A north charity is delivering emergency meals to Ebola patients and hungry children in West Africa.
Argyll-based Mary’s Meals is delivering food aid to thousands of people affected by the outbreak of the deadly virus in Liberia – including patients infected by the deadly virus.
Under normal circumstances, Mary’s Meals reaches more than 128,000 impoverished children across Liberia each day, attracting them to the classroom with a nutritious meal in school.
However, the recent crisis has brought a temporary halt to the charity’s feeding programme in the country, with all schools now closed.
Striving to make effective use of its resources, expertise and significant community standing in Liberia, the charity has now launched an emergency response to the Ebola outbreak by distributing food to children in their homes.
Mary’s Meals is also reacting quickly to requests from embattled health care workers to provide much-needed food aid to suspected Ebola sufferers.
Meals are being distributed at three holding centres in the townships of Tubmanburg, Robertsport and Brewerville.
The charity’s founder and chief executive officer, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, said: “We have been working in Liberia since 1997 at the height of the country’s hideous and terrifying civil war.
“During those years, we supported the people amidst unimaginable violence.
“Today, we are determined to again provide continuity and potentially life-saving support, at a time when the communities we serve are facing, in Ebola, a truly frightening invisible enemy.
“It is thanks to the generosity of our supporters around the world that Mary’s Meals can act quickly in times of crisis to provide vital food supplies to people in desperate need.”