How 200,000 helpings of porridge are a lifesaver for Somalia

Enough food to provide nearly 200,000 meals for starving children and their families has been delivered to a famine-hit part of east Africa by a Scottish charity.

Mary’s Meals said the initial consignment of almost 21 tonnes of food aid was delivered to the Somalian capital Mogadishu this week.

It will soon be followed by further consignments amounting to 100 tonnes, providing around 900,000 meals in total.

Somalia is at the heart of a drought currently affecting the region.

An estimated 3.7 million people, almost half the country’s population, are thought to be suffering from a humanitarian crisis.

The food aid project is a joint initiative between Mary’s Meals and African relief agency Gift of the Givers.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and chief executive of Mary’s Meals, was aboard the plane bringing in the initial consignment from Malawi.

“It’s been amazing to visit the feeding centres and see the food that only two days before had been in Malawi reaching people in desperate need, but also overwhelming to see at first hand the sheer scale of this human tragedy,” he said.

“Like everyone else, we have been horrified by the images of suffering children and the scale of the need in Somalia, but initially we did not see an opportunity to work effectively there and until now have concentrated our response to northern Kenya, where we have worked for many years.

“However, when our trusted partners established themselves in Mogadishu and began effectively distributing food to those suffering most there, it made it possible for us to help, simply by sourcing food in Malawi, where we have a large operation, for direct transport into Mogadishu.

“We are delighted that we can now use donations to save lives in a place where so many are suffering.”

The charity said that, until recently, getting aid into Somalia was difficult due to security concerns, however its partner, Gift of the Givers, managed to gain secure entry and exit.

The food being bought by Mary’s Meals is a nutritious maize-based porridge, likuni phala, and is being sourced in Malawi to support the economy there. The remaining 80 tonnes of food is said to be “on the way” to Somalia. Instead of being flown in, it is being loaded on to containers in Malawi and transported to the coast before being shipped to Somalia.

Mary’s Meals currently provides more than 479,000 daily meals to hungry children in Malawi and it is feeding more than 24,000 children in northern Kenya.

Those wishing to support its East Africa emergency appeal should visit www.marysmeals.org or call 01838 200605.

The latest aid will be welcomed after reports last month suggested that British donations to tackle the drought crisis had yet to match the levels reached by previous appeals by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). In the first weeks of the campaign, donations of £45 million were received by the DEC – behind the eventual total of £396m raised after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and also far less than the £106m raised for the Haiti earthquake and £71m for Pakistan.