From slums of Haiti to Dalmally charity

A HAITIAN musician who received Mary’s Meals as a child at school has visited the shed where the work of the Argyll-based charity began.

Jimmy Belabre, 28, who grew up in the violent slum of Cité Soleil, has never forgotten the kindness of Mary’s Meals supporters who provided him and his classmates with food, helping him to access the education that changed his life.

His visit to Dalmally was part of a three-week stay in the UK during which Jimmy is performing at Mary’s Meals’ annual events in Glasgow and London.

Jimmy’s community of Cité Soleil is home to around half a million people who live in houses made from rusting corrugated iron on a rubbish dump by the sea.

He witnessed nightly gun battles there when lawlessness was at its peak, from 2004 to 2007, and remembers the night a bullet struck the wall just above his mother’s bed while she slept.

The inspiring young man resisted offers of money and guns from local gangs and stayed in school. His resolve was, he says, fuelled by the daily meal he received at school and the kindness of the people from far away who made that possible. For many years, the daily school meal was all he had to eat.

Jimmy is now the principal of the school he attended, St Francis De Sales Becky DeWine School, in Cité Soleil, where Mary’s Meals continues to provide nutritious food in partnership with locally-based charity Hands Together.

The singer-songwriter was excited to spend time in Dalmally, where the work of Mary’s Meals began, in a small tin shed that still serves as the charity’s global headquarters.

Jimmy said: ‘You can be one of two things in Cité Soleil – a gangster or a good person. It is easier to be a gangster because this is something you see every day.

‘Fortunately, I had the chance to go to a school where Mary’s Meals provided food. That was one of the most wonderful days of my life. The meal kept me in school and I could study and keep myself positive and today I’m a not a gangster – I’m a positive influence in the community.’

He added: ‘It has been an incredible experience for me to see for myself where the work of Mary’s Meals began. If Mary’s Meals didn’t feed me, I would not have the chance to become what I am today.’

Mary’s Meals currently provides 1,230,171 hungry children with a daily meal every school day in 14 countries.

Jimmy will share his story and perform at the annual Mary’s Meals Day free event on Sunday September 3 in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall. Doors open at 1pm for a 2pm start and everyone is welcome.

For more information, go to www.marysmeals.org.uk.