Programme was on hold for six months due to Ebola crisis
Mary’s Meals has resumed its school feeding programme in Liberia following the Ebola outbreak.
The Scottish charity sprung back into action after schools across the country started to reopen for the first time since the crisis struck.
Liberia's government was forced to shut all of its schools in an attempt to stop the disease spreading and Mary’s Meals had taken a six-month break to its usual feeding programme, which in normal circumstances sees more than 128,000 impoverished children across the country given a nutritious meal each day.
In the intervening period, the charity mounted an Ebola crisis response, delivering food aid to thousands of affected people, including patients infected with the virus.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Mary’s Meals’ founder and chief executive, said: “After the trauma of the last months, it’s important that we now get children back into school and we are delighted to be able to resume our usual school feeding programme.
We hope and pray that classrooms across Liberia will soon be full again of children taking the next steps in their education, while enjoying the reassurance of a daily meal
“We hope and pray that classrooms across Liberia will soon be full again of children taking the next steps in their education, while enjoying the reassurance of a daily meal.
“It is thanks to the generosity of our supporters that Mary’s Meals was able to act quickly during the Ebola crisis and I want to thank them again now for supporting, as I know they will do, the re-introduction of school feeding for 128,000 children in Liberia.”
Schools are gradually being reopened but told to adhere to strict disease prevention measures.
Mary’s Meals staff on the ground are working closely with schools to ensure reasonable safety measures are in place, and to share advice on preventing infection.
Before entering the classroom, every child and staff member must have their temperature checked and disinfect their hands with a chlorine solution.
The reopening of schools has provided reason for optimism, but education workers believe there is much to be done before the country can return to any kind of normality.
Evelyn Twum, a district education officer from Bomi County, said: “There’s still a lot of fear in communities.
“Parents are worried if they send their children to school there will be another Ebola outbreak.
“But Mary’s Meals is going a long way towards addressing that problem. If parents know their children will get food in school they will send them.”
