Hope For A Better Future
Welcome to our 2022 Helping Hand Appeal. My Weekly is partnering with charity Mary’s Meals again, who provide school meals for children in some of the poorest regions of the world, so that children can get an education and break the cycle of poverty that they were born into.
This year My Weekly’s Helping Hand appeal is concentrating on north-west Kenya where Mary’s Meals is currently feeding children in Early Development Centres and hopes to expand this to primary schools.
Journalist Dani Garavelli travelled to Kenya to meet some of the children who attend, and some of the adults who help out, at the EDCs. The first story she tells us is about a girl called Sunday.
Like many girls in Turkana in Kenya, Sunday doesn’t know her age. She looks about nine – quite old to be at what is effectively a nursery. But when she tells me about the hardships her family has experienced, it is easy to understand why so many in this region start their education late.
“When I was younger, I helped look after our goats with my elder brother,” Sunday tells me. “Mostly, I was milking them, but the drought meant the goats weren’t giving birth and the milk stopped coming. Then they died. Others were stolen by cattle rustlers. Soon, all we had left were a few cows and I was too young to look after them, so last year we settled here and that’s when I started school.”
Sunday’s mum Musug tells me the food provided by Mary’s Meals is the main reason the family decided to come back to her home village. It’s a tough life, but Mary’s Meals is giving the community hope, and the prospect of a better future through education.
“Sunday is not only eating, she is also learning,” Musug says. “I hope one day she will get a good job and help support us all.”
Sunday and her mum Pic: Christ Watt
How You Can Help
Donate today and double your love! Make a donation before January 31, 2023 and it will be doubled, up to £1.5 million, by a group of generous supporters, meaning Mary’s Meals can reach even more hungry children around the world with life-changing, nutritious school meals. A donation of just £15.90 to Mary’s Meals will feed a child for a whole school year. And when that donation is doubled it will feed two children. To help hungry children, send a cheque or postal order, made out to Mary’s Meals, to: My Weekly Helping Hand Appeal, Mary’s Meals, Craig Lodge, Dalmally, Argyll PA33 1AR. To donate by phone, call Freephone 0800 698 1212 or visit www.marysmeals.org.uk to donate online.
