Speaker Benetta Johnston - Mary's Meals
Tue, Mar 14th 2017 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
The tremendous work carried out by the Mary's Meals charity was highlighted in a talk given by Benetta Johnston to Kilrymont St. Andrews Rotary Club.
Benetta, a volunteer with the charity for over eight years, gave an account of how the charity came into being.
In 1992, brothers Fergus and Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow from Dalmally, Argyllshire, were moved by the plight of people and refugees caught up in the Bosnian conflict. A pub chat led to them making an appeal to locals to donate supplies which the brothers would take over in their Land Rover to the the war-torn region.
This they did and on their return they found their father's Nissen hut garage was full of more donations of food, clothing and other goods. Magnus went on to do another 27 trips.
In 1993 they formed a charity, Scottish International Relief helping children in orphanages abroad.
Nearly 10 years later, Malawi was suffering from a devastating drought. The charity's work brought them into contact with an African family. The mother, Emma, suffering from AIDS, had six children and had lost her husband to the disease. One of Emma's children, Edward, said his hopes for the future were twofold, food to eat and to go to school.
This gave Magnus the idea of combining the two...feeding children in school.
The programme started with providing food and education to 200 children in Blantyre.
Renamed Mary's Meals in 2012, the charity now feeds over 1.18 million youngsters in 14 countries around the world.
Mary's Meals gives children one meal a day at school. The meal comprises a mug of maize porridge containing vitamins and minerals. It costs £13.90 to feed a child for a year and for every £1 donated to the charity, 93p goes directly to the feeding programme.
They have over 120,000 volunteers to make the meals, feed the children and build kitchens.
Mary's Meals, which is a non-denominational charity, is now also working in Aleppo and Beirut.
Most of the charity's income comes from small donations. They don't rely on big corporate donors or wealthy benefactors.
They run various appeals including the backpack appeal, Rags to Riches and a world porridge day in October. To find out more visit www.marysmeals.org.uk
Benetta was introduced by Fiona Wells and Brian Gray proposed thanks.
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