The last week or so has been absolutely fantastic for Mary's Meals.
During our annual Mary's Meals Day event in Glasgow, we launched Child 31 online-the heart-wrenching film documenting the work of Mary's Meals-and received overwhelming support from the public, as well as existing supporters and quite a few famous faces, including Celine Dion, Gerard Butler and Piers Morgan.
Due to the brilliance of technology, Mary's Meals Day was streamed live over the internet, so even though I was over 7,000 miles away, I was able to watch it from Malawi.
The event may be over, but the hype surrounding Child 31 is only just beginning as support grows across the globe for the work of Mary's Meals.
To thank our wonderful supporters, I popped along to a school in Malawi to ask if the children would like to draw some 'thank you pictures' for the celebrities who publically backed the film.
The school I visited is an all-girls school with 2,000 learners whom Mary's Meals has been feeding since 2004. After speaking to the Head Teacher about this project, she was more than happy to help and we visited one of the classes to see the children.
The Head Teacher explained to the children why I had come to visit-some things are easier said and understood in Chichewa, and I'm not quite fluent in the language just yet-and when they were told they would be able to draw they were so excited.
Each pupil took it in turn to come up to the blackboard and draw their favourite thing, and each child wanted to draw something better than the child before her-it became quite a competitive morning!
I wasn't too sure if the children or the teachers would know the celebrities that support Mary's Meals but when I mentioned Celine Dion's name they were absolutely gobsmacked that she had lent her voice to support the charity and couldn't say, 'thank you' enough.
I think it's difficult for the schools we feed to understand just how big the Mary's Meals movement is, and how they are part of something that gives children hope all over the world. However, I feel that after visiting this school and sharing the Mary's Meals Day story as well as the news about Child 31, it made these girls realise that they are part of something bigger than they could ever imagine.
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