Mary’s Meals founder on ‘Time’ top 100 list

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, whom former prime minister Gordon Brown describes as a “quiet-spoken father of seven [who] won’t rest while there are children to feed and educate and to be given a chance in life” has been named as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine.

Mr MacFarlane-Barrow, 47, a Catholic, is described in this week’s issue of Time as a “schoolkids’ saviour”, and in a tribute to him Mr Brown sets him in a line of great Scottish missionary heroes who include David Livingstone and Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire fame. He is the only Scot on the Time list.
His charity Mary’s Meals will, says Mr Brown, soon be feeding one million schoolchildren across 12 countries every day. “His work began in Bosnia, but a visit to Malawi, where a child told him his dream was having enough to eat, cemented his mission: to get thousands of girls and boys to come to school by providing a meal,” he writes.

Mr MacFarlane-Barrow is listed in the “pioneers” section of the Time list; also there, in the “icons” section, is Pope Francis. His published tribute is by the Anglican Emeritus Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, who describes how the Pope has?“instilled a new sense of human-centredness in the papacy” and “brought hope to millions of Roman Catholics around the world”.