It has been a tasking year for Junior charity fundraising! The norm of parent breakfasts for Infants and Juniors, enterprise fairs, proposed art exhibitions and the summer BBQ were all supposed to be integral in raising funds for our International Charity, Mary’s Meals.

As many of you are aware, the charity’s vision is that every child receives one daily meal in their place of education and that all those who have more than they need, share with those who lack even the most basic things. The charity’s ‘school feeding programmes’ spans 19 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. By providing a daily meal in a place of learning, the charity meets the immediate needs of hungry children and encourage them to go to school to gain an education that can, in the future, be their ladder out of poverty.

In September, we decided to take on the colossal challenge of sponsoring an entire school in southern Malawi:

• Bondo school is a mixed primary school in the Blantyre district in the south of Malawi.
• It has a total enrolment of 678 children, 349 boys and 329 girls.
• The food these children receive in Malawi is a soya and maize porridge enriched with vitamins and minerals, which is known locally as likuni phala. This is locally sourced, which is good for the local economy and for the environment, and normally cooked in enormous pans by our amazing volunteers from the local community, many of them relatives of the children being fed. While schools were closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic the porridge has been distributed in the community for the families of children enrolled in our programmes to collect and cook for their children at home.
• Mary’s Meals was born in Malawi. It all began when the founder, Magnus McFarlane-Barrow, met a 14-year-old Malawian boy called Edward who said: “I would like to have enough food to eat and I would like to go to school one day”.

Our target was £10,700 – the highest set for a Junior School International charity to date. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, in true FHS style, the girls managed to reach their target through some inventive initiatives. Self-portrait tea towel sales, Christmas CDs sung and produced by the whole school, red envelope initiatives, multiple bake sales and of course the girls donating their own pocket money into Mary’s Meals cardboard collection boxes all contributed to raising enough money to feed the whole of Bondo school for an entire year.

A highly successful campaign with all year groups learning more about the notion of charity and the importance of giving to others in less fortunate parts of the world. It goes without saying that we would not have been able to achieve this mammoth goal without the help and generosity of the parents. A huge thank you from all the staff at Francis Holland Junior School. We look forward to receiving our official report from the Headmaster of Bondo School in October accompanied by photos of the pupils as well as handwritten letters. There will also be a specially painted Francis Holland Junior School sign that will be placed in Bondo School. The sign will be a daily reminder to the children that the life-changing meal they receive is a gift and that the girls at FHS believe they deserve a prosperous future.