Post by elenoire on Oct 28, 2012 4:24:06 GMT -5
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/real-life/sunday-mail-centenary-fund-film-1402701
Sunday Mail Centenary Fund: Film charts story of Mary's Meals charity saving African kids from hunger
28 Oct 2012 00:01
GERARD BUTLER stars in documentary Child 31, which charts the growth of the vital charity.
A MOVIE charting the astonishing story of Mary’s Meals featuring Hollywood star Gerard Butler is in the running for an Oscar.
The half-hour documentary, Child 31, telling how the charity have grown from a fish farmer’s dream to a life-saving aid operation delivering vital food to Africa, will premiere in Glasgow next weekend.
Founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow will attend the special screening, revealing how the organisation now feed more than 650,000 of the world’s poorest children every day.
Mary’s Meals are one of 17 charities chosen to share the £1million we are raising to celebrate our centenary in 2014.
A-list supporter Butler appears in the film after spending time with Magnus at his Scottish office.
The movie had a private screening in New York last week before being entered into the Best Documentary Short category for the 85th Academy Awards.
The charity will find out if they have been shortlisted in January before the ceremony in February.
The early response from film festivals has been very positive and last week Child 31 won Best Documentary and Best Soundtrack at the Pan Pacific Film Festival in California.
Magnus, from Dalmally, Argyll, was a fish farmer before he set up the charity. Despite his starring role with movie heartthrob Butler, he is reluctant to take centre stage.
He said: “It makes me cringe to be in the spotlight.”
Support for the charity has grown around the world with high-profile fans such as Butler. Magnus said: “He was on the Piers Morgan show in the US and took the opportunity to say some very nice things about us.
“He followed up a month later, coming to our office in Dalmally and spending time with us. Now we keep in touch and I have a lot of time for him.”Child 31 follows children from Malawi, Kenya and India who all depend on the charity for a daily meal.
Much of the charity’s work is focused in Malawi, where around a million children are orphans, with nearly 650,000 losing their parents to HIV/Aids.
One in every eight children dies before reaching the age of five – mainly due to preventable causes such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea, which remain the major killers.
Malnutrition is widespread – half of all kids under five have stunted development because of a lack of correct food.
Malawi has around seven million children and its population is expected to hit 23 million by 2025.
Almost half the people in the country live in poverty.
Mary’s Meals run school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest areas and offer a daily mug of porridge to kids attending classes in a bid to help them out of poverty.
The charity began in 2002 when Magnus visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying
from Aids.
When her son was asked what his dreams were in life, he replied simply: “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.”
It was the moment which kickstarted the campaign and Mary’s Meals began by feeding just 200
children.
Ten years later, the charity feed 654,961 children in 16 countries, including Malawi, Kenya, Haiti, Liberia, Uganda and India.
The charity’s largest project remains in Malawi, where more than half a million children are fed at school each day.
The cost of feeding a child with Mary’s Meals for a whole school year is around £10. The organisation run 45 under-six centres in the country.
Magnus said: “Mary’s Meals Under 6 programme meets an urgent and ongoing need and makes a
substantial contribution to the lives of orphans and vulnerable children who face conditions of extreme poverty.
“All over the world, there are people who will not accept that any child in this world of plenty must
endure a day without a meal.
“These are the children who can one day become the men and women who will lift their communities out of poverty and end their reliance on aid.”
The documentary also features Charlie Doherty, a 12-year-old supporter who has refused birthday presents since the age of seven, preferring people to donate to Mary’s Meals instead.
To date, the youngster has raised more than £20,000 for Mary’s Meals, with fundraising challenges such as cycling 600 miles from his home in Brighton to Glasgow.
Charlie said: “I’m very happy to be in the film and I just speak about the work they do.
“Mary’s Meals is so simple but is making such a big difference in the world. If the film wins an Oscar, it will be amazing.”
Magnus said: “The one thing I love about this work is that every day my faith in human goodness is restored because there are so many good and generous people out there who share our vision.
“We are absolutely delighted to have been selected to be part of the Sunday Mail Centenary Fund.
“Supporting Scottish charities is such a beautiful way to celebrate the paper’s 100th birthday and we’re so grateful to the Sunday Mail for helping us bring the message of Mary’s Meals to new eyes, new ears and
new hearts.
“Since it costs just £10.70 for us to feed a child for a whole school year, every penny raised through the
fund can make a real difference to the lives of children benefiting from our work.”
The new movie was made by New York-based Grassroots Films, responsible for The Human Experience, another feel-good documentary that scooped more than 30 awards when it was released in 2009.
Magnus said: “We always thought they would be the perfect people to make a film about our work.”
Sunday Mail Centenary Fund: Film charts story of Mary's Meals charity saving African kids from hunger
28 Oct 2012 00:01
GERARD BUTLER stars in documentary Child 31, which charts the growth of the vital charity.
A MOVIE charting the astonishing story of Mary’s Meals featuring Hollywood star Gerard Butler is in the running for an Oscar.
The half-hour documentary, Child 31, telling how the charity have grown from a fish farmer’s dream to a life-saving aid operation delivering vital food to Africa, will premiere in Glasgow next weekend.
Founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow will attend the special screening, revealing how the organisation now feed more than 650,000 of the world’s poorest children every day.
Mary’s Meals are one of 17 charities chosen to share the £1million we are raising to celebrate our centenary in 2014.
A-list supporter Butler appears in the film after spending time with Magnus at his Scottish office.
The movie had a private screening in New York last week before being entered into the Best Documentary Short category for the 85th Academy Awards.
The charity will find out if they have been shortlisted in January before the ceremony in February.
The early response from film festivals has been very positive and last week Child 31 won Best Documentary and Best Soundtrack at the Pan Pacific Film Festival in California.
Magnus, from Dalmally, Argyll, was a fish farmer before he set up the charity. Despite his starring role with movie heartthrob Butler, he is reluctant to take centre stage.
He said: “It makes me cringe to be in the spotlight.”
Support for the charity has grown around the world with high-profile fans such as Butler. Magnus said: “He was on the Piers Morgan show in the US and took the opportunity to say some very nice things about us.
“He followed up a month later, coming to our office in Dalmally and spending time with us. Now we keep in touch and I have a lot of time for him.”Child 31 follows children from Malawi, Kenya and India who all depend on the charity for a daily meal.
Much of the charity’s work is focused in Malawi, where around a million children are orphans, with nearly 650,000 losing their parents to HIV/Aids.
One in every eight children dies before reaching the age of five – mainly due to preventable causes such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea, which remain the major killers.
Malnutrition is widespread – half of all kids under five have stunted development because of a lack of correct food.
Malawi has around seven million children and its population is expected to hit 23 million by 2025.
Almost half the people in the country live in poverty.
Mary’s Meals run school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest areas and offer a daily mug of porridge to kids attending classes in a bid to help them out of poverty.
The charity began in 2002 when Magnus visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying
from Aids.
When her son was asked what his dreams were in life, he replied simply: “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.”
It was the moment which kickstarted the campaign and Mary’s Meals began by feeding just 200
children.
Ten years later, the charity feed 654,961 children in 16 countries, including Malawi, Kenya, Haiti, Liberia, Uganda and India.
The charity’s largest project remains in Malawi, where more than half a million children are fed at school each day.
The cost of feeding a child with Mary’s Meals for a whole school year is around £10. The organisation run 45 under-six centres in the country.
Magnus said: “Mary’s Meals Under 6 programme meets an urgent and ongoing need and makes a
substantial contribution to the lives of orphans and vulnerable children who face conditions of extreme poverty.
“All over the world, there are people who will not accept that any child in this world of plenty must
endure a day without a meal.
“These are the children who can one day become the men and women who will lift their communities out of poverty and end their reliance on aid.”
The documentary also features Charlie Doherty, a 12-year-old supporter who has refused birthday presents since the age of seven, preferring people to donate to Mary’s Meals instead.
To date, the youngster has raised more than £20,000 for Mary’s Meals, with fundraising challenges such as cycling 600 miles from his home in Brighton to Glasgow.
Charlie said: “I’m very happy to be in the film and I just speak about the work they do.
“Mary’s Meals is so simple but is making such a big difference in the world. If the film wins an Oscar, it will be amazing.”
Magnus said: “The one thing I love about this work is that every day my faith in human goodness is restored because there are so many good and generous people out there who share our vision.
“We are absolutely delighted to have been selected to be part of the Sunday Mail Centenary Fund.
“Supporting Scottish charities is such a beautiful way to celebrate the paper’s 100th birthday and we’re so grateful to the Sunday Mail for helping us bring the message of Mary’s Meals to new eyes, new ears and
new hearts.
“Since it costs just £10.70 for us to feed a child for a whole school year, every penny raised through the
fund can make a real difference to the lives of children benefiting from our work.”
The new movie was made by New York-based Grassroots Films, responsible for The Human Experience, another feel-good documentary that scooped more than 30 awards when it was released in 2009.
Magnus said: “We always thought they would be the perfect people to make a film about our work.”
Elenoire!! Love that photo with the hat! Nice to see Gerard involved in such admirable work 
