Empowerment through education in India

Located in the bustling city of Noida in northern India is the headquarters of BREAD (Board for Research, Education and Development) – a public charitable trust dedicated to feeding and educating children living in marginalized communities across India.

Mary’s Meals has partnered with BREAD since 2004, and together we serve nutritious daily meals to more than 55,000 children in over 130 places of education across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, with a particular focus on those who are most marginalized. In this interview, we talk to Father Joson – a Catholic priest, trained lawyer and founder of BREAD – about our shared vision that no child should be deprived of education because of poverty or hunger and how our partnership has helped our global program to reach more than 3 million children around the world.

What does BREAD do and why did you start the organization?

BREAD is a non-governmental organization that provides education and nutritional support to children from marginalized communities in India, including those from informal settlements, and children living on the streets and on railway platforms.

In the early 2000s, I provided legal empowerment seminars and many of the women I was working with were uneducated, and their children didn’t go to school. They told me they didn’t have enough food for their children to go to school. When I heard this, I knew I had to address the root of the problem: hunger.

In 2002, I also met Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of Mary’s Meals. The charity had just begun its work of feeding children in Malawi, and we shared a vision to ensure that no child is denied an education because of hunger. I started working with Mary’s Meals to provide meals to children in 2004, and after several legal hurdles BREAD was launched as a public charitable trust in 2009.

What challenges do these children from poor and underprivileged communities face in India?

Access to proper healthcare is a serious challenge in India. And for millions of families, education is not a priority, especially for girls who are traditionally not educated. Poverty drives children into work; schools are far and few between in rural communities, and safety is a serious issue for children commuting to and from school.

On top of this, inequality and social exclusion are visible in the form of the caste system. Bonded labour persists in India – despite being illegal – with people forced to work for very little or no wage to repay high-interest loans or inherited debts. The majority of people on the lowest income don’t own any land, so they’re forced to work on other people’s land. Food insecurity is a huge concern for the millions of these landless, “bonded labourers”, and they’re forced to depend on the erratic and unreliable public distribution system of grain, which can see people going months without any supply.

How does Mary’s Meals’ school feeding program help overcome food insecurity and encourage children, and especially girls, to attend school regularly?

The school feeding program provides nutritious meals to children in schools and informal learning centres. These daily meals encourage school attendance while giving children the sustenance and hope they need to focus, grow and develop. Without Mary’s Meals, there would be far fewer children attending school, and much lower levels of energy and concentration.

For girls in India, the orthodox mentality is that they will be “sent away” after marriage, and families don’t want to “invest” in them. But when there is a school in the neighbourhood that provides food, families are more likely to send their girls to school. The story of Fatima and Soni who grew up receiving Mary’s Meals at school and have gone on to university and employment is clear evidence of this.

How has our partnership contributed to the milestone of Mary’s Meals feeding more than 3 million children every school day, and how can it help as we work towards reaching 4 million children?

BREAD’s partnership with Mary’s Meals began with 40 children in a single school in 2004. Over the last 20 years, this number has grown to more than 55,000 children across several regions in India, which is an incredible achievement.

But, at the same time, according to UDISEPlus data, approximately 47.4 million children between the ages of six and 17 remain out of school in India. Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand are among the states with the highest number of children not in education. So, there is still great need for BREAD and Mary’s Meals to continue our mission.

By working together, we hope to reach even more children with a daily meal in their place of education. And, of course, we look forward to helping Mary’s Meals reach that next amazing milestone of providing meals to 4 million children!

It costs just $31.70 to provide a child with daily meals for an entire school year. Mary’s Meals is now reaching more than 3 million children with a nutritious daily meal in their place of education. While we celebrate this milestone, many millions of children still in desperate need around the world. With your support, we can reach many thousands more children waiting for our daily meals.

Father Joson is the founder of BREAD, our partner in India