Nominated a true hero, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow is bringing hope to the world's poorest children

IN 2002 a widow lay on the dirt floor of a mud hut in Malawi, surrounded by her six children. Her husband had died of Aids and she, too, was about to succumb to the disease. Racked with pain, she talked about her fears for her children to aid worker Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow.

"She was in agony because she didn't have basic pain killers but she talked about what would happen to her children after she died. All of the adults in the village had already taken in orphans and she said, 'There's nothing left for me but to pray that someone will look after them when I'm gone.' I talked to her 14-year-old son, Edward, and asked him about his hopes and ambitions? He said, 'I'd like to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.'

"That was the extent of his ambition. Working in the poorest communities in the world, that was something we came across a lot, that the very poorest children don't go to school because they are working or begging and miss out on their education."

That conversation stayed with MacFarlane-Barrow, and back home in Dalmally, Argyll, he set up in a corrugated tin shed Mary's Meals, an international movement to establish school feeding projects in communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education. Now with a turn-over of 7m and 30 paid staff, Mary's Meals provides food for 420,000 children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe.

Linking children's education with a square meal, the aim is to feed hungry youngsters and also give them the tools to break out of the cycle of poverty.

"Our vision is that every child in the world should be able to receive a meal in a place of education. People look at me like I've lost the plot for having such a grand ambition, but the way I have seen it grow, it's not impossible. It's more mad that 18,000 children per day are dying of hunger-related causes and that 100 million children are out of school through poverty. Both of these things are mad in this world of plenty."

Mary's Meals - named for Mary, the mother of Jesus, "because she brought her child up as a refugee in poverty" - grew out of parent charity Scottish International Relief, which former salmon farmer MacFarlane-Barrow set up with his brother Fergus in response to the war in Bosnia in 1992. The pair collected food, blankets and medicine, bought a Land Rover and ran over 80 truckloads of aid to the region, with Magnus marrying fellow truck driver Julia, now the mother of his six children, along the way.

After Bosnia, came emergency and famine work in Liberia (pictured above), Africa, Haiti and India. "It was meant to be one delivery of aid to Bosnia. Now I can't imagine doing anything else. It's a privilege to see these children being fed and restores your faith in human nature."

Now 42-year-old MacFarlane-Barrow has been shortlisted as one of CNN's Top Ten Heroes of 2010. Each of the nominees receives a donation of $100,000 for their work and will attend a ceremony in Hollywood at which one will be named Hero of the Year, on a programme to broadcast on 25 November, Thanksgiving. The only Briton, MacFarlane-Barrow is up against a birthing project for young mothers in Kenya and a solar lights campaign in Africa.

"The other projects are doing incredible work so I'm honoured. Our intention is to keep reaching more and more hungry children."

"I never cease to marvel at the ways doors seem to open for Mary's Meals. I also never cease to cringe at doing things like appear as a hero on TV. I know lots of heroes and I am not one of them. However, I realise this is the most amazing chance to tell more people about Mary's Meals."

Last year's Top Ten Heroes event saw Hollywood stars such as Kate Hudson presenting prizes, but MacFarlane-Barrow isn't impressed by celebrity, despite admitting he'd love to meet panel member Muhammad Ali. "I'm not really a celebrity person. I think Geldof and Bono are great, but Mother Theresa is my personal hero. Organisations talk about development theory and implementing projects but she never forgot it's about people and work of the heart. Mary's Meals is a series of lots of little acts of love. If you put all those acts of sacrifice together it creates a beautiful thing." n

Vote for MacFarlane-Barrow until November 17, see www.cnn.com/heroes, www.marysmeals.org

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on October 10, 2010