During recent years several Soroptimist Clubs have supported Mary’s Meals, a feeding programme in African schools, first set up 11 years ago by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, and still operating from the small Scottish town of Dalmally.
When Magnus asked a child in Malawi what he wanted for the future he replied ‘to have enough to eat and to go to school each day’ and that is what this project is all about.
Mary’s Meals aims to provide each child with a maize porridge meal in a place of learning and today delegates heard how this simple solution to world hunger has been an enabling factor in education. Ailie Marks, Fundraising Support Officer and based in Glasgow, explained how Mary’s Meals has changed the lives of so many young people.
Ailie began by showing us a short animated film to demonstrate the reality of living in poverty and how hungry children often go without education.
She described Mary’s Meals as a ‘No frills organisation’. She said that they now operate in 16 countries and provide over 792,000 meals every day. £10.70 can feed a child for a year and 93p in every pound raised is spent directly on the charity. Ailie also said that a backpack could double the wealth of a family and finished with a quotation from Nelson Mandela:
‘Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world’
Two SIGBI clubs have actually funded feeding kitchens, SI Dunfermline and SI Haverford West. Ailie thanked them and all Soroptimists for their work and said how thrilled she had been to listen to our speakers this morning and to learn about SI.
Before Carwen Wynne-Howells from Haverford West could give the vote of thanks International President, Ann Garvie, jumped onto the platform and said that she would call to collect Ailie next Wednesday and take her to the meeting of SI Glasgow City!!
Report by Anne MacDonald – Cheshire, North Wales & the Wirral Region