John Helliwell, from the Charity Mary’s Meals, was guest speaker at the 9th June meeting of the Rotary Club of Anstruther.

Using photographs from Malawi John explained the work of Mary’s Meals. It is a simple idea that works – by providing a daily meal in a place of education; chronically poor children are attracted to the classroom, where they can gain a basic education. The aim and hope is to that a basic education can be an escape route from poverty.

The charity began in 2002 in Malawi, feeding 200 children. Today it is feeding over 500,000 children in countries including Malawi, Liberia and Haiti. In Malawi alone there are 65,000 local volunteers making the work possible.

The level of poverty we saw was heartbreaking in the way it affected so many young children, often homeless and very commonly with parents lost to Aids. As always it was very uncomfortable to compare the way of life for people in those countries, with that which we have in the UK, even though we know we have issues of our own.

More happily we saw good outcomes from the work being done. We heard that the ‘meals’ the charity provides are a form of porridge containing maize, Soya, malt extract and vitamins. It costs £12.20 to feed a child with Mary’s Meals for an entire school year.

Apart from meals the charity does other things too – their ‘backpack project’ – sponsoring kitchens - and with a focus on giving girls a voice.

John was at pains to stress the ethos of the charity. Mostly run by volunteers, no shiny headquarters, low salaries for the paid staff they do have. For each £1 raised just one penny goes on governance and at least 93% is delivered as aid.        

After questions John was thanked on behalf of the Club by Andy Matthew. More about Mary’s Meals is at (www.marysmeals.org.uk)