From Ethiopia to Haiti. Mary's Meals, a volunteer organization, helps to keep more than two million children from starving to death every day in 16 of the world's poorest countries.
The secret of their effectiveness lies in being practical.
MAGNUS MacFARLANE-BARROW
Founder, Mary's Meals
I think one of our keys secrets is our semplicity and our focus. We want to do one thing and do it very well. And that one thing is to provide a meal every day for the poorest children in the place of education. So that we meet there immediate need for food but we always bring the meal to the classroom and able their education. So we're tackling that underlining cause of poverty.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of Mary's Meals, applies his experience as a Scottish fisherman with simplicity.
The organization is in charge of securing donations. They then purchase the food from local companies in each country. This improves the local economy and provides fresh food for the children. This avoids long and complicated trips to transport non-perishable food to survive the journey.
MAGNUS MacFARLANE-BARROW
Founder, Mary's Meals
One of the key reasons this works is it's a community-owned model. So, all of the work of cooking and serving those meals each day is carried out by local volunteers. So people in their own community. And we work through local partner organizations. Very often organizations that are based, embedded, in those communities. Very locally-oriented. Also, the food that we provide is bought locally. It's local produce. So we're helping the local farmers, we're supporting the local economy to grow. So, all of those things help overcome some of those challenges that we talked about also.
Magnus shared his experience at the Vatican, where he traveled to participate in the summit on children's rights. The Queen of Jordan and the former president of the European Central Bank participated in this forum. He shared his experience and some critical reflections with them.
MAGNUS MacFARLANE-BARROW
Founder, Mary's Meals
Today it costs us, on average, $25 to serve one child with meals for a whole school year. To serve every child who is currently without school meals in the world’s lowest income countries would cost just over $3 billion per year. In the UK alone we spend three times that amount each year on our pet dogs. I have nothing against dogs but this for me is a cause of great shame.
He also lamented the fact that the situation is worsening in many parts of the world. He pointed out that the reasons for this were wars, extreme weather, economic crises and the cutback of aid by the richer countries.
In this sense, he renewed his appeal for solidarity and insisted on his message: donating $25 is enough to feed a child for a whole year.
JH
