THE Donegal woman heading up Mary’s Meals in Ireland has described the charity’s move into poverty-stricken Yemen as a “momentous day”.

Patricia Friel from Ramelton is Executive Director of Mary’s Meals Ireland, an organisation that now feeds children in 20 of the poorest countries in the world.

Patricia began volunteering with the charity nine years ago and has helped grow it to the point where two million children every school day benefit from its work.

The former Loreto Milford student said, “Back in 2013 there was a walk going from Malin to Knock to raise awareness of Mary’s Meals and to raise funds.

“I was living in Cavan at the time and Fr Eamonn Kelly rang me up. I thought he wanted me to put him up for a night but he wanted me to do the walk with him. I would hardly walk the length of myself but I’ve known Fr Kelly for years and I knew that anything he was involved in could only be good.”

To convince her further, Fr Kelly brought with him Child 31, a film telling the story of the charity and the work it does.

“Child 31 broke my heart. That was the day I fell in love with Mary’s Meals.”

Patricia agreed to do the charity walk which took nine days to complete.

“I was in bits but I held those children in my heart the whole way and it really helped me along, knowing there was a purpose to this. From there I kept volunteering year after year, helping out on St Patrick’s Day and with raffles at Christmas and other events.”

In 2019 Patricia had the opportunity to see first hand the good work the charity is doing in Zambia. It reinforced her desire to keep volunteering.

“We arrived at a school in Zambia and I’ll never forget this one little boy who asked me if we were there to take the food away. He seriously thought we were there to stop their food and it brought a tear to my eye. I told him that as long as he kept coming to school, we would keep providing him and his classmates with food.”

While still a volunteer at heart, as Executive Director Patricia Friel is responsible for managing the charity’s operations in Ireland.

For every euro it receives, Mary’s Meals guarantees that 93c goes towards buying food for children. That has risen closer to 95c under Patricia’s watch but the absolute guarantee is 93c.

“When people entrust us with their money, it is my job to get it to where it needs to go – the child’s tummy. But there are other things to be considered too such as procurement, transport, making sure volunteers are trained in things like food hygiene.”

Earlier this month Mary’s Meals began feeding 4,000 children in Yemen, a country in the grip of war and described by Unicef as a “living hell” for young people.

To get into Yemen Mary’s Meals teamed up with established international NGO Yemen Aid which provides food baskets to displaced communities and supports thousands of malnourished children. Yemen Aid also runs a number of women’s programmes – supporting female farmers, supplying resources to female businesses and offering skills enhancement and psychosocial support.

“Mary’s Meals will always look where children are most in need but what we have to have is a trusted partner, someone aligned to our values. Yemen Aid does that perfectly and this is such a great day for us, a momentous day.”

To the people of Yemen, as they have done for those living in Malawi, Liberia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Kenya, India, South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Benin, Lebanon, Syria, Myanmar, Thailand, Ecuador, Madagascar, Romania and Niger, the charity has given its ‘promise’.

“We call it our promise that when we move in to a community, we are there until they can stand up and do it for themselves. That promise has been made to 4,000 children in Yemen and we will be there as long as there is a need.”

Mary’s Meals has had a strong presence in Donegal for many years, thanks largely to the efforts of people like Alfie Green. Patricia Friel said the charity was “blessed” to have such dedicated volunteers.

“Whether they are in a shopping centre in Letterkenny or stirring a pot of porridge in Africa, our volunteers all carry the same weight and we simply couldn’t do it without them. We are so blessed in Donegal because the county has really taken us to their hearts.”

The aim is to be feeding three million children worldwide by 2023. It costs nine cents to feed a child and just €18.30 to feed them for an entire school year.

“We need as many people as possible to hear about us and it always gets me when I see our own Irish people and the goodness in them. They are always willing to give to children they will never meet and they will never know. But they know that these children need their help.”

Mary’s Meals is encouraging people to sign up for its ‘Move For Meals’ initiative. It asks people to set a running or walking target and then to set a sponsorship goal. To sign up go to http://moveformeals.org.