It was an early start this morning as we headed down to
Nansato School to see the Mary’s Meals programme. We arrived to find four huge pots of phala
ready to be served and children starting to line up. Because there hadn’t been any phala the
previous couple of days, some of the kids came without cups or bowls but they
soon improvised. It was such an amazing
site to see the pupils eating and enjoying some healthy food.
About half an hour later, Mr Kajani, the Head of Programmes
for Mary’s Meals arrived. He had driven down from Blantyre (about an hour)
to meet us as Mr. Banda (with whom I spoke to the previous day)was tied up
initially. We had a great discussion
with Mr Kajani about the programme and learned a couple of new things about
it. The take up rate of Mary’s Meals now
is approaching 94% of learners and they are now in more than 900 schools in
Malawi. The government this term has
extended the school session by a week which has caused great difficulties for
the programme as they have run out of stock.
Mary’s Meals get all their phala straight from the distributor and have
no storage facilities.
In discussion, I mentioned that my husband had raised £1000
for the programme from his 40th birthday party. Mr Kajani then said, is this Colin Anderson,
your husband? Jenni and I couldn’t
believe it!! So our Colin is known in Malawi for his support of Mary’s
Meals. Fantastic!
We have arranged to visit Mr. Kajani and Joe Gibben at the
Mary’s Meals office in Blantyre next week.
It should be an interesting visit and hopefully we will learn even more.
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