Ruth Gledhill, assistant editor of The Tablet, talks to Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of international school feeding charity Mary’s Meals. Mary’s Meals grew out of a charity called Scottish International Relief, which was set up after Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow and his brother Fergus took aid from their home in Argyll to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, during the conflict. The global Mary’s Meals campaign was born in 2002 when Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS. When he asked her eldest son, Edward, what his dreams were in life, he replied simply: “To have enough food to eat and to be able to go to school one day.” Mary’s Meals feeds 2,429,182 children every day at school in 18 countries, across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Currently, one of the concerns is the Tigray war that took place for two years from November 2020 and which thought to be one of the deadliest conflicts in recent years, killing as many as 600,000 people. During this time, the charity’s local partner was able to provide vital food aid and trauma counselling to tens of thousands of people who had fled their homes in fear of their lives. Much of the infrastructure in and around Tigray has been damaged by the fighting, yet in the last few weeks the local partner has been able to deliver more than 16,000 parcels of lentils, flour and oil to families in desperate need.
The charity does not name its partner organisations due to concerns for their safety. However, Mary’s Meals said they can confirm that they are “determined and courageous’, and that prayer has helped them greatly over the past few years.
“Before fighting closed schools across Tigray, we were reaching 24,320 children every day with our nutritious bowls of maize and beans. We eagerly await the day when it is safe for classrooms to reopen and we can return to serving our Mary’s Meals to little ones who have experienced unimaginable terror at a very young age. Our Crisis in Ethiopia appeal allows people to donate to help communities in Tigray begin to recover from the terrible fighting. Ethiopia is one of the poorest and most drought-prone countries in the world. Almost a third of the population lives below the International Poverty Line ($1.90 per day). Many children and their families face a daily struggle for survival, particularly in rural areas where most Ethiopians live. Recurring periods of severe drought and unpredictable rainfall make it almost impossible for people to grow enough food, causing widespread poverty and hunger.”
Loading ...
What do you think?
You can post as a subscriber user ...
User comments (0)