Hebrides pupils raise cash for Mary’s Meals

Pupils at Sgoil Lionacleit will be holding a week of events to raise awareness of the work of Scottish-based charity Mary’s Meals. Today, Monday 10 October is World Porridge Day which Mary’s Meals use as a celebration of a traditional Scottish dish and the chance to raise awareness of the work of the charity which feeds over 500,000 children worldwide each day.

The activities happening at Sgoil Lionacleit are –

Monday 10 Oct – Assembly for S1 and S3 with a power point presentation provided by S3. Fr Michael MacConald speaking on the topic of Caring. The oat bake sale.
Tuesday 11 Oct – Lionacleit’s got talent (show)
Thursday 13 Oct – Strip the Willow involving the whole school with music by the feis group.

To many in the UK, porridge is a hearty breakfast, but to over 479,000 school-children in Malawi who receive a daily mug of maize-based likuni phala from Mary’s Meals, it is a powerful incentive to go school, and the only reassurance that they will get something nutritious to eat each day.

Mary’s Meals provides a daily meal to chronically hungry children in a place of education to attract them to school, where they can get an education which could lift them out of poverty in later life.

For more information, contact [email protected] or 0141 336 7094 or [email protected] or 01838 200605.

Mary’s Meals began in Malawi in 2002 when its founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow met a young woman called Emma who was dying from AIDS. She was sitting on the mud floor of her hut surrounded by her children. When Magnus asked her 14-year-old son what his dreams were in life, his stark reply was: “To have enough food to eat and to go to school one day”. This was a key part of the inspiration that led to the Mary’s Meals campaign.

Today, Mary’s Meals provides nutritious daily meals to over 557,249 children in 16 different countries, including Malawi, Kenya and Haiti. Support for Mary’s Meals is global, with fundraising and awareness raising groups springing up across the world, including: Abu Dhabi, Australia, Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Malawi, Netherlands and the USA.

The Likuni Phala (porridge) that Mary’s Meals provides in Malawi is a porridge designed by nutritionists, consisting of maize flour and ground soy beans, milk powder, vitamins and minerals and a small amount of sugar – key elements of a balanced diet.

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