Annual appeal seeks bags of donations from pupils

As the start of the new school term approaches, an Argyll charity is asking school pupils across the north and north-east to make a much-needed donation.

In this case youngsters they want to mark the return to school by donating old schoolbags to children more than 7,000 miles away.

Local children can take part in The Backpack Project, run by Mary’s Meals, by filling their old bags with notepads, pencils and clothes.

T h e c h a r i t y w i l l then send them to schoolchildren in Malawi, who receive more than 40,000 bags each year.

Daniel Adams, executive director of Mary’s Meals UK, said: “I hope pupils in the north will celebrate the new term by joining in The Backpack Project and donating their old bags to children who eat Mary’s Meals in Malawi. “A bag filled with school essentials is a wonderful

“A bag filled with school essentials is a wonderful gift”

gift because it these children ensures can get the most out of their education, giving them a ladder out of poverty and the chance of a better future.”

Since the launch of The Backpack Project in 2005, generous UK supporters of the charity have donated more than 500,000 school bags to children in Malawi.

One of the poorest countries in the world, it is home to Mary’s Meals’s largest school feeding programme, which reaches 32% of primary school aged children across the country.

To find out more about The Backpack Project, visit www.marysmeals. org.uk