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CRIEFF BRIDGE CLUB
In the weekly match-pointed pairs, held at Crieff Golf Club on Tuesday, February 8, the results were as follows:
NS - 1 Marc van Grieken and Phil Tipping (63%), 2 Agnes Hoskins and Harry Arbuckle (61%).
EW - 1 Iain McBride and Peter Philip (68%), 2 Alice Key and Alex Dillon (51%).
Crieff Bridge Club meets every Tuesday from 6.45pm in Crieff Golf Club and new participants are always welcome.
The club runs from the first Tuesday in October until the last Tuesday in March.
CRIEFF DRAMA GROUP
A witty and entertaining performance by the Crieff Drama Group proved to be an ideal way to spend a wet and wintry Sunday afternoon.
‘A Rousing Read’ was the title of an eclectic mix of literary topics assembled by John Cummings and performed in rapid-fire mode by the stalwarts of the group.
The readings rattled along at pace, and the audience had to be on their toes to keep up!
Whether the subject matter was ‘ Writers on Writers’, venomous but hilarious criticisms of authors by their peers, or the Monty Pythonesque questions posed by real but clueless customers of an independent Edinburgh bookstore, the cast kept us all amused and entertained.
A full house was served ‘a pie and a pint’ before the performance, and at the interval tea, coffee and cakes were available, as were drinks from the bar.
John Cummings and the group took us on a humorous literary journey, with some great one-liners, and subjects to please everyone, whether serious literary types, or casual holiday novel readers. A great way to spend the afternoon.
• Review by Pat Mowatt.
CRIEFF PROBUS CLUB
Vice-president Ian Buchan introduced speaker Peter Mackie, whose talk was titled ‘Mary’s Meals: The shed that fed two million people’.
The charity was formed 20 years ago by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow following contact from Malawi asking for help.
On that first visit to Malawi Magnus met a young boy Edward, who said what he wanted most was to have food and to go to school.
Much earlier, aged 18, Magnus and his brother Fergus were moved by the conflict in Bosnia.
In total, they made 23 convoy deliveries, having collected enormous amounts of donations, and asked their father if they could use his ‘shed’ as a store.
This shed is still the headquarters of Mary’s Meals, in Argyll, Scotland. It is called ‘The shed that fed two million’.
After this help to the people of Bosnia, Magnus formed the charity Scottish International Relief.
In 2022, Malawi contacted Magnus asking for his help.
Formerly Nyasaland, Malawi has a population of 20 million, 50 per cent of whom are below the poverty line.
More than 50 per cent of the population are illiterate.
About 85 per cent of the population farm one to two acres per family, the main crop being maize.
Tea, coffee and sugar are also grown, but export levels are low.
When Magnus first visited Malawi, despite there being a free school system for children up to the age of 12, only 20 per cent of children attended school.
The main reasons for non-attendance were the children were so weak they could not physically walk to school or, because of this starvation, they had no energy, were too weak and fell asleep in class.
In addition, abject poverty meant parents needed their children to help forage for food.
The solution was to feed the children so they could be educated.
This led to children being provided with a free meal, five days per week, at school.
The meals are prepared from the maize grown locally in each community.
They are cooked in the community by local volunteers, and volunteers, teachers and staff also receive a meal.
This provides an income locally and gives empowerment to the community.
Pre-school children are fed within the family, although no-one is turned away from school.
Within 12 years Mary’s Meals was feeding one million and, after another eight years, Mary’s Meals is now feeding two million per day.
It costs £15.90p per year to feed a child. Mary’s Meals is now providing meals within 20 countries worldwide, including countries in Africa, the Caribbean and in India.
Today school attendance in Malawi is 95 per cent.
Peter played a video showing the children in school, the making of the meals, the enjoyment of the volunteers, and most poignantly the comments of individual children.
Some of the comments included: “If I work hard in school, I can realise my dream”; “I want to be a pilot”; “I want to be a doctor”; “I want to save people”; “I want to know other countries.”
This year the education system had its first university graduate.
Answering questions from members, Peter explained that governments do not interfere and are supportive of Mary’s Meals.
As meals are paid for and provided within local communities, money is not channelled through governments, thus avoiding potential corruption.
Mary’s Meals is funded mostly from donations and benefactors.
Peter left each member with a copy of Mary’s Meals’ magazine, which gives information on how to donate.
Harry Arbuckle proposed the vote of thanks, congratulating Peter on what had been a very moving, insightful and thoughtful talk, and saying how difficult it was to understand the daily starvation experienced by many people in the world.
Crieff Probus Club’s 2022 programme is available via the website www. crieffprobusclub.org.uk
New members, visitors and guests are welcome to come to meetings.
Meetings are held on the first and third
Tuesday of each month of the programme, with coffee and tea available from 10am.
The meetings with the speakers run from 10.30am to noon and take place in the Royal British Legion Scotland clubrooms in Crieff’s Perth Road.
The AGM will be held on March 1. The speaker on March 15 is Bill Lawson. The title of his talk is ‘How Green is Nuclear Energy?’
Details of meetings and membership are available from secretary Elspeth Wright on 01764 653322.
SOROPTIMISIT INTERNATIONAL, CRIEFF
Marian Sapcote of SI Dunfermline spoke to members of SI Crieff about ‘Smalls for All’, a Scottish charity that has grown considerably since being founded in 2010 by Maria Macnamara.
SI Crieff, along with other SI clubs in Scotland, have supported ‘Smalls’ over recent years and members were interested to learn more of its background and success.
After returning home from working as a volunteer in orphanages in Africa and Brazil, Maria felt the need to do something sustainable rather than offer the shortlived support she felt her somewhat fleeting visits gave.
She thought of how so many women and girls, particularly in poor African areas, often possess only one pair of tattered pants or indeed none at all.
This is obviously a health and hygiene issue but also a matter of dignity and can result in many girls missing school for days every month and so affect their education.
And so ‘Smalls for All’ was born and, to date, over 1.7 million items have been sent to orphanages, schools and hospitals, particularly for patients following treatment for obstetric fistula, a common condition in Africa with two million sufferers.
Initially only new pants were collected but then new or gently-used bras – of any size or colour – were also collected, sent, distributed and gratefully received.
Other items of underwear are frequently offered to the charity but the one request is that pants should be suitable for wearing with appropriate sanitary products.
If there are surplus items these can be sold and funds raised go towards sponsoring education for children in Kenya and Malawi.
Initially storage of donations was in Maria’s garage then also her friends’ garages and then when that was still not enough space, a unit was offered free of charge in Livingston.
This had no services so was not ideal and, in time, the current premises in West Calder was found.
Volunteers work there three days a week and donations of items and/ or money may be handed in.
In 2019 the ‘Smalls’ constitution was amended to also support people in the UK who need underwear.
Pants for men and boys are also collected and distributed.
Sadly in this day and age, even in the ‘affluent’ UK, there is need among homeless people, refugees and school uniform banks.
One popular slogan is ‘Say Pants to Poverty’.
The charity has a number of partner organisations that are happy to share transportation/shipping arrangements, thus helping keep costs down, and also avoids posting anything to Africa, as that is expensive and unreliable.
It was altogether an interesting, enlightening, touching and at times amusing talk enjoyed by SI Crieff members and their guests, as described by Julie McVey in her vote of thanks to the speaker.
For more information on the charity, see www.smallsforall.org.
The next club meeting is on March 3 at 7pm in Crieff Golf Club, with Andrew Finlayson speaking on the Archaeologist Society.
For further information, contact Maddy on 01764 670869.
Alternatively see the group’s Facebook page or the ‘SI Crieff ’ section of the website www.sigbi.org.