A FOOD charity has expanded its school meals programme into war-torn Aleppo, Syria, in an effort to help children rebuild their lives following years of civil war.
Mary’s Meals, in partnership with the Dutch organisation Dorcas, is working in six schools in the shattered city, providing nearly 1,500 Syrian children with a daily meal.
In a country where 1.7 million children are out of school and 69 per cent of the population are living in extreme poverty, Mary’s Meals aims to encourage children back into education where they can receive a nutritious meal.
Founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow said: “After a four-year long battle for Aleppo and tens of thousands of deaths, the siege – at least for now – is over. At last, children have the chance to start regaining their lost childhoods.
“Through Mary’s Meals, both the immediate, desperate needs of today, and the longer-term necessity of education, will be nurtured through each meal served by local volunteers.
The expansion into Syria follows the charity’s pilot programme in Lebanon last year where, alongside its regional partner Dorcas, Mary’s Meals began providing daily meals to Syrian refugee children and their Lebanese classmates in a school near the capital, Beirut.
There are 1.5m Syrian refugees in Lebanon and two-thirds of the children are not in school, while 74 per cent of families are food insecure.
With Lebanese and Syrian mothers volunteering to implement the school food programme, it has been extended to reach children at the Bourj el-Barajneh refugee settlement in the south of Beirut. The total number of children benefiting from Mary’s Meals in Lebanon is now 1,430.
Mary’s Meals’ provides daily meals to more than 1.1m schoolchildren, working in 14 countries including Malawi, Liberia, Zambia, Kenya, Haiti, India and South Sudan.
The average cost to the charity of providing a child with a meal for a school year is just £13.90.
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