[Name] backs project to help the world’s poorest children
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[Include name of school/supporter/group within this title] backs project to help the world’s poorest children
[Insert name of school/supporter/group] from[Insert location]have filled backpacks with educational items to help some of the world’s poorest children, as part of a Mary’s Meals campaign.
The charity’s Backpack Project appeals to individuals, schools, clubs and other groups to donate backpacks filled with materials such as notebooks, pens, and school clothing, to send to children receiving Mary’s Meals.
Mary’s Meals sets up and runs school feeding programmes in communities where hunger and poverty stop children from gaining an education. The international charity currently provides a meal every school day for more than one million children in 12 countries.
The aim of Mary’s Meals is to address the immediate needs of a hungry child by giving them something to eat, and to enable that child to receive an education,which can offer an escape from poverty. The charity’s average global cost to feed a child for a whole school year is just £12.20.
[Name of school/supporter/group] said: “[insert quote about why you have chosen to support Mary’s Meals through the Backpack Project].”
Where Mary’s Meals is provided, there is a rise in rates of enrolment, attendance and academic performance.
Mary’s Meals is a low cost charity that spends at least 93 pence of every £1 donated on its charitable work.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and chief executive of Mary’s Meals,said: “All of the children who benefit from Mary’s Meals and the Backpack Project have suffered war, poverty, famine, or natural disaster.
“They don’t have simple things like pencils and notebooks, or even suitable clothes to wear to school, which means they can miss out on an education.
“A simple backpack filled with basic educational items, together with Mary’s Meals, can help solve this problem, and allow these children to make the most of their education, which provides an escape route from poverty.”
Since the project started in 2005, over 440,000 backpacks have been collected and shipped to countries such as Malawi, Liberia and Kenya.
For more information please contact[insert your contact details]
For further information on Mary’s Meals, please visit follow the charity on @marysmeals and on
Notes to Editors
Mary’s Meals began in Malawi in 2002 when its founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow met a young woman called Emma who was dying from AIDS. She was sitting on the mud floor of her hut surrounded by her children. When Magnus asked her 14-year-old son what his dreams were in life, his stark reply was: “To have enough food to eat and to go to school one day”. This was a key part of the inspiration that led to the Mary’s Meals campaign.
Mary’s Meals began feeding 200 children in one Malawian primary school in 2002. Today, the organisation reaches 1,035,637children with a daily meal in school, across four continents.
For more information, please contact:
Jane Hamilton, Media and Communications Officer:
| 0141 336 7094 | 077 7979 0541
marysmeals.org.uk1