Patuma is now fed every day thanks to the amazing work of Mary’s Meals

LITTLE Patuma Macheso has no idea she lives in the world’s poorest country.

But a life of deprivation, in which malnutrition has stunted the 13-year-old’s growth, means she knows only too well what hunger feels like.

Patuma lives with her aunt in a hut in Green Village in the Machinga district of Malawi.

Her mother and grandmother died when she was younger, meaning she was passed around stepmothers.

There is nothing remarkable about her story in a country where more than 10 per cent of people have HIV or AIDS, where the life expectancy is 55 and where half the population earns less than $1 a day.

But now Patuma is a child in a million, poster girl for Scottish charity Mary’s Meals as they announced they are now feeding a million children a day in schools.

A fortnight ago, she became one of 1500 kids who started getting food, mainly phala, a rich porridge, from the charity.

Yesterday, Patuma was at the heart of celebrations at Chirimba Primary School, where 1000 children and their families gathered with village chiefs, volunteers and government ministers to celebrate the charity’s achievement.

Patuma beamed when she spoke to the Record while holding the red cup given to her by Mary’s Meals.

She said: “My cup is my favourite thing.

“It’s what I use to get the phala that keeps me strong.

“Having a meal at school makes me very happy because I can focus on my school work and I can be with friends.

“There is always a shortage of food in my home so this meal is very important for me.”

The meal may be basic but the porridge is fortified with vitamins and is the highest nutritional value to cost ratio dieticians could come up with for Malawi.

Yesterday, they queued up with an air of jubilation at this simple porridge they were set to receive – and it’s the same every day for children whose aspirations are dulled by relentless, grinding poverty.

Patuma dropped out of school three years ago because she did not have enough food in the day to give her the energy to focus on lessons.

That story is a common one, leading to emaciated children either hanging around home in a state of exhaustion or being put to work in daily “piece work” in fields.

That could earn Patuma £1.50 a day, working from 5am, to put towards the

There are 57million children denied education because of poverty MACFARLANE-BARROW

family’s unending food crisis.

Another recent beneficiary at Chirimba is 14-year-old orphan Marita Wyson, who lives with her grandmother. Marita said: “It makes me feel strong and I am able to understand what my teachers are telling me.

“My grandmother doesn’t have to worry so much about how she will provide food for me and my sister.”

Mary’s Meals now work in 12 countries ranging from Somalia to Haiti. In Malawi, 773,000 kids receive a daily meal from the charity.

About 1000 tons of food a month is delivered from the Mary’s Meals HQ in Blantyre, Malawi’s second city, making a huge impact and ensuring the charity’s name is famous in this African nation.

Founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow has collected a string of awards for his tireless work, including a CNN Heroes Award in 2010 and inclusion in Time