A CHARITY hopes to offer a "glimmer of hope" to young Syrian refugees by launching a ground-breaking school feeding programme in Lebanon.
Mary's Meals will soon begin to provide around 1,000 daily school meals to pupils in the town of Antelias.
The organisation, registered in Argyll, already operates in Malawi, Liberia, Zambia, Kenya, Haiti, India and South Sudan, but this latest venture marks its first project in the Middle East.
With the Syrian civil war now in its fifth year, more than one million refugees have crossed the border into Lebanon, placing enormous strain on local resources.
However, it is hoped that the intervention from Mary's Meals will help to ease their suffering, while helping to aid integration throughout the community.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the charity's chief executive officer, said: "I'm sure we all feel deep compassion – perhaps even outrage – at the desperate plight of refugees forced to flee from war-torn Syria. As always, it is innocent children who suffer the most.
"For a number of months, we have been investigating how Mary's Meals can do its small part in alleviating some of the suffering caused by this greatest humanitarian crisis of our time.
"And I am extremely pleased that, thanks to the support of People's Postcode Lottery and its players, we will soon begin serving school meals to a small number of Syrian children who have settled in neighbouring Lebanon, as well as to their Lebanese classmates.
"Amid the carnage of the conflict in Syria, Mary's Meals and its generous supporters can provide a glimmer of hope by attracting Syrian refugee children back into the classroom with a nutritious daily meal – just as we do in other countries around the world, where the introduction of Mary's Meals results in sharp increases in enrolment, attendance and academic performance."
The United Nations has warned that the more than two million Syrian children who are out of school are in danger of becoming a "lost generation", with evidence showing that it becomes more and more difficult to get children back into learning the longer they are out of education.
Mr MacFarlane-Barrow added: "Every single Syrian child out of school represents a lifetime's potential under threat, we are determined to do what we can – and we know our supporters will be determined too.
"Like all parents, those Syrian mothers and fathers who had to leave their homes want more than anything for their children to be fed and educated, so they can hope for a future beyond this current misery.
"This nutritious meal, served every day in a Lebanese school, will allow those children to learn – joining more than 1.1 million other children receiving Mary's Meals, who are now able to dream of something better."
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