Dancing and dreaming with Beyonce

If you had visited Danckwerts Primary School in Zimbabwe before Mary’s Meals was introduced, you’d have noticed Beyonce sitting separately from the other students at break. Her dad, Brasio, was so ashamed of how little he could afford to give her for lunchtime, he would tell her to go to a secluded place at school to eat so nobody else could see.  

In some ways, she was still one of the lucky ones as her father encouraged her to go to school. Sadly, for many girls across the countries where we work, girls can face significant barriers in accessing education. They are often expected to look after the household or other family members, they may have to work to ease financial burdens on the family, extreme poverty may force them into early marriage or teenage pregnancy. Across the world a shocking 119 million girls are out of school.  

Beyonce's family

Beyonce’s story has a difficult beginning. Her mother abandoned both her and her elder sister when Beyonce was just a baby. Neighbours alerted her father to the two girls crying in a locked room, and he immediately returned from the capital Harare, where he had been working.  

With the elder sister no longer at home, Brasio and Beyonce live together in their small, one-room home. It’s a simple structure, with a bed on one side and improvised shelving making up the kitchen on the other. There’s no electricity but they have a small stove to prepare meals, on the rare days they’re able to afford the food.  

Brasio gestures around their home and says: “If you look around you will see that we don’t have enough. I am struggling to get food for both of us.  

“It was difficult when there was nothing to eat at school and Beyonce would come home and there was nothing here either. But earlier this year, Beyonce told me she would now be getting Mary’s Meals.  

“It has become a relief to me. The only hope I have is the feeding programme; it is something that is helping me to take care of her. It’s the only way she can get a proper meal.”  

Beyonce agrees: “Before the feeding programme, I would feel very weak after going to and from school. Sometimes I would have to walk to and from without eating anything. Maybe there was nothing at home to take to school and then at school, there was nothing too. It was the whole day without having something to eat.”  

Beyonce is a bright student; she speaks in English when she can and has a quiet confidence about her. Her dad says she can be shy, but sometimes he sees her dancing when she thinks he is not around. Apparently, dancing is a passion they both share. She jokes about becoming a pilot because: “they get better pay than any other job I know. It would be exciting! Aeroplanes only take a small number of people, but they pay so much money!”  

A bright future ahead

Besides dancing and dreams of a high-flying career, Beyonce has clear ideas about the impact of the meals she can now rely on in school. She says: “The porridge is so good and tasty and also for children like us who don’t carry anything to school, it helps us. After eating the porridge we can start concentrating, we can also write like any other children in class.  

“I try my best at school. Education is important to me, I see it as an escape route for the way that my mother left me. I hope that one day I will be successful, I will help my father who has helped me since I was a toddler. I hope that one day I will also help other children and other people to have a better life.”  

Beyonce is so full of potential. She has ambition, confidence, and a supportive father who wants her to be happy.

How you can help  

Mary’s Meals’ school feeding programmes encourage all children to attend school and girls make up 50% of the children in school across our programme.  

Our nutritious school meals attract girls to the classroom, but also help them to concentrate and engage with lessons properly. As a result, girls across the world are gaining opportunities they may otherwise not have had. Your support can help girls who receive Mary’s Meals today, to grow up, well-nourished and well educated, and become the women who will lift their communities out of poverty.