Mary’s Meals Concert - Saturday night in the Community Centre – great entertainment but also a very thought provoking event.

The concert was to raise funds for Mary’s meals and specifically for the Baby Sam’s Shelter that is proposed for the Kaphirikwete School in Malawai. The shelter will be in memory of Iain Gordon’s grandchild Sam. Iain organised the event which attracted a capacity crowd to the Community Centre. The evening was a marvellous night’s entertainment and included the Black Isle Jazz Band which was not mentioned on the ticket and came as a bonus. Donnie Munro performed for around two and a half hours and interspersed between his songs were many interesting anecdotes and comment on contemporary and past Highland issues. Fantastic evocative performances by Donnie and his supporting musicians. It was a powerful night in another sense too. This observer had heard before in the press of the work of Mary’s Meals in providing a daily meal for school children in impoverished countries but hadn’t realised what a fundamental difference that could make to a child’s life. Simply if a child doesn’t have to go out and spend the day, begging, working, even perhaps stealing to get money for food then they can go to school. In areas where Mary’s Meals are operating the school role can double. A child can be fed for a whole year for less than eleven pounds. If you have a few moments  then please watch one or two of the videoshere.

Another initiative by Marys Meals is the Back Pack project. Here in a society where most of us possess so much and children too have possessions that many other less fortunate kids can only dream of we might find it hard to imagine what the gift of a back pack containing a few simple school and domestic items might mean to  children that literally have nothing. Another video here shows how this works in Malawai.

Mary’s meals is a Scottish Charity that does so much to change lives. It operates from a Garden shed and 93% of funds raised go directly to where they are needed. Their website is here.