A day in the life
Discover how your donation fuels Failo’s day in Zambia
We often talk about a daily school meal, but have you ever wondered what the rest of the day looks like for the children you support with your donations to Mary’s Meals? Our nutritious school meals give children the energy to learn, but they also provide important fuel for play and participating in family life at home.
In this blog, we’ll take a deeper look at the journey of your donation – from the UK all the way to Zambia – where 11-year-old Failo eats Mary’s Meals at school. But we’ll go beyond his daily serving of vitamin-enriched porridge, following Failo through a normal day in his life – exploring his homelife, meeting his family and discovering his responsibilities that shape his daily routine.
Meet Failo
Failo’s village is situated on a plain surrounded by tree-topped hills. Like most communities in Zambia’s Chipata district, it has no access to electricity. His family’s home is made from mud bricks with a corrugated iron roof and doesn’t feature any windows. Inside, two small rooms are shared by all nine members of the household.
Each morning Failo wakes up looking forward to getting to school to eat Mary’s Meals. It’s often his first meal of the day. He says: “At break time, we eat porridge [from Mary’s Meals] then play around before we go back to class. I like football, reading and writing.”
Mary’s Meals is helping because when I eat at school, I am able to concentrate. I don’t have anything to eat in the morning before coming to school. We depend on the porridge.
A path to a brighter future
Failo hopes one day to follow in the footsteps of the Mary’s Meals’ school feeding officer who visits his school to ensure the smooth running of the feeding programme, and give more children like him the opportunity to build a better life.
He says: “When I grow up, I want to ride a motorbike for Mary’s Meals. I admire the school feeding officer when he comes on his motorbike to monitor the feeding programme.”
Life at home
As soon as Failo reaches home after school, which is a short walk away from the village, he changes out of his uniform, removes his shoes and joins the other children barefoot. He does his homework before heading to the family garden, where he is responsible for watering the plants.
When there’s produce from the garden to sell, he walks from house to house around the village carrying a plastic tub on his head containing the vegetables. This is a prime source of income for the family.
Failo’s responsibilities don’t end there.
In the evening, the 11-year-old herds the family’s cows and goats into a nearby enclosure and secures the entrance with a large stick. In the morning, before setting off for school, he is responsible for opening the enclosure to release the animals to graze.
A mother's hope
Failo’s mother, Patricia, dreams of a future for her son where he can work in a job that makes him happy. He is one of seven children – she explains that four of them, older than Failo, have since dropped out of school.
She says: “Failo is doing well at school and out of all my children, he’s the highest performer. I’m happy that he’s doing well.”
When he grows up, my desire is for him to find employment of his choice where he will be happy. It’s important for him to have the porridge because when he eats the porridge and is full, he will concentrate in class.
Your promise can make an impact
From rising for school in the morning, to having the energy to focus in class, to helping the family with the household chores – your donation has the power to create a lasting impact on the daily lives of more than 2.6 million hungry children who eat Mary’s Meals.
And, if you set up a regular gift to Mary’s Meals, it’s more than just a monthly donation; it’s a promise. A promise that children like Failo will eat a nutritious meal each school day, giving them the energy to learn, play and grow into the adults that can lift their communities out of poverty in the future.
This May, thanks to Mega Match May, your kindness can go even further. Until 31 May, if you set up a new regular gift to Mary’s Meals your first three donations will be tripled by a generous donor, up to £200,000.
A serving of Mary’s Meals costs as little as 10p – this means a regular gift of just £5 a month will provide 50 school meals!
Set up your regular gift today and help us unlock the available match funding to reach more hungry children like Faiso with our life-changing school meals.
