A CHARITY set up to help some of the world's poorest children has donated 50,000 backpacks to school pupils in Malawi this year.

Mary's Meals delivered the milestone backpack filled with gifts to a delighted Sosa Saidi, a seven-year-old pupil at Chilobwe vocational primary school in the rural Blantyre district, situated in the southern part of Malawi.

The charity mainly sets up school feeding programmes in impoverished countries.

More than 370,000 bags have been shipped to children in Malawi, Liberia and Kenya since 2005.

Gillian Boyle, the charity's Malawian logistics co-ordinator, said: "Everyone in the team was so happy when we managed to break our record and distribute 50,000 backpacks to children."