Martha, Meals and Malawi

What a year for Martha Payne!

Her simple blog on school dinners won worldwide attention...

..and raised money to help change the lives of thousands of children.

Her efforts inspired others and now the girl from Lochgilphead

is a global star. This is the story of how Martha made such a difference

and raised money to buy meals in Malawi.

-AMERICAN NEWSREEL:

-A nine-year-old girl from Scotland has started

her own food blog called NeverSeconds.

She shows how disappointing her school lunches are, and she's gone viral.

Check this out. Every day Martha Payne takes a photo of her lunch.

She's not always happy about it, saying, "I'm a growing kid,

"I need to concentrate all afternoon and I can't do it on one croquette. Do you think you could?"

No, Martha. I don't even know what a croquette is.

Martha Payne dreams of being a journalist,

but she didn't expect to hit the headlines at the age of nine.

Why would anyone listen to a little kid talking about food?

They would probably think I had nothing...

didn't know what I'm talking about!

They would probably think I was going to say something like...

"Chocolate's not good for you. Eat apples."

"Don't eat chocolate oranges. Eat real oranges instead."

Boring.

That's what they probably expected.

Well, I wanted to do a blog because I wanted to do writing projects,

but we thought of school dinners

because I always came home hungry and we've always wanted to do

something about them but we've never actually been bothered to.

Then we decided to do it on that.

So why do you come home hungry from school?

Well, cos sometimes the meals are a wee bit small,

and sometimes I don't eat them that much cos they're not very nice.

Martha might not always be keen on her school dinners,

but Argyll and Bute Council weren't impressed with the attention

her blog generated, especially this centre-page spread

in one of Scotland's best-selling newspapers.

The council banned her from taking photos in the dinner hall.

But that just made her site even more popular.

So they had a rethink.

By that time millions had logged on to the site.

The blog may have started as a writing project

but Martha saw an opportunity.

She thought she could raise £2,000 for charity.

Well, I had the idea to raise money because...

someone made a comment on the blog saying, "Why are you complaining?

"At least you're having school meals."

So we thought about the people who didn't have school meals

and decided to raise money for the people who didn't.

As the hits on her site soared, the donations rolled in.

She's now raised over £117,000.

-Did you ever think you'd raise that amount of money?

-No, not at all!

-And how did that make you feel?

-Absolutely...startled.

I don't know what that means. Don't put that!

I don't know... SHE LAUGHS

Er...absolutely...

..I can't say amazed, cos I've used that a lot.

Absolutely...

shocked!

There's a good word - shocked. SHE LAUGHS

Martha chose to support local charity Mary's Meals,

which feeds children across the world.

Mary's Meals is just a very simple thing.

It's aimed at helping the very poorest children in the world,

who so often don't go to school because of poverty,

and we break that cycle of poverty they're trapped in

by providing one good meal every day in their place of education.

Around the world others took inspiration from Martha's blog.

I'm Maya, I'm nine and I live in Perth, Australia.

Hi, my name is Courtney Pisano and I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

I raised 563 dollars and 75 cents.

It was a huge inspiration for me.

She really is an amazing person.

Now I want to do what Martha was doing

and help build a school kitchen shelter in Malawi.

Food is important to this family.

They have a smallholding and raise their own sheep.

-Polly, can you spot the ones for the freezer this year?

-This one, this one and the white one there.

I don't bring money home each week and put it in the jar, put it in the bank.

I put good food on the table. And that's really important to me.

And then I'm there for the kids after school and in the holidays.

But then the rest of the time I see that as my role and it's what I do.

So when it was clear that Martha's blog had raised enough money

to build a kitchen in Malawi

they decided to cancel their summer holiday in France

and head to Africa instead.

In Lochgilphead Martha's kitchen just feeds the family.

In Malawi, her kitchen will feed 2,000 children.

Well, once I was feeling really sick at lunchtime

because I was so hungry, because I didn't have any breakfast!

And it was making me feel really, really sick and horrible.

They must be so hungry and I don't know how they're managing,

because we have food at the weekends but sometimes they don't,

so on Monday morning they must be so, so, so hungry.

The whole family are thinking about what they might face.

I wonder how the kids will cope with seeing such a different environment,

whether they'll understand what they're seeing

and how that's going to affect them.

I've been to Africa before and I've travelled in that sort of environment

and I'm very aware that it is very different,

and a very...life-changing experience, really, so we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

Here we're always worried about how badly off we are.

People in Malawi don't have very much

but they're remarkably happy with what they have.

And if they can learn something of that lesson,

that there is more to life than the material things,

it's having somebody to care for you and having the basics in life,

that would be a really precious thing to learn.

We're in Malawi!

Malawi. Home to 15 million people.

Three-quarters of them live on around 60 pence a day.

HIV has swept through this country.

One million adults are thought to be living with the disease.

70,000 die of AIDS each year.

These orphans are among those left behind.

Most have HIV themselves,

some walk miles to this centre run by Mary's Meals.

# A, B, C, D, E, F, G... #

Here they get two meals a day as well as lessons.

It's a long way from Lochgilphead.

SHE SINGS

But this is the world Martha and her family have come to see.

Meet Ben. He lives in a small village with his mother and brother.

-BEN SPEAKS MALAWIAN LANGUAGE

-He likes playing football.

-Same here.

Even though they live thousands of miles apart,

the two children have some things in common.

LAUGHTER

Most children in Malawi live in rural areas

and their day usually involves many chores.

-DAVID:

-So it's a young lamb, so it's a small sheep, and we...

we eat those when they're about eight-months-old.

Owning livestock in Malawi is rare, and Martha's house and her family

are proving to be a real source of fascination to the village.

The camera is a new toy for these young children.

Like four million others in Malawi,

they live in desperate need of food

and their mud hut is their only shelter.

The insides... I thought they were going to have, like,

just paint or something or just plain,

but they had nothing at all. Nothing.

No furniture, and for the doors they had blankets.

Blankets hung on the door frames.

Martha also learns that even preparing something to cook

-is hard work.

-LAUGHTER

But ten-year-old Ben hopes to change his life.

He takes Martha to his school.

Only a quarter of children here stay on till secondary school.

Ben says he will be one of them.

He knows that when he gets to school each day he'll get porridge

provided by the charity Mary's Meals.

And it's children like Ben Martha and her family hope to help.

-Hello. CHILDREN:

-Morning, Martha.

-DAVID:

-The clothes are dirty, full of holes, but the kids in them,

smiling, wonderful, chatty.

I think it was a real eye-opener for my children to see that.

They were welcomed with open arms - "Come and see our house, come and meet our children" -

and it's the same parents' pride.

The mums and dads, they tell you about, you know,

how old their kids are, what grade of school they're in.

Going to school's so important for them and they tell you how far their kids have gone,

and we were just...we were welcomed in such a wonderful way, it was... slightly unexpected but fantastic.

Well, Ben was so nice. He was really funny!

What kind of things did he show you?

He showed me his house, his school, and...

..the water pump.

Ben's lucky. He lives ten minutes' walk from water.

About half of all children in Malawi

don't live near a fresh water supply.

But even those that do have to carry it back.

This bucket weighs about 20 pounds, or ten bags of sugar.

-Are you OK?

-Yeah.

-Now put your head up.

Yes. Are you OK?

-Are you OK, Martha?

-Yeah!

SHE LAUGHS Arrrgh!

No wonder Martha's finding it hard.

Children here practise this skill from the age of three

and she's only carrying half the weight.

She manages a few hundred yards at least.

-Can I take it off now?

-Maybe I have to help you.

LAUGHTER

-Are you OK?

-Yeah. I'm wet.

It was fun putting the water in, but not carrying it.

I've now got a sore head.

After a day of village life, thoughts turn to the big day,

when the family will open Martha's school kitchen.

It's the one day that I'm really, really, really looking forward to,

because we get to go to the school and we get to see the kitchen.

I want to make lots of new friends.

CHILDREN SINGING

And so, to a wall of noise,

Martha from Lochgilphead met the children of Lirangwe.

How you doing? Hello.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Come and sit down, shake her hand.

The reason for so much gratitude is this.

Maize porridge - likuni phala.

Their one meal a day.

Donations to Martha's blog funded this school kitchen.

It means that 2,000 children a day will no longer go hungry.

Look at the pot.

For Martha and her family, this was the moment they had waited for.

CHILDREN SINGING

We can't stand in the garden, but we can stand here and watch them.

Can you count the pots? There's one, two...

Four. Four, five. Five. Five.

Five pots. One...

The porridge gives this village hope for its children,

and they intend to celebrate and say thank you.

The father of this girl...

APPLAUSE

And my other helping hand.

LOUD CHEERING

I don't know why they're surrounding me, because I'm not that special.

So... And it's kind of overwhelming, because there's millions

and millions of children gathering around you every minute

And it's so loud as well. They sing so, so loudly!

SINGING

I'm so proud of you.

It's not just this kitchen which has been paid for by the blog.

10,000 children across Malawi will now get porridge every day

thanks to donations through Martha to Mary's Meals.

Soon it's time for Martha to leave her mark.

CAMERAS CLICK

The people of Lirangwe know that this kitchen has been built

with the help of donations from around the world.

But it was nine-year-old Martha who led the way,

although she's not sure she likes the limelight.

It was quite nerve-racking,

because everybody was singing and staring at me.

-Are you a bit overwhelmed?

-Yeah.

-Are you a bit more relaxed now? How do you feel now?

-Happy!

Mary's Meals has been building kitchens in schools for the last

ten years, often in straw huts like this one,

which double as classrooms.

It gives you a great feeling of satisfaction

to see the link between children in Scotland and children in Malawi.

How a small amount of effort by kids in Scotland

can have a huge impact here in Malawi.

Each child is given a cup to keep, that way the portions are fair.

The porridge is also enriched with vitamins to help children to grow.

I thought it was actually quite nice, but I've seen people putting

salt and sugar and nuts in the bottom when I was serving it.

I think it will help them learn in class.

I think it will help them concentrate, because they're not

concentrating on how hungry they are, and it gives them something to eat.

The population of Malawi is exploding.

The population is growing all the time,

so it means more and more kids all the time.

The important thing about Mary's Meals

is that we get kids into school.

If you speak to a teacher here at this school, and they will be

telling you, the big thing about Mary's Meals, kids are better

behaved, I've got better discipline, I can actually teach my lesson now.

And the kids come in every day, so I can actually do a lesson plan

and know the kids are going to come in.

So, we provide porridge, but actually

the knock-on effects are huge - it just keeps on going on and on.

One in eight children in Malawi die each year,

most of them through malnutrition,

and although each child here gets a cup of porridge, not all eat it.

There was this boy and a girl, brother and sister, 12,

and I think seven, they shared one mug of porridge,

and then they put another in a bag for their mum.

Soon it was Martha's turn to try school lunches in Malawi.

Thank you.

She sat with the older children to eat.

Many of them wouldn't be here if it was not for the porridge every day.

-Martha, what would you think if you had to eat it every day?

-Hmmm.

It would be quite nice, but sometimes you would get...

You would want something else.

What are you going to write on your blog about it?

That it's yummy.

Right guys, we've got to go, so it's time to say goodbye. Bye!

-THEY ALL SAY GOODBYE

-See you.

5,000 miles is a long way to come to see a kitchen,

but seeing what has been achieved, and understanding how much it

means to these children has made the journey worth it.

They've got stuff to eat, and that's a good thing.

And they like the things that they eat, so that's so good.

Did you taste the porridge?

Yeah, I tasted a little bit. It was quite thick and smoky, but delicious.

Probably the most outstanding thing

was being in a kitchen with those women, cooking porridge.

The noise, the singing, the smoke in your eyes, and just the heat,

and they had babies on their backs, and it was just amazing.

And I think for me, this has been a lot about being a mum,

and trying to support your family.

Those women were doing something similar,

but in just such a different way, and it was just fantastic.

And that, for me, will really stick in my memory, and stick in my mind.

Back in Lochgilphead, you told us about putting food on the table,

providing food. Do you feel that's something you and your family

have managed to do here in Malawi?

I think with everyone's support, we have.

That's what Mary's Meals achieved, is coming up with

such a great answer that everyone supports and does their bit.

And it's such a simple little bit of support that we've shown,

which has just echoed around,

and I think that's what social media has done,

it's just taken Martha's response, and shared it,

and encouraged people to do the same. It is, as any parent, I think,

you want to provide for your children,

and I think we, in Lochgilphead

think about providing for our children,

in terms of, they've got the right clothes, and they go to the right

clubs after school, but here in Malawi, providing for your children

starts and stops at food, and that's something we can help with.

-Bye.

-Nice to see you.

-See that lorry?

-Yes, I can.

-Do you recognise it?

-Yeah.

Look at the lorry!

Oh, lorry, don't fall!

For many children in Malawi,

the arrival of this lorry is a very special day.

CHEERING

Mary's Meals has asked Martha

to help hand out presents from children around the world.

These sacks contain nearly 1,000 school backpacks.

-What do you think the reaction will be when you actually see it?

-Aaagh!

I don't know what they're singing but they're singing something.

The packs are often old school bags donated to Mary's Meals.

As they are being handed out,

it is clear the gift is treated with care.

CHEERING

-Say thank you.

-One, two, three!

-Go!

The children are told to wait and open them all together.

CHEERING

Inside the bags are clothes, shoes and precious pens.

Basic items that families here cannot afford.

SHE SHOUTS

I can't hear you!

-ALL: Thank you!

-Again.

-ALL: Thank you!

That was very special.

They were all so happy.

-What did you think of the noise?

-It was tremendous.

Aagh! Everyone screaming.

When you hand them a backpack, how grateful were they?

They do little curtsies to you.

-That was quite sweet, wasn't it?

-Yes. You give it and they go...

And then go sit down.

It's hoped that having these things, however small,

will encourage children to come to school.

Their reaction surprised Martha's family.

We've all been quite tearful at times.

Yet minutes later we have been laughing and roaring.

The kids are so happy and so nice to be around,

so friendly, so enthusiastic.

How they can be like that being so hungry, I've got no idea.

The backpacks are handed out under strict guidelines

and schools are visited only once.

Children are not told when they will arrive,

only that they must be in school to receive one.

This girl arrived late.

Devastated, she sat alone in the playground.

Her pleas went unheard.

This is tough love.

Children are taught that an education is their best way to escape poverty.

Martha and her fund-raising may have brought so much joy,

but it's clear there is so much left to do.

As Martha's story hit TV screens across the world,

it inspired others to act.

It had a huge wow factor.

There was one particular scene where Martha was

surrounded by hundreds of children her own age, happy,

they were joyful, they had huge smiles across their faces.

You could almost sense the happiness of those children

oozing out of the television screen.

And it was at that moment, in my heart I knew

I wanted to be a part of it, I wanted to achieve what Martha had achieved.

I wanted to be a small part of changing lives of children in Malawi.

Shabnam felt moved to sponsor

a school kitchen for at least the next year.

It means hundreds more children will get one meal a day.

Back in a now wintery Lochgilphead,

the Payne family are preparing for Christmas

and wondering how their friends in Malawi will celebrate.

-I wonder if they get holidays.

-Do you think they do?

I don't think they do but...maybe.

I'm not sure.

-Do you think they'll get presents?

-Probably not.

I don't think Christmas will happen in Malawi

because they don't really afford presents

and they can't afford presents and things

and they can't really afford anything.

Like, they won't have anything special to eat

because they'll just have likuni phala like normal.

-Porridge, like normal.

-Yes.

So, when you are eating your Christmas dinner,

will think about Ben, maybe? What will you think about?

I think I'll think about all the children

when I was just, after they got served the likuni phala

and just eating it.

And the two children sharing the mug to take home for their family.

If you could get Ben anything, for Christmas, what would you get?

-A wind-up lantern.

-Wind-up lantern, why is that?

Because it would be no use getting him lights

because there is no electricity.

And most things you need electricity for, so wind-up lanterns.

Martha is no longer writing her blog every day.

She's now getting on with life as a 10-year-old girl.

She's won several awards for the impact of her writing this year

and was nominated for Young Campaigner of the year

by the human rights organisation Liberty.

Martha very publicly stood up for freedom of expression

when her local council tried to ban her blog NeverSeconds

which rated her school dinners.

After huge public outcry,

the ban was reversed

and Martha has since gone on to raise over £100,000

which helps feed children in the developing world.

The winner is Martha Payne.

Martha is still not entirely at home centre stage.

Her simple blog written in Lochgilphead

has thrust her into a world where she's not exactly comfortable.

She may now move on in 2013 but it has been an incredible year

and the impact she has had will be lasting.

I have learnt we need to be grateful.

Those backpacks were simple things to us

but really good things to them.

Until you really see it,

as an adult, I think I had put it away in a box.

I knew kids in Malawi were struggling for food.

I knew families were struggling for food, and yet somehow

I put that in a compartment that I didn't need to visit every day.

I could continue to put good food on my family's table and not go there.

Martha reminded me and reminded a lot of people that there is more.

You can't put it away. You can't forget it and hope it goes away,

because when you meet these families and visit them and things,

their whole life is about survival.

I have learned that they can sing very loudly.

That...

..they don't have what we have

and that we need to appreciate what we've got.

Yay!

Yay!

-Awesome! ALL:

-Awesome!

Do the Mobot!

Hello. Yay!

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