Mary's Meals is making such a difference in the lives of children

Paula Nawrocki is Country Director of Mary’s Meals in Liberia, where she oversees a team of 150 people delivering our school feeding programme. More than 90,000 children eat Mary’s Meals each school day in Liberia.

Liberia’s children suffered greatly as a result of a brutal 14-year civil war, which destroyed the majority of schools and forced most of the country’s children out of education. Despite a decade of unbroken peace, the country still faces huge challenges to re-establishing its education system. More than 50% of all students do not finish primary school.

Paula visited Mary’s Meals UK HQ in Glasgow, where she spoke to us about the positive changes Mary’s Meals is making to the lives of children in Liberia.

“Mary’s Meals is making such a difference in the lives of the children,” she says. “We even had child soldiers that were attracted because of the school feeding programme and now they’re productive members of society. They’re out there, they’re working, so it really made a change in their lives.”

Despite the incredible success of Mary’s Meals in Liberia, there is much more to do to help children there to build better futures. Paula explains: “We’re only feeding 18% of school age children, so we’ve only begun our work there. We really need to continue to reach the next hungry child in Liberia.”

Watch Paula's interview above.