Mary's Meals

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Mary's Meals
logo
legal form Aid organization
founding 1992 (SIR), 2002 (Mary's Meals)
founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow
Seat Dalmally , Argyll and Bute , Scotland
motto A simple solution to world hunger
main emphasis School meals
Action space Developing countries
Website www.marysmeals.de

Mary's Meals is a Scottish children 's aid organization that emerged in 2002 from Scottish International Relief (SIR) , which was founded in 1992 . It provides meals for over 1.5 million children in educational institutions every school day and currently operates in 18 countries in Africa , Asia , Latin America , Eastern Europe and the Caribbean . Most children, however, are cared for in Malawi , where about a third of primary school children are offered porridge from Mary's Meals.

Mary's Meals is a non-governmental , non-profit organization that has sister organizations in Australia , Belgium , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Germany , France , Great Britain , Ireland , Italy , Canada , Croatia , the Netherlands , Austria , Switzerland , Spain , Czech Republic and the USA has.

history

Tin shed in Dalmally, Scotland
The shed in Dalmally, which served as a warehouse for relief supplies during the Bosnian War, is now the headquarters of Mary's Meals and MacFarlane-Barrow's office.

In 1992 Scots Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow launched a regional appeal for blankets, food and medicine after seeing reports of the Bosnian War . They filled a Land Rover with supplies and transported the cargo as part of an aid convoy to Medjugorje in Bosnia . The brothers, aged 25 and 27, returned to their Scottish homeland and wanted to resume their work as fishermen . During her absence, however, her parents' shed was filled with additional supplies. Magnus McFarlane-Barrow took time out to transport the relief supplies to the crisis area as long as they were needed and made available by donors. He never went back to his old job. The donations continued to flow and the project was registered as an aid organization under the name Scottish International Relief .

During the following ten years, SIR grew steadily and was able to collect a total of around 10 million euros in donations. The aid organization built houses for orphans in Romania , helped refugees in Liberia by setting up mobile clinics, continued to deliver aid to Croatia and Bosnia and financed many other projects.

Mary's Meals was founded in 2002 when Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying of AIDS . When he asked her eldest son Edward about his hopes for the future, he replied, "I want to have enough to eat and one day go to school". These words are said to have given him the idea behind Mary's Meals. In the same year, they began caring for 200 children, changing the focus to school meals.

In 2011, the aid project reached the number of 500,000 children cared for every school day by caring for another 40,000 children.

Finally, SIR was officially renamed Mary's Meals in 2012. According to the organization, the name refers to the Virgin Mary ; however, one is aimed equally at people of all faiths and at people without religious beliefs.

MacFarlane-Barrow gives a speech at the 2015 Nutrition for One Million Children event.
MacFarlane-Barrow at the 2015 Feeding a Million Children event.

Today, 1,504,471 children are cared for every school day (as of August 2019) in the following 18 countries: Ethiopia , Benin , Ecuador , Haiti , India , Kenya , Lebanon , Liberia , Madagascar , Malawi , Myanmar , Romania , Zambia , Zimbabwe , South Sudan , Syria , Thailand and Uganda . The cost of feeding a school child is on average 15.60 euros per school year.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow was born on February 7, 1968 in Aberdeen and grew up in a Catholic family in Dalmally , Scotland with one sister and four brothers. He attended Oban High School and studied history at Stirling University, but dropped out after a semester to become a salmon farmer . He lives in Dalmally, is married and has seven children with his wife Julie, whom he met in 1993 as a nurse during the transport of relief supplies. The work of Magnus McFarlane-Barrow has been recognized with numerous awards. Some of them are:

In 2015, MacFarlane-Barrow published his first book, The Shed That Fed A Million, about the history of Mary's Meals. It was published in German in 2017 under the title A bowl of grain changes the world .

overview

Group of children in Malawi with the "Likuni Phala" maize porridge
Children in Malawi with the "Likuni Phala" corn porridge
Volunteers prepare "Likuni Phala"

Mary's Meals works closely with the local community. Usually, land is donated to build a neighboring kitchen. Teachers and parents organize a group of volunteers who take turns cooking and serving meals. Mary's Meals provides the kitchen, the kitchen equipment and the corresponding training, offers constant support and supplies the project countries with the ingredients. Each project is regularly visited, supported and checked by employees of the aid organization. Data is also collected from schools to review the impact of school lunch provision on students.

Mary's Meals Malawi is the charity's largest school feeding project with over a million children reached. The porridge that the children receive in the country is made from a special type of flour made from corn and soy flour called "Likuni Phala" and is mixed and distributed in the schools by around 80,000 volunteers, mostly from the children's mothers.

Depending on the country, the pupils receive different dishes: in Zimbabwe and Zambia it is also corn and soy porridge, in India it is for example lentil dhal or vegetable curry with rice and in Syria and Lebanon it is filled sandwiches .

Sustainability and donations

Sustainable work is very important for the organization. The goods are bought locally so that this also contributes to economic growth in the regions. The aid organization has an eye on all long-term effects, has exit strategies and aligns all projects to the self-responsibility and sustainability of the communities in which it works. Mary's Meals is committed not to spend more than 7% on fundraising and administration. According to the latest financial report, the expenses in 2018 amounted to 19.9 million pounds (about 22 million euros). Of this, 98.5% went into charitable activities.

Backpack project

School children in Malawi are given backpacks
Handing out the rucksacks at Chisebe Primary School, Malawi

In addition to school meals, Mary's Meals has been running the so-called backpack project for several years. Used backpacks - mainly from school children - from Germany, Austria, Italy, Great Britain and Ireland are filled with various items for school attendance and everyday life and transported to Malawi and Liberia on a container ship . The transport is worthwhile compared to buying it on site, since most of the local school supplies are imported goods that families can hardly afford, and because the transport costs per backpack are low. In total, over 500,000 school bags have now been collected.

Mary's Meals Germany

A Mary's Meals store

Mary's Meals Deutschland eV was founded in 2004 as a sister organization of Mary's Meals, with the aim of supporting the international aid organization. The registered office of the association, which is recognized as charitable, is in Mainz . In Germany too, almost all members work on a voluntary basis. In 2018 Mary's Meals Germany was able to collect around 1.5 million euros in donations.

Mary's Meals became better known in Germany through calls to participate in the backpack project. Various radio and television appearances by Magnus McFarlane-Barrow, Milona von Habsburg and the former chairwoman Ursula Schwarz also increased awareness of the organization.

In 2019, university groups were also founded in Mainz and Bonn .

Mary's Meals Austria

Mary's Meals in Austria is headquartered in Vienna . The aim of the work is to support and promote the organization in Austria. This works primarily through grassroot work. Employees and supporters of the organization visit schools, parishes, events, organizations and companies to present the project. In addition, Mary's Meals' charity events at various locations in Vienna such as the MAK-Café, the Liechtenstein City Palace and Schönbrunn Palace were attended by numerous guests, including well-known personalities from politics, culture and the media.

Documentation

  • Charles Francis Kinnane: Child 31 . Grassroots Films 2012, 32 minutes
  • Charles Francis Kinnane: Generation Hope . Kinnane Films / Delgado Films 2016, 35 minutes

literature

  • Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow: A bowl of grain changes the world . Tyrolia Verlag , ISBN 978-3-7022-3607-6 (364 pages, English: The Shed That Fed A Million Children . 2015. Translated by Susanne Held).

Web links

Commons : Mary's Meals  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Our story. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b 1.5 million reasons to smile. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b countries. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Malawi. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Mary's Meals International Annual Report 2018. (PDF) Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ When everyone gives ... | Boniface messenger - Sunday - Faith and life. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b Mary’s Meals: Feed a child for 15.60 euros for a school year. November 9, 2018, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Who we are. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  9. ^ John Freund, CM: Living systemic change - new series. April 27, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2019 (American English).
  10. ↑ Elizabeth Grice: Mary's Meals: feeding the world from a garden shed . January 21, 2009, ISSN  0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed August 27, 2019]).
  11. ↑ Our employees. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  12. ↑ And the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2010 are ... Retrieved on August 27, 2019 .
  13. ↑ New Year Honors List 2011 in full . December 31, 2010, ISSN  0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed August 27, 2019]).
  14. ↑ Mark McGivern: Mr Mary's Meals: Charity hero Scot who helps feed a million kids each day. May 16, 2015, accessed on August 27, 2019 .
  15. ^ Mary's Meals founder to launch book at GCU. May 20, 2015, accessed on August 27, 2019 .
  16. ^ The Shed That Fed A Million Children. Accessed August 27, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow: A bowl of grain changes the world . Tyrolia Verlag , ISBN 978-3-7022-3607-6 (364 pages, English: The Shed That Fed A Million Children . 2015. Translated by Susanne Held).
  18. ↑ Mary's Meals Magazine 2016. (PDF) In: Mary's Meals International. Mary's Meals International, accessed August 28, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Likuni Phala. Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Who cooks the porridge in Malawi? Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  21. ↑ a b Mary’s Meals Magazine 2019. (PDF) In: Mary's Meals Germany. Mary's Meals Germany, accessed August 28, 2019 .
  22. ↑ a b school meals. Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  23. ↑ How We Spend Donations. Accessed August 27, 2019 .
  24. ↑ The backpack project. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  25. ^ The Backpack Project. Accessed August 27, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Help with the backpack project. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Backpack project in general. (PDF) In: Mary's Meals Germany. Mary's Meals Germany, accessed August 28, 2019 .
  28. ^ Associations - Mary's Meals Germany eV In: Landeshauptstadt Mainz . Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  29. ↑ MMI Annual Report 2018. (PDF) In: Mary's Meals International. Mary's Meals International, accessed August 28, 2019 .
  30. ↑ LokalPlus: School leavers from the Gräfin-Sayn-Grundschule get involved in Mary's Meals - backpack project. Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  31. ↑ https://www.swr.de/swr1/rp/macfarlane-barrow-magnus-autor/-/id=233366/did=22958426/nid=233366/v16w68/index.html. December 23, 2018, accessed August 28, 2019 .
  32. ^ Students For Mary's Meals. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Contact. Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  34. ^ Grain recipes by Helmut Österreicher. Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  35. ^ Book presentation in Vienna. In: Mary's Meals Austria. March 29, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2019 .
  36. ^ Concert “Young Artists for Children” in Schönbrunn Palace. In: Mary's Meals Austria. September 28, 2018, accessed August 28, 2019 .