Celtic Quick News will be 10 years old next year and to mark the occasion, through Mary’s Meals, we’re going to construct a kitchen and shelter facility at the Kholoni Primary School in Mchinji, Central Malawi, which currently has no food preparation facilities.
A brick-built building, the kitchen will consist of one main cooking area with two small locked storerooms. In one, firewood for the stoves will be kept and, the other will store food and utensils. The kitchen will be fully equipped with stoves, pots, serving equipment, mugs and spoons and the 1221 children will be provided with a daily meal of a vitamin-enriched maize porridge. The kitchen will also have teaching facilities, to allow it to be used as a classroom outside meal times.
17% of people in the world live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 per day) but there is plenty of good news, the proportion of world living in this condition halved in last 20 years (this was a UN Millennium Development Target). Life expectancy (at birth) of low income people in 1990 was 52, but in 2011 it was 60. Infant mortality dropped by a third during this period and maternal mortality almost halved.
Since humans first walked the earth a significant proportion of them have lived in extreme poverty, but while someone once said, “the poor will always be with us”, for the first time ever the decades ahead could see all of humanity escape from extremely poverty.
Malawi, according to the UN the 17th least developed nation on earth, is one of the world’s extreme poverty front lines, but even here, the trend is encouraging. In 1990 child mortality between 0-5 years was 244 deaths per 1000 live births. By 2000 this had dropped to 174 per 1000. Last year the figure was 71 deaths per 1000 from 0-5 years. The UK passed that figure more than 70 years ago, but the rate of improvement in Malawi is nothing short of incredible. It is fertile ground for the right kind of help.
Mary’s Meals, a Scottish charity established in 2002, feeds 822,142 kids in 16 countries every day. They keep costs low and employ local staff in kitchens, ensuring 93% of money donated reaches those in need, possibly the highest rate of any comparable organisation. It costs £7 for Mary’s Meals to feed a child in Malawi – for a whole year. 20% of Malawi’s children (600k) are fed by the organisation, often their only meal of the day.
In 2012, a sample of 44 schools found that enrolment had increased by 30% two years after the introduction of Mary’s Meals. Academic achievement improves too. The benefit is not just escape from hunger, it is access to education for children who would otherwise have to work for food. It also provides an increase in productivity and economic capacity when the children enter the workforce.
CQteN St Patrick’s Day Party
The kitchen will cost £7000 and I’ve told Mary’s Meals we’ll raise enough money by St Patrick’s Day, which gives us three months. We have a lot of work to do but the focal point will be the CQteN Dinner on Friday, 14 March 2014, which will be the biggest and best St Patrick’s Day Party in Scotland.
We’ve hired the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park. Tickets are available for £50, tables of 10 are also available. To reserve a ticket or table email me, celticquicknews@gmail.com. The event has been discussed in the comments section for some weeks without a formal launch and we quickly sold out the smaller capacity of the Kerrydale Suite. We have now taken the entire suite so additional tickets are available.
Between now and then there will be the odd auction to help us along, and we will continue to support the work of the Celtic Foundation (who have a Children’s Hospice Association Scotland auction on now), the Kano Foundation, and the many needy causes a lot closer to home than Malawi.
The UN are currently considering Development Targets for 2030, with the eradication of extreme poverty likely to feature. Poverty is a complex subject, so even after 2000 years development, we know there will always be comparative poverty, but within our Generation of Domination, extreme poverty, less than $1.25 per day existence, could be eradicated.
There is no more appropriate way to mark the 10th anniversary of the blog. This will be our payback for all the hours, days, weeks and months of pleasure (and toil) we’ve gotten out of the these pages over the years. Put 14th March 2014 in your diary, we’re having THE St Patrick’s Day party!
For more information on Mary’s Meals take a look at the video below:
Get your CQN Annual below. From now on £5 from every Annual sold will go to the CQN Malawi School Kitchen appeal.
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As it`s my birthday today, my girlfriend is going to accompany me to Glasgow. We would like a light lunch in the Queen St / Argyle St/ Merchant City area. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
JJ
Goldstar
No idea
And …given that I don’t really care for English cricket too much it meant very little to me
Re the board decision ….which particular one do you refer
As for Karma….just…what are you on about
JJ
Try CQN favourite La Lanterna…bottom of Hope St
JJ
The goose on Union street, good pub grub if that’s what your after, but no colours.
Jungle Jim : CQN favourite La Lanterna – Second that bud – magic.
JUNGLE JIM
Happy Birthday,old BHOY.
A good suggestion from PF AYR,and some nice bars nearby.
I like 26 Hope St,which is directly across the road.
Enjoy yer day,bud.
For years,we have listened to high dudgeon and understandable anger from our supporters about the failure of the huns to pay their debts.
G.B.debt ?
What`s the difference?
There is no difference.The G.B.have cost our Club 42,000 pounds.
No argument.
When and how will they pay that debt?
Hypocrisy writ large from their apologists on C.Q.N.
Tony Donnelly….
‘Died’ in the wool…….hahaha
You’re not really dead, like Rangers, are you?
Your thought processes might be in such a state though.
Pfayr- I dont have much time either for cricket but do object to cheating and hypocrisy.
Board decision? I said Broad. Here it is anyway if you can be bothered-
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Y_8Fd_OFY
Goldstar
Apologies ….I’m overly tetchy this morning
Sorry
Goldstar
Karma indeed …
Apologies for my truculence
Paddy Gallagher
09:27 on
14 December, 2013
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
I wasn’t offering them support or decrying them bud – just mentioning that there is a march, which I am led to believe has not been organised by the GB.
I knEw that,mate.
I`m sure you understand.I don`t give a damn who is damaging my club,hun or Tim.
They must be confronted.
Jungle Jim
Best Celtic birthday wishes to u buddy.
The Oak at Celtic Park does a lovely lager and there’s a no bad burger van across the road if you and Mrs Jungle Jim are peckish!!
Hail Hail buddy
Today is really a no win game or us, like many SPL fixtures. Even a narrow win will be seen as further evidence of decline. And if we hump Hibs 8 – 0 it will be seen as proof of how weak the SPL is, ofering us no real competition.
Obviously I’m hoping for the 8 – 0!
tonydonnelly67
09:43 on 14 December, 2013
You wouldn’t have been a happy bunny then when Brother Walfrid invited Michael Davitt and TD Sullivan to take part in the opening of the new Celtic Park then?
Dragging politics in to the stadium like that.
The man was disgrace.
pfayr- no bother mate, I know that feeling! HH
ryecatcher
09:30 on 14 December, 2013
Macjay,
The same PMCB who was largely responsible for the Offensive Behaviour Bill?
…………………………………
ryecatcher the OB Bill was attributed to the joint action group in a summit that met after the so called shame game or at least that is what parliament records.
The only people in that group who mattered (excluding the government) in terms of law were the Police. I think the police were mentioned several times as the Bill went through parliament as being the instigators and the evidence given by the police in committee certainly supports this view IIRC.
Funnily enough I have a letter in the Scotsman this morning about the police making laws instead of just enforcing them. Scotland is heading for a police state if this continues.
Paul McBride’s position on the OB is a mystery. He is probably in a minority of one among his peers in wanting this law which was generally seen as being superfluous given that we already had laws to cover breach of the peace aggravated by religious hatred.
I always thought that McBride was ready to join the SNP and his reasons for supporting the Bill were purely political.
msm really rowing in behind the Binman and the Tribute Act while making the very most of poor Celtic coverage.
Huns hurtin’ horribly
Ho ho ho!
PF AYR
You lacked the ferocity necessary to be truly truculent. You were just being crabbit,so ye wur.
Totally understand mate, we have enough confrontations to face as Celtic men without self inflicted damage.
ERNIE LYNCH
TONYDONNELLY isnae that old!
Jungle jim
Carluccio’s in West Nille St. Very, very tasty.
HH
BMCUWP
You want to have been this side of the iPad :-))
Btw ….when you home after Christmas ?
Im on the side of political correctness on this while GB debate.
No one should use football as a platform to impose their politics on others, or which cause offence, So I’ve decided to start a new movement……Politics Out Of Football.
Power To the POOFs.
Lupo.
Ok, where’s ma coat…..
Jungle jim……
The Grill on the Corner, Bothwell Street.
You won’t want to leave.
Food is sublime but take a bulging wallet.
JJ
Charcoals at West Nile / Drury St next to The Horseshoe is an exceptional Indian if you fancy a pre match Indian meal. Have a fantastic birthday mate!
JJ, A big happy BURPDAY to you, I hope your day/year is all you and yours could wish for.
Gb
Silly people like Tony Donnelly and I paddy are too dense to be able to argue in any meaningful way so they resort to saying they don’t care.
I repeat you are propping up sectarianism. Celtic – our club- is propping up and supporting sectarianism and the subjugation of Scotland’s catholic minority.
If you support the current board you are supporting that sectarianism.
Does it make you proud?
Morning!
Very blustery and wet this side of the Irish Sea today-seems pretty much similar Glasgow-so may not make for very attractive football.
Main thing is the win and another 3 points closer to getting the league wrapped up quickly as possible.
A decent show and a win would give some immediate reparation to our wounded pride from midweek-but off field and in the boardroom the Club has so so much more to do and on so many fronts-would hope-they have got the blank page our and gave started on that already.
The financials are under control for the moment-set those to the side and start looking elsewhere to ensure Club and Supporters exit this horrible week on a positive note.
Us- 6-Butcher boys-0!
Oh and happy birthday jungle jim.
macjay
I love it how you refer to Celtic as MY club. You can tell others how to behave when they attend matches of YOUR club. Ye know, the folk who turn up at YOUR club’s games.
Where are ye again?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGeRSnYNHDY
Sandy Easdale-would you buy a second hand bus from this man?
Paddy Gallagher
10:06 on 14 December, 2013
Totally agree. Might not be the flashiest to look at but It’s the best indian food around.
Ali has opened up another place next to Guitar Guitar in the Merchant City, not tried it yet but it’s on the to do list.
Over the years some of the best league performances have come after going out of Europe. Hopefully that`ll be the case today.
Also hoping that this wet and very windy weather won`t be too bad and the trains keep running!
Come on the Celts!
Ernie lynch
I mean honestly, what part of the me not being interested in politics or your agenda using my club as a rung on the ladder of success to suit you and your other drum beating GB apologists?
Hope Atajic,Henderson and Johnstone are involved today.Balde will need to get a run in the team ,unfair to judge the guy on 10 minutes every 3rd week.
Monteblanco
Slagging a Tim cause he is in Australia, your the original keyboard hard man right?
la Laterna sounds like the choice but Burgerbhoy`s suggestion is tempting.
My sister suggested Pesta on St Vincent Street. We can decide on the train on the way down. Thanks very much for your suggestions.
JJ