Good Afternoon,
The flat screen television in my room beams out live pictures from Russia where the 2018 FIFA world Cup has started at a cost some put at £14.2 Billion pounds.
32 nations, all fielding well paid international footballers, compete in this global extravaganza, with every kick, pull of the shirt, shot and save being instantly transmitted to every corner of the earth by the miracle of modern technology.
In between matches, globally known sponsors have paid many many millions to have their name associated with the successes and failures of the FIFA tournament, and behind the scenes the bidding and negotiations are already underway for the next tournament which will come from the fabulously rich desert of Qatar.
Modern day football is a good place to start this story because as I type I am fully conscious – possibly more conscious than ever – that my reason for being in my present location is down to one man, someone who died over a century ago and who just happened to come from the same village as my grandfather.
Andrew Kerrins was born in Ballymote County Sligo on May 18th 1840 and lived to the ripe old age of 75.
He achieved many things in life but perhaps his most famous and lasting achievement was the concept of a football team which would play to feed poor children and the unemployed. He stated plainly that “A Football Club will be formed for the maintenance of dinner tables for the children and the unemployed.”
Nowhere did he state that the football team would be a winning one or a rich one. He simply set out its one and only purpose in just 18 words.
I wonder what Brother Walfrid, as Andrew Kerrins became, would think of a football tournament that costs £14.2 Billion to stage?
I wonder what he would say if anyone had told him that 130 years or so after he had announced the intention to form such a football team, 23 of us would travel in his name and in the name of that team to one of the poorest countries on earth with the intention of feeding children thousands of miles away from the Calton?
I wonder what he would think about the modern era of air travel? Could he imagine a passenger jet that seats between 242 and 360 passengers with a range of just over 8,000 miles non-stop with each plane costing between a much more modest $239 and $325 Million depending on configuration.
The Kenyan Airlines Boing 787 which flew us from Amsterdam to Africa is such a plane. Twin engined and fuel efficient, it “flies by wire” and is a hugely successful mid-range global ranger of a plane.
It brings in roughly between £350-£400,000 per day for its operators which means that it can return the cost of a unit in only a couple of years.
I wonder if the man from Ballymote could even imagine such figures?
Most of all I wonder if he could contemplate a world which can generate such vast sums of money, such huge advances in technology and the ability to transport news, images and people in vast numbers but which also stands idly by while millions and millions live in abject poverty – poverty that is unimaginable until you have seen it for yourself.
Many reading this piece will have travelled far and wide in Europe and beyond. Many will have seen poor places, shanty towns, houses which we would consider unfit for human habitation and which should be pulled down and rebuilt.
Many will have seen the homeless on our streets whose lives are miserable, squalid and seemingly without hope. They beg, perhaps gain a roof over their head via a night shelter or maybe a sleeping bag and a shop doorway.
All of that is terrible and it shouldn’t be – but not many of them eat roasted mouse from a stick!
Welcome to Malawi.
Whatever your mental concept of poverty or poor living conditions might be, then tripling or quadrupling your worst imaginable thoughts won’t get you even close to what I have seen here. Nothing prepares you for this.
Once out of the cities of Malawi the roads are awful. During 5 days here, one at least was completely unpassable on a mini bus.
Yet at the end of such roads are countless houses (if you can call them that) and families all living under an African sun and completely oblivious to The World Cup, Airports, McDonalds, or anything else that has spread throughout the globe.
To say they live in their own wee world is an understatement.
Houses in the main are tiny with only two or three rooms. There is no plumbing, no electricity, no furniture, no windows, no carpets, no blankets, no light other than daylight, no beds just mats which the occupants roll out, and no cooking facilities of any type.
These are caves made of modern brick.
Yet the people smile constantly, they sing, laugh, shout and go about their daily business with a verve and a relish that is hard to comprehend.
They are grateful for every little thing – a biscuit, a ball, anything at all which is a “luxury item”.
Mary’s Meals does a brilliant job here but they are really fighting against a far bigger force and it is clear to me that they need far more help than I had realised and not just in terms of funds for porridge and food.
They have cut the feeding programme in some schools from two meals a day to one so that their resources go further. Yet there are millions and millions in this country alone who still go without.
However, my biggest concern is the youth.
Kids going to the structure of a school to be fed and educated is one thing. Young kids are so full of joy and exuberance that it is truly touching.
However, the older kids and the youth on the street, many who have had the benefit of that education and a stable daily meal in the past, are less easily impressed I suspect. I see questions in their eyes. I see a lack of structure to support them and an inability to meet both their natural intelligence and the fruit of their education.
I believe that there will soon be whole generation here who want more than porridge and a school without windows. They will want more. They will want answers.
Absolutely nothing should take away from the work of the Celtic Charity Foundation or Mary’s Meals. No praise is high enough in my eyes for their efforts and the fight they are conducting here.
When we go into a school to paint it and it make it ready for use complete with educational tools painted on the walls, and when we see hundreds of kids being fed day after day with a life sustaining meal, I hear the man from Ballymote cheer like hell.
But when we drive away from the schools down the long dusty rock filled and near impossible tracks that pass for a road, I see hundreds if not thousands of older “kids” who seem to me to be lost and trapped in this neglected corner of the world.
There has to be more.
Everything within me shouts “Do More, Do More, For God’s Sake Do More!” – Though I am absolutely unsure who I am shouting at.
Meanwhile the television shows Cristiano’s hattrick and the commentator casually mentions that he recently paid many millions in fines to avoid jail for tax evasion.
The Crowd roar their approval.
I turn the television off.
The remote control doesn’t work on Malawi.
It is here and it is now!
What would Andrew Kerrins think?
If you want to support The Celtic Charity Foundation and Mary’s Meals in Malawi see here https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/jamesmcginley3?page=9
Strandsky Tales & Stories 