the classroom where they can gain a basic education that provides an escape route from poverty.

Benin is located on the West African coast and has a total population of approximately 8 million. It is estimated that nearly 1 million people in the country are food insecure and that more than one third of children under fi ve suffer from chronic malnutrition.

Thank you for all your support – without this we would not be able to feed over half a million children every day. You are helping to make a difference to so many lives.

Welcome to the November issue of Mary’s Meals Extra, our quarterly e-bulletin designed for supporters who would like regular news updates from Mary’s Meals.

Initially, Mary’s Meals focused its response to the crisis on Northern Kenya where we are long-established. Our existing projects in Turkana are in the areas affected by the terrible drought and recently, for six weeks, we provided food to an extra 6,000 children in Lodwar – the capital of the Turkana district – as part of an emergency feeding programme.

Mary’s Meals founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow says: “The situation in Turkana has become increasingly desperate. ‘What was already a crisis has become an emergency, so when our partners asked for help to feed more hungry children, we felt compelled to give it.

More recently, however, Mary’s Meals Mary’s Meals teamed up with South African charity Gift of the Givers to deliver food aid to famine-stricken Somalia.

Since the UN declared a famine in parts of East Africa in July, Mary’s Meals and its partners in the region have been working harder than ever to help those affected by the severe food shortages, conflict and widespread drought.

Over 10 million people in the Horn of Africa face the imminent threat of starvation and are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. And, according to the UN, more than 250 children are dying every day in Somalia, the worst-hit country, amounting to one child every six minutes.

Mary’s Meals has been working in East Africa for several years, feeding thousands of children in Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. In Kenya alone, Mary’s Meals is feeding around 18,000 children in places of education every day.

State of emergency in East Africa‘ What was already a crisis has become an emergency, so when our partners asked for help to feed more hungry children, we felt compelled to give it.’

Somalia is war-ravaged and the militant group al-Shabab controls many of the areas where famine has been declared. It is very difficult to get aid to Somalia, with some food deliveries having been looted by gunmen, but Gift of the Givers – who are our long-standing partners in Malawi – managed to gain us secure entry and exit from the Somali capital Mogadishu, where tens of thousands of people have fled to in search of food.

Gift of the Givers has been providing medical assistance in hospitals and has set up four feeding camps within Mogadishu, which are now catering for 30,000 malnourished people.

Staff at the feeding centres prepare three nutritious meals of Likuni Phala, which is fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, every day to those who are suffering. Mary’s Meals has so far provided nearly 200 tonnes of Likuni-Phala - the same food Mary’s Meals provides to children at its school feeding projects in Malawi – to feed those suffering in Somalia.

The cost for Mary’s Meals to provide each meal is just a matter of pennies and much more will be needed in the weeks and months ahead, such is the scale of this humanitarian crisis.

Magnus added: “None of this is possible without the continuing generosity of so many people in the UK and beyond. Valuable though this first batch of aid has been – much more is needed if we are to avert a humanitarian disaster.”

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Photo: Woman queue for food distribution in Mogadishu, Somalia

Mary’s Meals founder and CEO Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow fl ew out to Somalia to help with the fi rst delivery of likuni phala from neighbouring Malawi. Here he gives his personal account of his trip to the famine-hit nation.

The gargantuan cargo plane sat contentedly on the runway at Kamuzu International Airport, Malawi’s international airport, its enormous belly fi lled with 20 tonnes of porridge. Known in Malawi as likuni phala, this very nutritious porridge is what we use to provide children in Malawi with daily school meals.

Normally Mary’s Meals buys food from within the country in which we are working so that we support the local economy, and that food can be transported in all sorts of ways. Trucks, donkeys, small boats and dug-out canoes are amongst the forms of transport I have seen employed to move our food to the schools where it is eaten by hungry children.

This, though, is the fi rst time I have seen our food loaded onto a cargo plane. And this time the likuni phala – the ingredients of which are grown here in Malawi – is not destined for children in this country, but instead for those starving thousands of miles to the north, in famine ravished Somalia.

As we fl y towards Mogadishu I read the latest depressing UN bulletin stating that four million people in Somalia are now at risk of starvation, 750,000 of them imminently. Tens of thousands have already died, around half of them children.

Our plane touches down in Mogadishu beside white beaches and a blue sea but as we descend the steps from the plane, the brief illusion of holiday resort evaporates as we are confronted by a broken plane, shot down some years previously as it took off.

Our party, consisting of doctors and journalists, is transported by convoy away from airport. Our security, provided by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, is reassuringly robust. Pick-up trucks full of young soldiers brandishing AK47s take up the front and rear and move us quickly through streets scarred by 21 years of civil war. A few days previously a Malaysian cameraman had been shot dead on this same route.

The recent retreat of al-Shabab from some areas of the city it used to rule has left a power vacuum, resulting in a return to local power struggles and less predictable violence. The crowded pavements teem with armed men in various uniforms or civilian clothing.

She had to leave Bay – the latest region to be categorised by the UN as suffering from famine – after all ten of her precious cattle died. She was left with no option but to make the same journey that at least 100,000 others have made in recent months from rural farms to war-weary Mogadishu.

Standing next to Fatima in the queue is Fartune who is holding her very sick child. Pinte’s head is far too big for his little body and his swollen eyes can no longer see. He is three years old and has been sick for one and a half months. Fartune has never had the chance to take Pinte to a doctor or receive any medical help for her child.

She tells me she has another three children at home, with whom she walked 165km to get here. I ask her how her other children at home are. “Yes, they are fi ne,” she smiles sadly. “Apart from the malnutrition – we never have enough to eat.”

And now that we know we can do it, this becomes our task, these next few months. To continue sending food from Malawi to feed people who will otherwise starve, knowing that every bag of likuni phala we can send will save lives.

Later that evening, as we unpack in our makeshift accommodation, a loud and uncomfortably close explosion makes me start. One of our gently spoken Somali hosts turns to me and, as if soothing a small child says, “Don’t worry. Don’t worry. It was just a bomb.”

Our partners here are a South African based organisation called Gift of the Givers. They have been friends of ours for some time in Malawi where they have supported our work by sinking water wells at some of the schools where we provide Mary’s Meals.

They have become the biggest African based emergency response organisation in Africa and in recent months have set up an effective organisation in Mogadishu, relying on a mixture of local knowledge, courage and huge public support from South Africa. They are working to encourage ‘African aid for Africa’ across the continent and while so far amounts donated are modest they believe they are helping to create a new attitude and sense of responsibility.

Their success in distributing food effectively and safely in Somalia and the fact that they have been sourcing food in Malawi, where we feed nearly 500,000 children every day and have a good relationship with food suppliers, led us to realise we could help the starving people of Somalia simply by buying food for transport directly into Mogadishu.

At Howadaq camp, in an area of Mogadishu recently vacated by al-Shabab, hundreds of women – many holding emaciated children – queue for the food parcels that are keeping them and their families alive. I am delighted to see a large pile of our likuni phala, last seen in Malawi three days earlier, already being distributed and some of it being cooked nearby in huge pots and served to children.

This is one of four feeding centres where our food is being distributed by Gift of the Givers and these centres serve a population of 20,000 people who have fl ed to Mogadishu leaving behind their land and their dead cattle.

Fatima is one of those standing patiently in the queue with two small children. She explains to me that Samson is her son but that Howa, dressed in a brown dusty shawl, is an orphan whose parents died in the famine. She has seven children at ‘home’, a small hut she built of sticks, cardboard, discarded plastic and rags.

Every bag of likuni phala we can send to Somalia will save lives

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Magnus with cargo plane fi lled with aid

Child receives aid in Somalia

Having recently returned from a trip to East Africa, Chris MacLullich – Programmes Officer for Mary’s Meals – offers an eye witness account of drought-stricken Northern Kenya.

Looking down past the wing, it gets drier and drier as we fly north from Nairobi to Lodwar, the biggest city in Turkana, the region of Kenya where drought has brought thousands of nomadic pastoralists to the brink of survival.

Farmland gives way to a parched rocky landscape where withering temperatures, lack of water and a scorching sun have wiped out the herds of cattle that the Turkana people depend on. Their traditional lifestyle of leading their herds to find pastures and water holes is becoming close to impossible. Malnutrition is widespread across the region.

During this emergency, Mary’s Meals, working with the Diocese of Lodwar, is reaching almost 4,000 children in the most isolated and remote parts of Turkana, providing a daily nutritious meal of maize, beans, rice and vegetable oil in 35 community based nurseries.

A further 6,000 children had recently been receiving Mary’s Meals for six weeks as a response to the humanitarian emergency that is affecting many parts of East Africa.

Early the next day, we begin the journey to the north of the region, where we will visit communities on the Ethiopian and Sudanese borders. Peter is moving

A ray of hope in a dry land

north with his family to be the new teacher at one of the most remote nurseries: Nakinomet. As there is no public transport, our visit to the north offers a welcome opportunity to bring their belongings.

As we cross the first dry river bed, Peter tells me that unexpected rains had fallen last week, but these were a false hope as they petered out after three days. Before this, there has been no rain since last November. Climate change here means longer and more severe droughts, higher temperatures and the unpredictability of the seasons.

We visit eight nurseries as we travel north and in each community we meet with the children attending the nurseries, their parents and the village elders. The communities are closely involved in the running of the nurseries and we see that they have built classrooms, store rooms and shelters using local materials. The Mary’s Meals programme is meeting immediate needs by providing enough food to prevent malnutrition but is also enabling children to receive an education and the teachers work hard to prepare them for entry into primary school.

Most of the communities tell me that Mary’s Meals is the only daily meal that the children will receive. In some of the nurseries, over the prolonged drought period, the numbers of children has quadrupled. In Kotopia Nursery which opened in June, Alice, a mother of eight tells me: “Before, the children were not eating anything for days. We would give the weak ones milk but we have no cattle left now. Even the wild fruit trees had stopped bearing.

We had absolutely nothing. Our children’s lives have been saved by the nursery. Before they could only sleep, they were dizzy, weak and sometimes fainted.

“Their skin was coming out in sores, and their hair was turning brown; they had all the signs of starvation. We had to look for help and walked here. Now we see all of our children getting better. They get enough to eat and finish nursery happy, and ready to play and help us gather firewood and get water.”Peter explains that drought has not been the only reason for the loss of herds. Neighbouring tribes from Sudan and Ethiopia regularly cross the border in armed groups of more than a hundred men to raid the Turkana herds. As we approach Nakinomet, we see a group of armed Turkana men patrolling the area.

Recently a series of violent raids took place and with people fleeing the violence adding to those who had already lost their herds to hunger and thirst, the numbers of children attending the nursery have increased from 260 to 870.

The Turkana people are praying for rain and hope that they can gradually recover their herds. They know that climate change is making their traditional livelihoods more and more difficult and they are beginning to adapt with the support of the Diocese by beginning to plant crops.

They are also encouraging their children to gain an education so that they will be better prepared for the challenging future that faces them. In the meantime, the children in the Diocesan nurseries depend on Mary’s Meals for their survival.

DONATE TO THE EAST AFRICA APPEAL We rely on any donations that can help us continue feeding hungry children in this region and to allow us to respond to other desperate requests for life-saving help in this area. There are a number of ways people can support our critical work in East Africa.

They can donate online at www.marysmeals.org or donate by phone by calling 01838 200605 or 0800 698 1212, or donate by post by sending cheques made payable to ‘Mary’s Meals/SIR’ to Mary’s Meals, Craig Lodge, Dalmally, Argyll, UK PA33 1AR.

You can also text MMEA 11 and the amount you would like to donate to 70070. You can make the following donations £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 and £10 up to a maximum of £30 per month.

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Photos: Mary’s Meals in action in Kenya

A new generation of supporters are leading the way and embarking on ambitious challenges in order to promote Mary’s Meals. Charlie Doherty, aged 11, from Brighton and 13-year-old Allison Ockenfels – from across the pond in Iowa, USA – have both been raising a great deal of money for Mary’s Meals and both have very different stories to tell.

Young supporters are leading the way

After Charlie’s sixth birthday, he decided it wasn’t fair that he should receive presents whilst so many children in the world have nothing. From then on, for every birthday he has asked that friends and family donate to charity instead of giving him presents.

Furthermore, in the past few years Charlie has walked from Crawley to Brighton, ran the Brighton Marathon Mini Mile and held parties in his small garden at home in Crawley – attended in one instance by their local Mayor – all in an effort to raise awareness of Mary’s Meals. In fact, at each event, Charlie insists on giving a short presentation about our work.

This summer, however, saw Charlie’s biggest challenge yet. He cycled over 600 miles from Brighton to Glasgow to deliver a backpack to the Mary’s Meals warehouse.

Accompanied by his mum Julie, Charlie met lots of interested people along the way who offered to help by way of meals, accommodation, directions and donations.

As a testament to his infectious enthusiasm and energy, the majority of recent donations on Charlie’s JustGiving page are from those who have met him just once, by chance, and have been inspired to donate to Mary’s Meals.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Allison decided less than a year ago that she wanted to raise enough money to build a kitchen for a school in Malawi. By involving her whole community and throwing herself wholeheartedly into fundraising activities, she met the target by the end of 2010.

Since then, Allison has continued her amazing fundraising efforts achieving her aim of supporting the feeding costs of a school in Malawi. She is now trying to raise money to build a second school kitchen in Malawi.

Charlie and Allison are not alone in their ambitious fundraising. Across the globe, thousands of young people have been learning about Mary’s Meals and doing their bit to spread the word and raise funds.

Magnus recently visited the US to meet some of these supporters in Iowa, Kansas City and Chicago. In Iowa, a group of Mary’s Meals supporters have been helping to raise funds by selling T-shirts with the slogan ‘Got Food?’ on the front and ‘852 Million Don’t’ on the back. So far, this group of kind-hearted supporters have sold over 1,000 T-shirts in aid of Mary’s Meals.

Supporters of all ages are helping the numbers of children fed by Mary’s Meals to increase every day. If you are looking for ideas on how you can help, please visit our website at www.marysmeals.org

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Charlie Doherty outside the Glasgow Warehouse Mary’s Meals Founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow with Allison Ockenfels

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Individuals, families, businesses, church groups and schools have been taking part in our Sponsor A School scheme which is a great way of helping us expand the Mary’s Meals school feeding programme in Malawi and Liberia and giving the fundraising activities of our supporters a focus.

In the impoverished regions where Mary’s Meals is working, children can’t go to school because they have to labour or beg for food, despite the fact that gaining an education is their best hope of escaping from this kind of poverty. Mary’s Meals offers a simple way of breaking this vicious cycle – a daily meal in school.

By providing a meal every day in a school or nursery, chronically poor children are attracted to the classroom where they can receive an education which can provide an escape route out of poverty for themselves and their communities.

Gift – a 14-year-old boy who attends Njedza Primary School in Malawi – is one of the children who benefi ts from Mary’s Meals. Gift, whose favourite subjects are Maths and Science, says, “The likuni phala porridge I receive every day at school helps to give me energy to learn and to play with friends. I don’t feel as happy at weekends, because I don’t get likuni phala.”

Sponsor A School initiative can give your fundraising real focusThe Sponsor A School initiative is absolutely vital in helping deliver Mary’s Meals to as many poverty-stricken children, like Gift, as possible, since it invites schools, businesses and community groups to fundraise to give Mary’s Meals to a whole school in Malawi or Liberia.

Dorothy is 39-years-old and a volunteer cook at the Mary’s Meals feeding shelter at Njedza Primary School. She says she has noticed changes in the children since feeding started. Dorothy says, “Before feeding, children did not want to go to school. Many of them were malnourished and had bloated bellies. But since they started receiving Mary’s Meals, lots of children come to school and they are healthy and happy.”

There are two ways supporters can sponsor a school and, in so doing, make the same life-changing effect Dorothy describes on other children’s lives. They can either fundraise to cover the annual costs of providing Mary’s Meals for an entire school (£6,000 on average) or they can fundraise to build and equip a new school kitchen shelter (approximately £7,000). And donors can, of course, do both if they wish.

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Photo: Children outside a sponsored school in Malawi

Sponsor A School really does give a tangible focus to your fundraising, since those who are taking part in the initiative receive feedback on the school they are supporting – including photos of the school, their name on the wall, and updates on how the children are getting on.

The month of September was a particularly healthy month for Sponsor A School, with eight schools being allocated a shelter sponsor and 11 schools being allocated a feeding sponsor.

And also in September, a group of Mary’s Meals fundraisers from Edinburgh showed showing their dedication and commitment to their Sponsor A School project by running fi ve marathons in fi ve days. Edward Shepherd, 26, Ally McQuat, 27, Mike Paul, 28 and Iain Weston, 27, undertook their challenge titled, ‘From B to A’ to raise £7,000 for the construction of a kitchen through the Sponsor a School scheme. Their journey took them over an amazing 130 miles from Brussels to Amsterdam.

For more fundraising ideas and information on the Sponsor A School initiative, please visit www.marysmeals.org

Gift with his school friends eating Mary’s Meals

Volunteer Cook - Dorothy

World Porridge Day causes a stir

This year’s third annual World Porridge Day gave porridge enthusiasts across the planet the chance to celebrate one of Scotland’s favourite national dishes, whilst drawing attention to the life-saving work of Mary’s Meals.

Countless individuals and groups took part in their own celebrations, all in an effort to raise funds and awareness whilst enjoying delicious porridge-based treats like bowls of oatmeal and tasty fl apjacks.

Porridge provides a delicious breakfast for people all over the UK, but for over 479,000 school-children in Malawi – who receive a daily mug of maize-based, porridge-like ‘likuni phala’ from Mary’s Meals – it is a powerful incentive to go to school and, for many, the only nutritious meal they will have that day.

And the nutritional benefi ts of ‘oat cuisine’ are not lost on the keepers at Edinburgh Zoo, who feed sizeable portions of porridge to their chimpanzees four times every week.

Enthusiastic chimps like Louis, Lucy, Lyndsey and Liberius always go ape for their oats – alongside a wide selection of fruits and vegetables, as part of a varied diet which is designed to make sure they get all the nutrients they need.

Dee Masters, Budongo Trail Team Leader, commented: “Porridge is of fantastic benefi t to the 21 chimps in Edinburgh Zoo’s Budongo Trail. It’s great for their digestive system and it fi lls them up just like it would a human.

“We make the porridge from scratch with water and oats, sometimes adding extras like bananas, yoghurt, raisins, honey or sunfl ower seeds. The chimpanzees absolutely love it. We put their porridge into plastic bottles so they can drink the mixture or use sticks as tools to pull it out. They’re always sure to drain every last drop. We’re delighted to support Mary’s Meals and World Porridge Day.”

School children, church groups, offi ces and individuals also participated in many creative ways to make this the most successful World Porridge Day yet.

Fife council opened a ‘Porridge Bar’ for the day in Leven, attracting lots of hungry people on the go. They also saw it as a chance to promote healthy breakfasts to pupils in schools throughout Fife.

Alex Salmond was one of those enjoying a porridge breakfast. Bowls and spoons were at the ready at Bute House when the First Minister and his cabinet were served platefuls of porridge by last year’s World Porridge Making Champion, Neal Robertson.

And it wasn’t just Scots taking up their spurtles! School pupils in Texas also got involved by doing away with furniture for a day and putting themselves in the shoes of poor children in schools around the world, having a bowl of porridge for lunch.

A live link-up between children in Holyrood Secondary School, Glasgow, and a Mary’s Meals partner school in Malawi allowed children to enjoy their porridge breakfast together at the same time.

Children at HHI Primary School in Malawi, which receives Mary’s Meals, also celebrated with musical performances focused around the role of the porridge provided by Mary’s Meals. And in Carrbridge, the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championships took place to crown this year’s champion.

Thank you to all of those who helped make World Porridge Day such a success this year!

Everyone from First Minister Alex Salmond to the chimpanzees at Edinburgh Zoo were going bananas for platefuls of warm porridge to support Mary’s Meals’ World Porridge Day on October 10th.

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Photos: Worldwide celebrations on World Porridge Day 2011

The Backpack Project has become increasingly popular since its beginnings as the ideal partner project for Mary’s Meals’ feeding programmes. So popular, in fact, that we have now successfully distributed a quarter of a million backpacks to children in Malawi, Liberia and Haiti.

The landmark 250,000th backpack may have been donated by St Dominic’s Sixth Form College in Harrow, North-West London, but over the years, countless schools, churches, clubs, businesses and individuals have contributed to making the project so successful.

Mary’s Meals aims to remove the barriers that stop the world’s poorest children from benefiting from an education and, while our main work is our school feeding programmes which reduce hunger, the Backpack Project was first developed after finding that a lack of very basic educational resources was another obstacle to children in Malawi making the most of school.

Most of the children who benefit from Mary’s Meals and the Backpack Project have suffered as a result of war, poverty, famine, or natural disaster. Very often families cannot afford to buy basic things like pencils and copy books, or even suitable clothes for their children to wear to school.

By filling backpacks with basic educational materials like crayons, pens, paper, tennis balls and T-shirts, and sending them to Mary’s Meals, you are making sure a child is better equipped to learn and giving them the chance to own items we in the UK take for granted.

Angela Clapham, Lay Chaplain at St Dominic’s – the school which donated the 250,000th backpack – said: “We have supported Mary’s Meals here at the college for a number of years, and this year we decided to get involved in the Backpack Project. We’re delighted to have sent the quarter-millionth bag packed with educational items.

Backpack Project reaches quarter-million milestone“We believe it’s important that the students see that it can be really easy to make a positive difference in someone’s life. By donating the items to Mary’s Meals, the students are directly helping others to get the most out of their education and hopefully change their lives.”

‘ Studies show that receiving an education is the best way for a chronically poor child to escape poverty in later life.’

Tony Begley, Education Co-ordinator at Mary’s Meals, said: “We’re delighted that the donation from St Dominic’s has helped our Backpack Project reach the quarter-million milestone.

“These backpacks, filled with everyday school supplies, will provide a real lifeline to Malawian children, as studies show that receiving an education is the best way for a chronically poor child to escape poverty in later life.”

Pupils from St Monica’s Primary School in Glasgow helped volunteers and warehouse staff celebrate the 250,000th milestone by lending a hand with the loading of a container with around 6,000 backpacks bound for Malawi.

Other groups who have been instrumental in helping us reach our goal recently include St Peter in Chains Ladies Group from Inverkeithing who sent a staggering 1000 backpacks. The ladies roped in the whole community and held events such as garden parties to fundraise for bulk buying items such as toothbrushes. And our supporters in Croatia and Germany have also collected thousands of backpacks to send to Malawi.

To get involved in Mary’s Meals’ backpack project, please contact us at backpack@marysmeals.org or on 0800 698 1212.

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Photos: The Backpack Project in action - from collection and delivery

Well-known Scottish musician Colin MacIntyre – of the band Mull Historical Society – has been appointed Mary’s Meals London co-ordinator, our first regional post in England.

Mary’s Meals appoints London Co-ordinator

Prior to his appointment to this new post, Colin had been active over a number of years in contributing his time, energy and organisational skills to supporting fundraising events on behalf of Mary’s Meals and had visited Malawi to see for himself just what an impact Mary’s Meals was making on the ground.

From his London base, Colin will be overseeing activities across Greater London and the surrounding counties. His focus will be to support and co-ordinate the work of the expanding team of volunteers who represent Mary’s Meals across the south of England, helping them with their work organising fundraising events, speaking to schools, businesses and community groups, and collecting resources for our backpack project.

Colin is also currently spearheading our emergency appeal for East Africa in the South of England. Colin’s background is in music, as the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer behind five successful albums to date, both under the moniker of Mull Historical Society and in his own name. He hails from the Isle of Mull in the Scottish Hebrides and has achieved four Top 40 UK chart singles and two Top 20 chart album successes.

He has built up a loyal and widespread fanbase, performing worldwide and also at many charity events, and his experience of organising and promoting events has already proved valuable to Mary’s Meals. He helped arrange and performed at Mary’s Meals Music, a concert in Glasgow’s Fruitmarket last year which featured stars including Jon Fratelli and Eddi Reader.

Colin has first-hand experience of Mary’s Meals’ school feeding work, having visited Mary’s Meals in Malawi last year. He says, “The visit was a chance for me to see what Mary’s Meals is doing on the ground – and to encounter the amazing spirit of the volunteers and children in Malawi. It showed me that not only is providing food for children in school very simple, it is life changing and life-enhancing.

“I’m looking forward to being part of that work and bringing my creative organisational experience in campaigns and galvanising supporters to the work of the charity in London and the South East, and feel a sense of pride that it is based in my home county of Argyll. As one of my songs says, ‘Come on and join us, join us now!’”

You can email Colin at colin.macintyre@marysmeals.org

This year’s annual Mary’s Meals Open Day – which took place on Sunday, October 30 at the City Halls in Glasgow – was a resounding success. Taking place in the Grand Hall at Glasgow’s City Halls – as a last-minute substitute for the smaller Old Fruitmarket venue – the day was attended by almost 900 people who heard speeches from Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne, Malawian Educationalist Sister Eunice Dambo and Mary’s Meals founder and CEO Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow.

One of the most exciting moments of the day came when Magnus announced the latest Mary’s Meals feeding figure. Midway through his presentation, Magnus was greeted with great applause as he said, “Today I can announce with great joy we are now feeding 581,318 children around the world every day.”

Long-time Mary’s Meals supporter Duncan Bannatyne, who has visited our projects in Haiti, Romania and Malawi, said, “It’s always a great privilege to come and speak to those involved in Mary’s Meals. Through education and school feeding, countries can be created where children can achieve things, start businesses and escape poverty. That’s why Mary’s Meals is so important.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien was also in attendance and observed, “People of all faiths and none work together for the cause of Mary’s Meals. That’s one of the most beautiful things about this movement.”

The Open Day’s main speaker was Sister Eunice Dambo who has been heavily involved in our school feeding programmes in Malawi, where Mary’s Meals feeds 479,000 children every day.

In the foyer, there were stalls selling cupcakes, key rings, Christmas decorations and works of art, amongst other things, all in aid of Mary’s Meals. And Mary’s Meals staff members manned information stalls to tell attendees more about our projects and allow people to sample the ‘likuni phala’ porridge Mary’s Meals feeds to hungry children at schools across Malawi.

The day also included entertainment from Mull Historical Society’s Colin Macintyre, piper Donald Cowan and African singing group the Zawadi Women’s Choir, as well as school choirs from Glasgow’s St Anne’s Primary School and Taylor High School – all of whom raised the City Halls roof with their fantastic performances.

Perhaps the stand-out moment from the Open Day for most people, though, was the impromptu speech given by 14-year-old Christina, a Malawian girl who has benefited greatly from Mary’s Meals.

Christina said, “The likuni phala is delicious! I am here to thank everyone who is involved with Mary’s Meals, because you have changed the lives of so many in Malawi. I am so grateful for everything you have done for me. The food helps me to concentrate and I am now receiving a better education.”

Hundreds attend the largest Mary’s Meals Open Day yet

Glasgow arts festival in aid of Mary’s Meals

Fundraising group Artists for Mary’s Meals has once again shown its creative support for us by staging a whole festival of the arts, which runs from Friday October 28 until Tuesday November 8. The festival began with a fine art exhibition of the work of Scotland’s top painters in the café of House for an Artlover in Bellahouston Park.

The exhibition was opened by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of Mary’s Meals, and the Rev. Laurence Whitley, a patron of Artists for Mary’s Meals. There was also a series of musical concerts at the same venue.

Mary’s Meals has received nearly £60,000 from the Artemis Great Kindrochit Quadrathlon. We were chosen to be one of the charities to benefit from the adventure challenge on Loch Tay in Scotland, in which participants swim, run, kayak and cycle around the stunning scenery of the loch.

The amount raised from the event surpassed all expectations and we are delighted to be a beneficiary of the 2012 Artemis Great Kindrochit Quadrathlon, which is one of the toughest one day challenges in Scotland. The 12th Great Kindrochit Quadrathlon will take place on Saturday 14 July, 2012.

Registration for next year’s event is now open – the event regularly sells out and places are limited so please register early to avoid disappointment!For more information on how to register, please visit www.artemisgreatkindrochit.com

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Duncan Bannatyne

Mary’s Meals is delighted to be working with the Local Authority Caterers Association on National School Meals Week 2011. The event is the largest national school meals healthy awareness week in the UK. On each day of NSMW, there is a different theme and we are involved on Thursday, 10th November supporting the Get 5-a-day theme. This theme is designed to encourage youngsters to eat at least five portions of fruit and veg every day and to understand the positive impact this can have on health and wellbeing, both in the short and long term.

For further information about NSMW, please visit our website on www.marysmeals.org

Artemis Quadrathlon running success for Mary’s Meals

National School Meals Week supporting Mary’s Meals

A gala concert also took place at the City Chambers in George Square. It featured Scotland’s best-loved jazz singer, Carol Kidd, and was hosted by the veteran folk singer and radio presenter Jimmie Macgregor.

Artists for Mary’s Meals coordinator Netta Ewing said: “Our six concerts at two venues – the City Chambers and House for an Artlover – promise to be memorable, as many professional and exciting musicians have generously donated their talents to our fundraising cause. “We have already built one school kitchen in Malawi through Mary’s Meals, a charity which does such fantastic work. Scotland’s most talented musicians and artists want to show their appreciation for this work and to contribute enough money to build another three school kitchens this year.”

Tickets for all events are available by calling 0141 565 1000 or visiting www.thearches.co.uk

Mary’s Meals is a movement to set up school feeding projects in communities where poverty and hunger block children from gaining an education. This movement is administered by the charity Scottish International Relief (SIR).

SIR came into being during the Bosnian confl ict in 1992. Two brothers, Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow, were so moved by the scenes on TV that they decided to organize an appeal for blankets and food in their local area, Argyll, Scotland.

They quickly gathered a jeep load and joined one of the convoys leaving the UK and delivered the aid to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a place of international pilgrimage they had visited with their family years previously.

Believing their good deed was done they returned to Scotland expecting to resume their jobs as fi sh farmers. However they came home to discover the public had carried on donating aid in theirabsence fi lling their parents' garage with goods.

Magnus decided to give up his job for a year to drive the aid out for as long as the public kept donating. The public did not stop and it soon became necessary to set up a registered charity.

The charity began to work in Romania, building homes for abandoned children, and in Liberia, helping returning refugees by setting up mobile clinics, while continuing to deliver material aid to Croatia and Bosnia.

Who are we?In case you are reading this without any prior knowledge of Mary’s Meals and wonder who we are, here is a brief summary . . .

‘ This simple but effective idea has gathered momentum and today provides daily meals for over 581,000 of the world’s poorest children.’

In 2002 Magnus met a family in Malawi that ledto a whole new area of work. The mother was dying of AIDS and lying on the fl oor of her hut surrounded by her 6 young children. When Magnus asked her oldest son what he hoped for in life, his stark reply was, 'To have enough to eat and to go to school one day,"

This encounter prompted the campaign, Mary's Meals, that aims to help children like this by providing a meal a day in school. In this way the children are encouraged to gain the education that can liftthem out of poverty in later life.

This simple but effective idea has gathered momentum and today provides daily meals for over 581,000 of the world’s poorest children. The average global cost to feed a child for a whole school year is just £9.40.

Our headquarters is still situated in the grounds of Craig Lodge, Argyll, but support groups are springing up around the world.

Photo: Mary’s Meals HQ in Dalmally, Scotland

Wish your friends a merry Mary’s Meals ChristmasOur Christmas cards are the perfect way to pass on festive greetings to family and friends whilst sharing the message of Mary’s Meals.

This year’s two designs come from Haiti. The Christmas cards are supplied in packs of ten (fi ve of each design) with envelopes and cost £5, plus postage and packing.

We also offer gift cards for a minimum donation of £10, which would cover the cost of feeding a child for a whole school year.

The front of this year’s gift card features a close-up image of a Chitenje, a piece of fabric worn by Mary’s Meals volunteers in Malawi.

Please call 01838 200605 or email info@marysmeals.org to order.

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GIFT CARD DESIGN

CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGN

CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGN

Our vision is that all those who have more than they need, share with those who lackeven the most basic

things, and thatevery child receives

one daily mealin their place of

education.

Marys Meals is administered through Scottish International ReliefA company limited by guarantee. Coy No. SC265941

Registered Charity SCO22140Craig Lodge, Dalmally, Argyll,

PA33 1AR Tel: +44 (0)1838200605Email: info@marysmeals.org

www.marysmeals.org

@MarysMealsmarysmeals