“My animals are dying and soon my people will die too,” Ekai says to me, looking at his son Elar, who is herding their goats along the path in front of us.
Today in Turkana, 2 million children are already acutely malnourished. More than ever here, Mary’s Meals is a lifeline in communities where thousands of pre-school and primary school children eat our precious daily meals. It is the promise of these meals that draws them in and – along with the education they receive – keeps hope alive of a better future.
However, our promise is being tested like never before. The rising price of food and fuel means that the cost to feed a child is going up. As a result, currently the sums don’t add up. The cost to feed children is increasing rapidly and our income isn’t growing at the same rate.
For 20 years, we have been asking you for help to reach the next child waiting for Mary’s Meals – and God knows there are more children in urgent need of help than ever before, and we want to reach them as soon as possible. But first and foremost, I ask you to help us to keep the promise we have made to more than 2.2 million children already receiving our meals. And I do this while being painfully aware that rising costs are not only putting strain on families in places like Turkana, but that you too may be facing financial challenges.
Please, if you can, consider joining Ekai in digging a little deeper and making a donation that will help us to keep serving the meals on which so many young lives depend. We want to reach that next child waiting as soon as possible, but first we must stay faithful to those already eating our meals today.
And if you are not in a position to support financially at this time, please remember there are other ways you can help – telling other people about Mary’s Meals, volunteering your time, or praying for all those hungry families.
On behalf of Ekai, his family, and thousands of other families in which hope remains alive because of these life-changing meals you help us to serve, I wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas when it comes.
Just $31.70 feeds a child for a whole school year.