Meals charity feeds Kerala flood families
Dalmally-founded charity Mary’s Meals has launched an emergency campaign to help get food supplies to 13,000 families devastated by floods in Kerala.
The charity is appealing for public support to help it reach homeless and hungry flood victims in some of the worst-affected areas.
It is working hard with its long-standing partner in India, BREAD, to delivering essential food supplies but desperately needs donations to support its relief effort.
Father Joson Thakaran, who leads Mary’s Meals’ partner organisation in India, travelled to his home state of Kerala to meet people displaced by the flooding and to coordinate the emergency food distribution.
‘These are the worst floods in living memory; a real deluge on a level that is unprecedented. Homes are under seven feet of water. People have lost their livelihoods and their possessions. Some people have lost their lives,’ he said.
And he added: ‘Mary’s Meals has responded very quickly with a plan to provide emergency food to the poorest of the poor living in the worst-affected areas.’
As the flood waters recede, many people across the region are expected to return from temporary camps to find their homes severely damaged and their crops and livestock decimated.
In an initial response, Mary’s Meals is distributing emergency food parcels containing rice to thousands of vulnerable families in two villages within the flood-ravaged Alappuzha District in the Kuttanad region of Kerala.
Magnus MacFarlaneBarrow, who is founder and global chief executive of Mary’s Meals and oversees its work from a shed in the garden of his Dalmally home, said: ‘We have a long history of responding to emergency situations through existing partners who are well-placed to provide quick and effective relief to those who are suffering.
‘While providing daily meals in a place of education is always our primary focus, we are moved to respond to those in need whenever we are able and we’re incredibly thankful to our partner in India and to our supporters for their commitment and generosity and for the love they are showing to the people of Kerala in the midst of this disaster.’
To find out how you can help, go to marysmeals.org. uk. Mary’s Meals also has a charity shop in Stevenson Street, Oban.