CQteN St Pats, 1200 hungry kids

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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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1,134 Comments

  1. Poor poor statement by Neil on bbc website

     

    Reminds me of billy McNeill piece in the sun in 1991. We can’t compete

     

    Tosh tosh Neil. You have made your bed now

     

    We are at a cross roads.

     

    Do we continue with a large squad of average players milking our funds or do we sit back and review our policy

     

    Slash the squad. Remove the foreign projects on high salaries ( pukki derk Balde etc )

     

    Bring in the youth. Never have our club had the opportunity to play the youth in the spl , knowing that we will win the title. No risk

     

    But Pl NL we need a few top quality high earners. 40k a week. Sounds a lot. But we pay that already for bench warmers In total

     

     

    Plan. Play 6-7 youths. A few middle earners and a few bums on seat players

  2. TD67

     

     

    Im totally sick of your nonsense, and how Celtic are ” your” Club.

     

    You are trying to divide Celtic supporters with your blind loyalty to the board spiel, but we can all see through that.

     

     

    HH

  3. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    It’s a shame how this blog has been populated,of late, by posters more interested in ad hominem attacks and general rudeness than debate

     

     

    Often married with poor English …depressing

  4. time for change on

    Winning Captains

     

     

    Can’t find link. ..looking for two tickets for dinner dance…..

     

     

    Paul 67 will have my email address. ..

     

     

    Cheers

  5. ryecatcher @ 12 59.

     

     

    I care ——–I’ll file the information in the ole bonce.

     

     

    Maxi Priest co produced –Papa Levi’s mighty ,mighty–MI God Mi King .

     

     

    First Uk produced reggae choon to make Number 1 in Jamaica

  6. Pfayr….

     

     

    All depends on what you want to debate I suppose.

     

     

    I think most of the posts on here,all have a link to something Celtic.(some more tenuous than others).

     

     

    I’m married(not too often….just once….BOOM BOOM) and can be as guilty as anyone on here of poor English in punctuation and spelling.Its a blog ffs….not a dissertation.

     

     

    Hmmmmmm….

     

     

    I must have just got lucky, on the day of the exam,to get an A in Higher English.

  7. TD67

     

     

    Celtic are also my club….43 years and counting.

     

    Been all over the place to watch the Celts, and loved every minute of supporting my team….but

     

    I am disgusted with the board and how they operate, nothing at all to do with supporting “our” fantastic team….which I will always do

     

    You don’t seem to understand, that there is plenty of other supporters not happy with the board…not just me

     

    Anyway….just so as you know, I love Celtic just as much as you do

     

     

    HH

  8. some great posts have being written on the blog today

     

    the scottish parliament report has really got people thinking

     

    well done all

  9. .

     

     

    ….PFayr supports WeeOscar

     

    13:04 on

     

    14 December, 2013

     

    It’s a shame how this blog has been populated,of late, by posters more interested in ad hominem attacks and general rudeness than debate

     

     

    Often married with poor English …depressing

     

     

    ..

     

     

    PF..

     

     

    Just to let You know..You are leading in My ‘What does that Mean?’.. CQN Big Big Word league..

     

     

    had to Google 3 Words you used in a 24 Hr period a Couple of weeks ago..

     

     

    Summa of EveryDaysASchoolDayOnCQNCSC

  10. tonydonnelly67

     

     

    Thanks for the weather update. I think adverse conditions can sometimes be a leveller. Hopefully not today.

     

     

    Enjoy reading your posts. Your as subtle as a flying sledgehammer but definitiely not racist.

     

     

    ryecatcher

     

     

    wind up merchant! :–)

  11. BIG-CUP-WINNERS on

    tonydonnelly67

     

     

    Thanks for the explanation. To let you understand I didn’t see the post, but read a comment referring to you and it. Hence my question to you the source.

  12. South of Tunis…..

     

     

    Good man.

     

     

    I love reggae and admire the bravery of white boys like the Clash in opening it up to a different audience.

     

     

    PoliceandthievesCSC

  13. Jimbo67

     

     

    Celtic means what anyone wants it to mean to them but your summary is, in my opinion, spot on.

     

     

    Healthy debate and differences of opinion are all good but seeing grown men slate each other for their differences is poor.

     

     

    Maybe we need a like/dislike button or agree/disagree button on here and leave it at that.

  14. TD67

     

     

    And strangely enough….guess where im going shortly?

     

    I give you a clue….near Parkhead cross:)

     

     

    HH

  15. JimmyQuinnsBits on

    Kayal33,

     

     

    quite excited about Yamada, only from various youtube clips – and I know they do not give a true summary of the player. However, it looks like he has quick feet, guile, and industry – interesting to see how the trial goes.

  16. The green man

     

     

    Well not for me to say you don’t love the club any better than me, or me any better than you, the diff. Between you and I is, I support the whole package, others like yourself don’t, and that’s up to them, and you, the main slagging is I don’t go along with you and the others, I have asked many times why I can’t have an opinion of my own, anyway, I’m outa here.

  17. Just read the post by Jimbo67 summed the whole thing up for me in a nutshell. It has been a bad week for Celtic but that post has put it all in perspective and has put a massive smile on my face.

     

     

    Many thanks Jimbo and well done.

  18. Summa of Sammi

     

     

    all the best for the festive season, club is having break up drinks soon, planning a visit to Brisbane next year, hope you can make both events: I might get a chance to meet Sydney Tim in the flesh; Wednesday’s result must have cheered him up big time: It’s all the board’s fault:

     

    I am still a Tim, always a Tim, always been a Tim, nothing changes thank god!

     

    Wing Commander

  19. Gretnabhoy

     

     

    I am many things – a Jambo is not one of them

     

     

    NotthatieverhitthewrongkeyCSC

     

     

    Jimbo67 supporting Oscar Knox

  20. ....PFayr supports WeeOscar on

    Ryecatcher

     

     

    I’m bad for typos too

     

     

    I wasn’t referring to you …never seen you personally abuse anyone on here

  21. Jimbo 67

     

    Thank you – that is my Celtic too. Respect.

     

     

    JJ

     

     

    Happy Birthday.

     

     

    HH

  22. Jimbo67…. Of that I am sure! However predictive text can be a pain in the Ass.

     

    Great post though; well said. Hail Hail