(Right) Madeline Mgwabi with her eldest grandson outside their home in the village of Libeni,Matabeleland North province,Zimbabwe (Picture: Gergana Krasteva)

Metro’s foreign correspondent Gergana Krasteva reports from Zimbabwe

The last time I see Madeline Mgwabi,she is peering through the gates of her crumbling home in western Zimbabwe.

The grandmother-of-three is clutching a single orange that our driver had slipped to her – leftover from the hotel breakfast.

The fruit will have to be split four ways – between her and her grandsons – one of them still a toddler – all of whom she is raising on her own in this godforsaken area in the southern part of Matabeleland North province.

Beside her,on a wooden bench,is her eldest grandson,still dressed in his purple and blue school uniform,steadily scooping gooey porridge from a plastic container.

To put food on the table,Madeline fetches firewood and does odd jobs for neighbours in the village of Libeni,in Umguza District,but it is not enough.

Worst drought in century devastates Zimbabwe

Before droughts robbed the region of water,the grandmother used to farm maize and other Zimbabwean staple crops in her now barren garden.

Gesturing at the dried-up shrubs,she tells Metro: ‘I have lived here for 25 years and each year,the droughts hit us worse and worse.

The concept is simple. Mary’s Meals provides food for school,but it is the parents – often the mothers of the pupils – who prepare it and serve it up in between classes.

The promise of a warm bowl of porridge a day has become a lifeline,and sometimes the only meal a child will be guaranteed.

Madeline’s eldest grandson,for example,is one of the pupils part of the programme.

She says: ‘There is nothing more important for my grandsons than going to school and having an education. So having porridge at school is so helpful as it reduces the workload for me.’

Dromoland Primary,the Bubi District of Matabeleland North,is one of the schools with which Mary’s Meals has been working with.

Simeleni Mguni,the headmaster since 2020,told Metro that at the end of last year,there were 255 pupils – but this year there are 279 because of the feeding programme.

‘We enroll new learners every week,’ she says beaming with pride,her smile stretching across her round face.

Before the programme was introduced at the beginning of the school term in 2022,four boys and four girls dropped out because their parents could not feed them.

@gergana.krasteva I am at Amazwamibili Primary School in Zimbabwe where @Mary’s Meals is providing daily school meals to children. #news #worldnews #zim #zimbabwe #climatechange #travel #food

♬ original sound – Gergana Krasteva | Journalist

Simeleni says,regretfully: ‘I know some of the left because they needed to find jobs. Almost all the boys – aged between 12 and 14 – went to search for work in the illegal mines.

‘For awhile,they moved from one gold mine to another,in the nearby area. It is not easy work. If they would find any gold they have to sell it for really meagre amounts of money [as it is not from a registered pit].

‘Two years later,they are now back in school because of Mary’s Meals,and passed their exams recently.’

The four girls – aged between 13 and 14 – are also back in the classroom.

Simeleni said they had left because they did not have period products and were ’embarrassed’ to come to school.

By easing hunger,Mary’s Meals reduces the number of children who might otherwise drop out to work or marry,or just stay at home.

Mary’s Meals has been operating in Zimbabwe since 2018,with the help of a grassroots-based NGO,ORAP.

Working in some of the poorest countries across Africa,Asia,the Middle East,Latin America and the Caribbean,the charity has today announced the grim milestone that it is feeding three million children every day.

Metro travelled to Zimbabwe with the help of Mary’s Meals,a Scottish-based charity feeding children in the country.