Mary’s Meals serves school meals to children living in some of the world’s poorest countries. The promise of this nutritious meal attracts these hungry children into the classroom, giving them the energy to learn and hope for a better future.
Our work started 20 years ago with just 200 children in Malawi. Today, an incredible 2,429,182 children in 18 countries will eat Mary’s Meals at school.
It is a very wonderful thing that we can reach so many little ones – but it is getting more and more difficult for us to do so.
The soaring price of essential commodities has caused our costs to rise by 20 percent – the largest increase in our 20-year history – and our income simply isn’t growing at the same rate.
As we face these challenges and look to the year ahead, I am more thankful than ever before for the Mary’s Meals family. All those involved in our mission are people of hope – from those who give so generously, to the volunteers who cook our nutritious food and, of course, the children who eat Mary’s Meals.
Samuel, 13, is one of those children. He has been living in Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi for five years, ever since his family was forced to flee violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Samuel has experienced unimaginable fear and upheaval at a very young age but our life-changing meals are fueling his dreams for the future.
He says: “I would like to be a pilot. A pilot is someone who learns a lot and I want to learn a lot, like how to build an airplane and how to fly an airplane in the skies.”
I know that many people in the UK are facing struggles of their own at this time. Please know that we treasure every penny entrusted to us – and that, with Mary’s Meals, even the smallest of donations can give the world’s poorest children, like Samuel, much needed hope for a better future.
– Daniel Adams is executive director at Mary’s Meals